Chastity Belt – “Fear”

Eleanor Petry

Chastity Belt – “Fear”

Eleanor Petry

Seattle indie rockers Chastity Belt released a self-titled album two years ago, and since then, the different members of the band have been busy with other projects. Julia Shapiro released a solo album last month, for instance, while Annie Truscott got together with Jay Som to form the band Routine. But now Chastity Belt have reassembled and announced plans to release a new two-song single. They’ve also shared one of those songs.

Chastity Belt will release “Fake” b/w “Fear” in December, and they’ve just shared the fuzzed-out “Fear.” Lydia Lund wrote the song about the ambient terror of trying to communicate with other people, and she tracked her vocals while visiting her parents, which was slightly unnerving for her parents and more than slightly therapeutic for Lund. In a press release, Lund says:

I wrote the song a few summers ago, based around a dream I had. At one point in the dream, I was opening door after door, noticing the fear build, then dissipate upon opening, then build again when I realized there was yet another door. It felt like my dream was giving me practice in noticing my fear as something separate from the thing causing the fear, as something potentially more harmful and unbearable.

About a year later, I was recording vocals out at my parents’ place. My mom knocked on the door — “Is there anything you want to talk to me about? Is there something you’re afraid of?” At that point, I’d become so detached from the lyrics of the song it took me a minute to realize she thought I was doing some kind of primal scream therapy. And I guess in a way I am.

In director Eleanor Petry‘s “Fear” video, the members of Chastity Belt play fantastical character-types, knights and elves and whatnot. They frolic with horses in sun-dappled fields. It looks nice. Check it out below.

“Fake” b/w “Fear” is out 12/3. Chastity Belt are releasing it themselves in most of the world, but the single will be out on Milk! Records in Australia.

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