Pandemic fatigue be damned, it’s shaping up to be a productive 2021 for Toronto’s anders. The singer-songwriter came out the gates hot with his third EP Chaos, which dropped in January. And today, he’s back with a surpise single and video, “Late To The Party.”
Produced by FrancisGotHeat and Emerson, the track paints anders’ slick style of pop-R&B with brooding, foreboding tones. The video, directed by Christo Anesti and Gerard Joseph, follows suit, seeing anders show up to a party that, by the time he gets there, has gotten pretty weird.
“I really wanted to do something different than what I’m used to with this video,” anders tells Complex. “Using a darker, more editorial style approach, I think the video does a great job at portraying the music, in a cryptic night life setting. The song speaks for itself; showing up fashionably late yet still being the life of the party. ”
The one-shot style video takes place in an ornate mansion full of shadowy characters. Anxiety swells as things start to take a twisted, Lynchian turn. It’s like Sleep No More on peyote (no blood orgy, unfortunately).
“With this video we wanted to encapsulate an old Toronto night, an invite-only after-party following a high profile event—pulling up to this random, gaudy house ‘that everyone is going to be at.’ At some point in your night things start taking a turn, late becomes early, things and memories start melting into each other and you don’t really know what did or didn’t happen, but you know you had a hell of a time,” says Joseph.
“We wanted the video to lay somewhere in between Eyes Wide Shut and a Gaspar Noe film, without being too cliché. We don’t reveal too much or spoon-feed anything but instead the camera perspective creeps from room to room trying to piece together what exactly happened through the night,” adds Anesti.
While the video’s cinametic influences are varied, it does draw from a bit of personal experience as well.
“It’s just funny how life really comes full circle,” says Joseph. “Back in the day Ky, one of anders’ managers, Christo and I actually used to throw parties. Ky and I would host them and Christo would DJ. So this video is definitely reminiscent to all of us as we’ve all been to this party too many times.”
Check out the video for “Late To The Party” above.
