Video premiere: Jimkata, ‘Wait for You’

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Jimkata

Electro-rock troupers Jimkata have cultivated an infectious sound and cult following in a decade-plus of turning pop hooks into nuggets that at times feel hermetically sealed from the ’80s.

The trio — childhood pals Evan Friedell, Aaron Gorsch and Packy Lunn — took a break after their sixth release, “In Motion,” in 2016, and now with the members split between Ithaca, N.Y., and Los Angeles, they returned in July with the single “Wanna Go,” released via INgrooves.

The continue their reboot this week with the new single “Wait for You,” a song that moves like L.A. traffic: The tooting synth taps slowly (as if fingers on a steering wheel) before the song accelerates with a whoosh into the fast lane. Singer Friedell says it’s about navigating uncertainty, which certainly is relevant during this pandemic. “I didn’t realize at the time I wrote it how prescient and universal that feeling would become as we experience a global pandemic and a world in chaos,” Friedell says.

He continues: “I wrote this after a day of experimenting with an old Roland TR 707 drum machine with Packy. I had gotten it from my uncle and while we were figuring out how to program it we ended up creating some beats we liked by accident. I had recently seen some friends’ relationships falling apart around me and it reminded me of situations I’ve been in over the years — feeling dejected, being asked to wait while the other person makes up their mind about staying together or not. A recurring theme I’ve felt in the past few years is that feeling of being in limbo … That’s something that I think we all experienced individually once the band decided to take a break.”

Montreal-based animator Ben Clarkson translates those ideas visually. “He brought a more existential visual approach to it. He brought up the idea of a character waiting for someone on a bench as the world changes and evolves around him in a much longer context of time,” Friedell says. “We thought that idea was both kind of comical and politically poignant, bringing some more depth and dimension to that notion of waiting. While it is on one level a heartbreak-inspired pop song it is also a commentary on helplessly waiting and hoping for the world to get its shit together.”

||| Watch: The video for “Wait for You”

||| Also: Watch the video for “Wanna Go”