Daiana Feuer on October 10th, 2018

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The first version of “Tragedy” was a little too upbeat for the dreamy doom and gloom of L.A. goth-pop quartet Brass Box. The band felt that it just never seemed to fit right into their live set. One day, Ammo Bankoff, Neil Popkin, Matt Bennett and Pablo Amador messed around with playing it at half speed during rehearsal and a new “Tragedy” was born. They had already recorded the original and decided to put out a single with both versions, released this week via Dune Altar.

The music video came about when opportune lighting offered itself to Bankoff in her friend’s backyard. “The lighting is beautiful and the ground cover has an amazing texture,” says Bankoff. “I kept asking her to roll around in the dirt and it just looked so mesmerizing that I started filming it in slow motion. I love the opening scene of Von Trier’s ‘Melancholia’ and it reminded me a bit of that.” In editing, she combined this yard material with found footage and clips of her own eyes. “As I was editing I just kept thinking of collage art and how William S. Burroughs did his cut up technique with his writings, but I would do it more in a visual manner.”

Brass Box’s last album was 2016’s EP, “Ivory Skies,” but another single is on its way this year, and a full-length is anticipated for release next Spring.

||| Watch: The video for “Tragedy”