Kevin Bronson on September 20th, 2017

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“‘Freedom Is Free’ is a move to unravel our minds of fear from the powers that be and replace it with self-empowerment,” Chicano Batman says. “Freedom must be restored to what it has always been: controlled by no person and subject only to the infinite flow of the elements. While we are here on Earth, we should rejoice in its worth.”

With that, the L.A. quartet introduces the powerful new video for the song, the title track of their third album, released in March. In the video, directed by Latin Grammy winner Carl Zitelmann, band members Eduardo Arenas, Carlos Arévalo, Bardo Martinez and Gabriel Villah are, one by one, subjected to torture, their heads plunged into a bucket of water. “Oppressors usually design situations so people succumb to racism, hate, resentment, etc., in order to benefit their agendas,” Zitelmann says. “The purpose of showing the band both peacefully and defiantly in a circumstance as extreme as being tortured by drowning was exactly that: You can take away the air from me, but you can’t change ME.”

||| Watch: The video for “Freedom Is Free”

||| Live: Chicano Batman plays sold out shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Fonda Theatre. They also play the Tropicalia Festival on Nov. 11 at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, along with Los Tigres Del Notre, Kali Uchis, Cuco, Os Mutantes and many more. Tickets.