Mild Orange share final taste of forthcoming album Looking For Space

: by Andrew Braithwaite; in Latest; on 24 January 2022

New Zealand’s dreamiest band Mild Orange today share the final taste of their forthcoming album Looking For Space - before its release on Thursday 10 February. ‘Oh Yeah’ is accompanied by a beautifully shot music video of a couple exploring the surf town of Biarritz, France. Watch below.

Of the single, frontman Josh Mehrtens shares: “I wrote the lyrics to 'Oh Yeah' to be intentionally about nothing - but within nothing there is always something. In an art history paper I did at uni, there was a quote I came across, and sadly, I'm not sure who from but it went something like: "with art, there is always meaning". This got glossed over in the lecture but it's stuck with me for years now. Even the decision not to have meaning has a meaning. I love this irony and found it comical that you can't escape meaning, so I wanted to write lyrics about nothing, which meant little to me at the time except just to purely feel good. That 'something' can become clearer once you look back on the seemingly nothingness you tried to evoke.”

“It was upon reflecting on the song that I realized these words had come from somewhere and could take on some kind of meaning, which is what the spoken word outro is about. I recorded/wrote that outro section improvisationally in one go a couple of months after the initial recording of the song. We wrote and recorded 'Oh Yeah' in Carters Beach, on the rugged West Coast of New Zealand at a beach house only separated from the ocean by a paddock with horses roaming in it. It was very laid back and surfy there, which is how the song sounds. We all recorded our parts very laid back and unassumed of what it would become. What does the chorus "oh yeah ah ah ah yeah uh" even mean? No idea, but it feels good to sing.”

The ‘Oh Yeah’ music video was directed and filmed by Simon Levalois-Bazier in Biarritz, France shot entirely on Kodak 16mm film, starring his groovy friends, Evan and Clothilde. The band had put up an Instagram story looking for a film director for another project and Simon had reached out. Having been a Mild Orange fan for years, he was keen to contribute to the project. Simon is known for his epic surf and lifestyle videos on film which has been featured on Stab Magazine.

Mehrtens shares: “Like the meaning behind the song, it's about something coming from seemingly nothing - it doesn't need to make sense for it to feel good. The sonic surfiness goes hand in hand with Evan and Clothilde's day in the surf town of Biarritz, and the lo-fi grit of the audio production is harmonious with the retro aesthetics in the film. I need to thank my dad for pushing for 'Oh Yeah' to be fully realized. It wasn't going to be on the album, and probably would've been tucked away for ages, but he would play it everyday and nudge me multiple times a week to keep revising it and take the song more seriously. Thankfully for that push, we have this beautiful work to enjoy.”

‘Oh Yeah’ follows the band's explosive new single ‘What’s Your Fire?’ and hazy b-side ‘Hollywood Dreams’ which were released last month to glowing reviews and join the already released tracks ‘This Kinda Day’ and ‘The Time Of Our Lives’. Looking For Space will be available digitally and on vinyl - to pre-order / pre-save head here. The band will be heading to the UK and Europe, USA and Canada this yer for their The Looking For Space Tour, which includes a headline date at London Jazz Café on 10th February. For details and ticket information please head to: mildorange.com.

Mild Orange are made up of childhood mates, frontman Josh Mehrtens and lead guitarist Josh Reid, with bassist Tom Kelk and drummer Jack Ferguson. Their internet-cult following has reached fans from Cairo to Cape Town, Lima to LA, Seoul to Sydney, London to Ulanbutar giving them close to 50 million YouTube views alone. Together they create energetic, summer-bummer psychedelic rock complete with compelling lyrics and are known for their relaxed and buoyant sound. Over the recent months since releasing ‘This Kinda Day’, the first track off the new album they’ve received press coverage from the likes of Billboard, Monster Children, MTV, RAGE, Tone Deaf, Beat Magazine, Lyrical Lemonade, Sniffers and Under The Radar.

THE LOOKING FOR SPACE TOUR 2022

FEB 10 ~ LONDON ~ JAZZ CAFÉ

FEB 16 ~ BROOKLYN ~ BABY'S ALL RIGHT

FEB 18 ~ TORONTO ~ BABY G

FEB 19 ~ CHICAGO ~ SCHUBAS

FEB 23 ~ OAKLAND ~ STARLINE

FEB 24 ~ LOS ANGELES ~ THE ROXY

FEB 26 ~ SAN DIEGO ~ SODA BAR

MAR 4 – MEXICO CITY – FORO INDIE ROCKS

SEPT 14 - MADRID ~ SALA CARACOL

TBD ~ BARCELONA ~ LA 2 APOLO

SEPT 17 - PARIS ~ POINT ÉPHÉMÈRE