- We always say that this record, honestly,
feels like first time. - Feels like the first time.
Yeah, it's crazy. - Which is really wild.
It feels like the first time,
but with the added knowledge that we have now,
that we obviously didn't have
when we made our actual first record.
It just feels like a fresh start for us.
It feels like the music
that we were always supposed to make
and it was just a matter of time and -
- I feel like this music was just in a bottle
and it just took, like, a little bit of rubbing
of the bottle to just open it up. [Laughs]
- Yeah, yeah.
- And it was always bubbling inside us
and now here it is.
- It feels new to us.
It feels like a new beginning.
It feels like the kind of music
that we're gonna want to keep continuing to make
for 20, 30, 40 plus years.
However long we're alive.
- 40, wow, that's a lot -
I mean, we'll be - - 40, 50, 60, 70.
- 70 years old? - We're 70, touring.
- OK, cool. I'm down.
- Hey, we're Aly and AJ.
- And this is our top five favorite music videos
from our personal catalog.
- Our first favorite music video
would have to be "Take Me."
I think for me, this video is so important
because it kind of established a new chapter
of our career.
It was the first song we had out in 10 years.
I really feel like the concept
is something that will always,
kind of, live within us.
And our fans know that,
like, when Aly and AJ came back,
they were vampires.
- Yeah.
- Aly had this idea initially and was like,
"I just feel like with the lyric of
'If I sink my teeth into you,'
like, there's gotta be some sort of vampire element."
- Even though that was not at all
the intention of the actual song.
- Even though it was not written about vampires.
- No.
- We just felt like it would be so interesting to,
you know, not only work with someone
like an Alex Ross Perry, who we're big fans of
in the indie movie scene,
but kind of integrate, you know,
a little bit more of a higher concept.
A little darker, a little bit scary,
but, like, very interesting.
- [Aly] And playful still, at the same time.
- [AJ] Yeah.
And we wore turtlenecks in a hot tub.
Who's done that? - Yeah, so.
So, yeah, I mean, there you go.
Our next favorite music video would probably be,
undefined
- Yeah.
- Which was shot in Berlin over the course of three days.
We did not have any major concept
for the music video, other than wanting to capture
as much footage as possible
and to make it feel chaotic
and kind of suffocating,
and just, like, chaos of the city. - Yeah.
- And the energy. - What it makes you feel.
- And what it makes you feel like.
And the song, obviously, is supposed to be a song
that is about, you know,
your senses just becoming overpowered and taking over.
We really wanted to go and shoot in a bunch of nightclubs,
but we couldn't get our cameras in.
So instead, we started to get more creative
and we just shot, you know,
on the street and inside the Stasi building.
These places that have a lot
of deep, dark history in Berlin,
we felt like it added another layer to the song
and the heaviness that it kind of brings to it.
- Our next favorite music video,
I'm going to mix it up a little bit,
is "Slow Dancing,"
which was the first release of this new album.
Aly and I feel very, very close to this particular video
because it was shot where our mom lives,
in Santa Ynez.
Her horse is in the video.
It's on a beautiful piece of property
somewhere that Aly and I, kind of, escape to
when we just want to get away from the industry
and the hustle and bustle of L.A.
And this place makes us feel something
that I think that song induces, as well.
- And we chose to shoot this video in one take,
which was really, it was really different
than what we've done in the past
with our music videos.
We had a steadicam on that
and we just continued to practice that whole dance
for hours until it was, kind of, like, magic hour.
- Yeah.
- And we needed to actually start shooting.
And we only did, like, four takes of the music video.
- It was very rehearsed.
It was kind of like a play.
It's like, alright,
you have one shot to really make this feel
super streamlined and really comfortable,
and we ended up getting about three shots and that was it.
I think we all felt really comfortable,
kind of, getting used to this dance.
You know, it is a dance.
And you, like -
- [Aly] And letting the camera move past you
while AJ is changing her shirt.
- Yeah.
- And then, you know, it was just this whole kind
of rhythm that everybody had to fall into.
- Yeah.
- I think being comfortable around cameras,
in general, definitely helps.
I always think that being an actor
helps us when it comes to performing on stage
and making music videos, for sure.
- Yeah.
- Our next favorite video would probably be
"Pretty Places?" - "Joan of Arc?" Oh.
[Laughs] We went in different orders.
- That's hilarious.
Well, no, 'cause we gotta do, we gotta do,
that's four and five.
- We gotta do "Don't Need Nothing" and "Pretty Places."
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- It's OK.
- We're gonna skip one. - Don't listen to AJ.
- Nope.
undefined
- Although we do like "Joan of Arc,"
you guys can check that music video out too.
[Laughs]
But, "Pretty Places" just because that song
is new to us,
and it's really our shining star of
'a touch of the beat gets you up on your feet
gets you out and then into the sun.'
And when I think of the album,
I really think of that song
being, like, the core center of the record.
And it actually opens up the entire album, as well,
so it's the opening track.
And we just wanted to
shoot us on separate journeys
road tripping out of Los Angeles,
and really narratively telling a story
that is directly taken from the lyrics of the song.
- And it was really the first video
where we've, kind of, split up our stories.
- Yeah, it was, because we're never seen
in the same frame together,
which I think is really interesting. - Yeah.
- [AJ] Aly was actually on her own separate road trip,
at the time, with her husband.
So, you know, they had a very specific destination.
I think it's really beautiful
because you guys have such a different texture
to your side of the video because you were traveling,
whereas my stuff is, like, a little more California based.
You know, it was Lake Elsinore and Manhattan Beach
and Long Beach and Palmdale,
and I think you're getting this sense of California.
But, Aly's side, kind of, makes it a bit more,
undefined
- But, it turned out really special
and I think the fans really appreciate the music video
and just the energy that it brings to the song.
I think it's, like, a perfect depiction
of what that song means to the two of us.
- Agreed.
And our last favorite music video is,
undefined
- And this is actually -
if I was really going to, just, get down to the nitty gritty
of really, truly the favorite music video,
I actually would say - - I'd say this is number one.
- This is number one.
- Same.
- I think the best part of this music video,
and the reason why it's really our favorite, is
because it's so -
- Us.
- Silly and us,
and we are not taking ourselves seriously at all
in this video.
The video just, kind of,
I don't know, it captures exactly how AJ
and I feel as sisters when we're just goofing
off and don't give a (beep)
and we're just having fun.
And I just love that there's a playfulness
to this music video in a way
that we haven't been able to show
in past ones before.
And it's called, "Don't Need Nothing."
And that's actually the song
that 'a touch of the beat gets you up on your feet
gets you out and then into the sun,' is from.
- And Aly and I just felt like it was the right lyric
that really depicted the album.
I mean it's -
- It wasn't for any reason other
than it just felt like it fit the music
that we were making.
And -
- We were sitting down outside,
having lunch at Sunset Sound,
where we were recording the album.
And I remember us saying like,
"What about the chorus of 'Don't Need Nothing?'
"Like, how about the record could just be called,
'a touch of the beat gets you up on your feet
gets you out and then into the sun?'"
And it literally came from that discussion.
- And we were like, "Yes."
And then we really didn't turn away from that -
- We never turned away, yeah. - Moment.
- And I also feel like
we really dedicated this record
to the place we grew up in,
which we've never really made a record
that really, kind of, signifies where we live.
And it's California, it's West Coast.
It's, you know, however you picture California,
think about what you'd want to listen to
and it's this kind of music.
- I feel like you associate the West Coast so much
with the sunshine and the way that it makes you feel
and the way that it gets you out and into life
and outdoors. And so -
- And integrating with people again,
which is the hope for this year.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.