The Hellp Graduate With Honors on 'Caustic'
By Ivan Guzman
Aug 23, 2024We all remember the last day of high school. Before senior year, it was all about signing each other’s yearbooks with “H.A.G.S.” and looking forward to the next year. But that graduation year was different. You were becoming an adult, and those bonds you formed the last four years were about to face a major change.
The Hellp’s new music video for “Caustic,” premiering today on PAPER, explores that special liminal time by weaving in archival footage of a Los Angeles high school student’s last day with the band’s very own personal recordings.
“The idea’s genesis came from Noah’s obsession with a 'last day of Calabasas high school 1994' video,” they tell PAPER. “By commandeering the unknown future of the found footage and infusing a five-year timeline of The Hellp's LA experience (part reality, part character), we can understand the band’s canonical importance and presence within the spirit of the zeitgeist.”
For the past few years, The Hellp, comprised of Noah Dillon and Chandler Ransom Lucy, have electrified dance floors and basements alike with their post-pop punk meets indie sleaze-esque pump-up sonic stratosphere. Hitting both nostalgic and futuristic elements with their sound, the duo has built a loyal fanbase of dance-driven delinquents who eat up their introspective and referential output. “Caustic” comes ahead of a national tour in the fall.
In terms of the song’s inspiration, the duo says it's about “actualizing the collision point of bubblegum pop and a catastrophe.”
Photos courtesy of Atlantic Records
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