Django Django – David Maclean (producer/drummer), Vincent Neff (vocalist/guitarist), Jimmy Dixon (bass) and Tommy Grace (synths) – have made a compelling return to form with their new album, Marble Skies, out last Friday on Ribbon Music. After sharing pre-release singles ‘Tic Tac Toe’ and ‘In Your Beat,’ the quartet presents the video for ‘Surface To Air’ and announces a west coast tour which kicks off at Coachella.

Featuring the seductive vocals of Self Esteem (aka Slow Club’s Rebecca Taylor), ‘Surface to Air’ filters a Jamaican dancehall influence through a widescreen of dreamy psychedelic pop. It marks the first Django Django song to feature an outside vocalist and the second collaboration between the two parties. Maclean previously produced the debut Self Esteem song, ‘Your Wife,’ and released it on his own label, Kick + Clap.

Directed by Dir Lx (best known for “Samantha” by Dave x J Hus) the video depicts Self Esteem performing the song around an abandoned ghost town just outside of Madrid. The band appear briefly on an old television, diving from surface-to-water. Neff comments, “The song is about two people trying to suss where they are with each other and figuring what the future holds. I always imagined them sitting in a car at the top of a hill at dusk with a large expansive sky in front of them. I love that the video has a dusty, twilight quality near the end. It’s how I originally saw it in my head.”

Dir Lx further explains: “The creative concept for the video came out of a desire to reference Hype Williams’ classic promo style. We wanted to make a hip-hop video, but due to Django’s aesthetic it needed a twist. I played around with setting it in a few different locations and we ended up in this eerie ghost town outside Madrid. The juxtaposition of a hip-hop solo performance set in a visually warped and twisted ghost town felt like nothing I’d seen before. The town itself was planned with aspirations as a commuter town but when the Spanish financial crisis hit, all development was halted. So now there’s a tiny community living in the centre of an unfinished town. We spent a day working out the best locations for the performance and then had a day for the shoot. Everything was lit naturally, so we only had a thirty minute window to catch the golden-drenched period of the beautiful Spanish sunset”.

Django Django
Tour Dates:
Mon. Feb. 26 – Dundee, UK @ Fat Sams
Tue. Feb. 27 – Aberdeen, UK @ The Garage
Thu. March 1 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3
Fri. March 2 – Dublin, IE @ The Tivoli
Sat. March 3 – Leeds, UK @ The Church
Mon. March 5 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Tue. March 6 – Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje
Wed. March 7 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Fri. March 9 – Zurich, CH @ Rote Fabrik
Sat. March 10 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale
Mon. March 12 – Strasbourg, FR @ La Laiterie
Tue. March 13 – Munich, DE @ Strom
Thu. March 15 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
Fri. March 16 – Hamburg, DE @ Gruenspan
Sat. March 17 – Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Mon. March 19 – Lille, FR @ Aeronef
Tue. March 20 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
Wed. March 21 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz
Fri. March 23 – London, UK @ The Printworks
Sat. March 24 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Sat. April 14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
Sat. April 21 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
Mon. April 23 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
Tue. April 24 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
Wed. April 25 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Fri. April 27 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Sat. April 28 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall