Twin Pop Duo Say Lou Lou Play in the 'Dust'

Today, the band is sharing the visuals for their track “Blue Ruin,” which they describe as a “play-by-play” of a breakup. Filmed in Los Angeles and with a storyline of art, post-breakup ridiculousness and even paintball guns, the short film “plays with the jealousy and fears” people experience after parting ways.

Below, Say Lou Lou chats with PAPER about Dust, “Blue Ruin,” and what they plan on creating next.

You took a five-year hiatus from music before deciding to come back together. What made you want to make music together again?

We had spent nine months apart during COVID when Elektra was on set in Asia shooting a TV show, which by far is the longest we’ve ever been apart. Seeing each other again after that break just made us want to make something together. Maybe a renewed sense of excitement about each other’s experiences and ideas?

Writing about personal experiences like heartbreak is a newer practice for you. Was it hard or cathartic to broach those topics in this album?

Writing more literally about personal experiences was both cathartic and hard. Cathartic in the sense of feeling like you could purge and clean your cobwebs out and move on, but hard in the sense that it at times felt like we were walking a thin line of feeling like we were heading into navel-gazing banal territory and wondering whether we were being too literal. But that’s where being two of us was a blessing. We could edit and delete each other’s lyrics with some perspective and humor.

Let’s talk album opener and single “Blue Ruin.” How did that song come together and what did you hope to convey?

The song is more or less a literal play-by-play of a break up one of us experienced a few years ago that we wrote with our friend and writer Joni Fatora. It’s about facing the end and owning up to not dealing with things as elegantly as you should’ve, breaking someone’s trust and looking for love elsewhere as a means of getting through to your partner. We wrote and directed a short film/music video hybrid for "Blue Ruin" that takes the story a little further and plays with the jealousy and fears that enter the space during breakups.

Sonically, there are a lot of acoustic elements in the album. How did you communicate the emotions of each track in the album sound?

We were drawn to acoustic guitars when we started producing the first track for the album, "Waiting For A Boy," and it just felt so right to keep using it as a backbone for the sonic world of the record. More generally, we ended up referencing the early 2000s era, when acoustic guitars and electronic elements were being mixed frivolously.

How do you hope your fans feel when they hear the album in full?

We’d love anyone who listens to feel comforted, inspired and hopeful.

What are you most excited to share with your fans next?

We’re excited to share the short film for "Blue Ruin" and our vinyl release of Dust.

Photography: Pete Karpushin