MGMT are back with another single off their forthcoming new album, the quietly contemplative and cinematic “Nothing To Declare”. The song is accompanied by an official video, directed by Joey Frank (MGMT’s “Me & Michael”) and starring Inga Petry, a student at the University of Pittsburgh where she studies philosophy and pre-law who uses her growing social media platform to spread awareness for the disabled community.
In the video, the camera follows Petry, who was born with upper limb aplasia, as she makes her way through Paris, eventually ending up at the iconic sculpture of the Venus de Milo at the Louvre.
Director Joey Frank discovered Petry through her TikTok, which she utilizes to share with others the way she lives her life despite her differences and difficulties she faces, with the intention of learning from one another’s differences.
Frank spoke about the video’s concept: “When I first saw Inga on TikTok, I imagined her as the star of a foreign film. A certain brand of 1990s European independent cinema typified by the Dardenne brothers always essentially follows a human navigating through life. Inga has been armless all her life, which lends a different kind of vulnerability to the simple narrative of a self-possessed young woman travelling from Pittsburgh to Paris. In real life, Inga puts herself online in a very candid way on TikTok, but the ‘Nothing to Declare’ MGMT music video plays on the aesthetics of independent cinema to allow the audience a different sort of emotional fictive space with Inga as ingenue.”
Inga Petry added, “When Joey first approached me to do this project, it was the parallelism in his vision that first drew me in. We listened to ‘Nothing To Declare’ as he took me through the concept of the video and I was met with the juxtaposition of beauty and melancholy. Having grown up with no arms, I have been watched my whole life. In some respects, the Venus de Milo has always felt analogous to my life, and specifically to the character I portray in this film. She’s adored, respected, and almost constantly surrounded by people, and yet she stands alone and her past is unknown. There have always been questions surrounding her arms and she has never had to answer or prove her worth. From my perspective, she has nothing to declare. Playing this character that is different, and not just because she doesn’t have arms, but by the way she handles the difference and still feeds on new curiosity was a really beautiful experience.”
Petry continues, “As an individual, the song and film resonated to me in another way as well. At the time of the initial filming I had just been diagnosed with Stage III Breast Cancer. This changed my personal perception of the film and pulled me away from seeing it as a way to artistically see how my character exists with differences within her environment, and made it an experience of the individual. At this point in time, to me, ‘Nothing To Declare’ no longer meant that you don’t have to explain your circumstances, but instead it felt like a literal statement going through the customs of life. After this diagnosis, I couldn’t exist as the same person I was. I had to put a lot of my personal goals aside to focus on my health and recovery. In that respect, I had to end one chapter of my life and enter a new one. A chapter that doesn’t care about who I was before or what aspirations I was striving toward. Instead, one that focuses on removing all the cancer and only then will I be able to start living again. My wish is for people to watch the video and enjoy the art and mystery. I hope the vulnerability and curiosity that we captured is felt by the viewer.”
Watch the video for ‘Nothing To Declare’ – BELOW:
Due Feb. 23 from Mom + Pop Music, Loss Of Life is the long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s Little Dark Age. VanWyngarden and Goldwasser produced the 10-track project with Patrick Wimberly (Solange, Lil Yachty, Joji). Longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Spoon) mixed the album as he has done on the group’s past four full-lengths.
Christine and the Queens appear on the song “Dancing in Babylon” – the first-ever feature on an MGMT album, which has additional production supplied by Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) and James Richardson. Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) also provided additional “Mother Nature” production, and Miles A. Robinson served as associate producer and engineer across the album.
The band’s previously released 90s grunge era-themed “Bubblegum Dog” video followed the stunning, 2n-produced animated video for “Mother Nature,” which was directed by longtime collaborator Jordan Fish. The themes of Loss Of Life will be further explored through future videos made by a remarkable roster of writers, producers and directors.
“All joking aside (never!), we are very proud of this album and the fact that it was a relatively painless birth after a lengthy gestation period, and are happy to be releasing this baby into the world with Mom + Pop,” MGMT says. “Musically speaking, we are running at around 20% adult contemporary and no more than this, please.”
Loss Of Life tracklisting:
1. Loss Of Life (part 2)
2. Mother Nature
3. Dancing In Babylon (featuring Christine and the Queens)
4. People In The Streets
5. Bubblegum Dog
6. Nothing To Declare
7. Nothing Changes
8. Phradie’s Song
9. I Wish I Was Joking
10. Loss Of Life
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