Glove's "Personality Change" Brings Us into a Haze
Photo by Sophie Hur
Within the past two years amidst changing members, Tampa’s Glove has built a sound to last. The four piece, now made up of Rod Woolf, Brie Denicourt, Justin Burns, and Michelle Primiani, have toured up and down America with friends The Nude Party and Broncho, bringing their own persona to the stage. In their video for “Personality Change”, the first single off their 7-inch, the visuals are reminiscent of early 1960’s television performances, but with a stark, almost robotic, twist. Smoke and Calder-esque mobiles fill the space, drawing the audience into singer Justin Burn’s controlling commands. Drummer Brie Denicourt remarks that “the haze and colors are a representation of making decisions in daily life—we wanted to keep things simple by using the video to highlight the song rather than send a larger message.” Watch the video for “Personality Change” below along with a conversation between Brie and Rod on how it all came together.
Brie: Hi Rod :)
Rod: Hi Brie.
Brie: Well this feels weird, having to interview someone I see everyday
Rod: Yeah, who knows maybe you’ll learn something you’ve never known. I doubt it though.
Brie: How did we get into this mess we’re in
Rod: I’d say it’s my fault since I talked you into picking up the drums and starting our first band. Then that band ended and I persuaded our friend, Michelle, into playing the synth and starting a new one with us haha.
Brie: So you have a thing for teaching people how to play instruments?
Rod: Haha maybe! I think the best musicians are the ones who don’t know it yet. With no ego and keeping things simple.
Brie: Well I thank you eternally for giving me the courage to do so!
Rod: You’re welcome.
Brie: So you’re also our mastermind behind most of the songwriting?
Rod: Justin is a huge part of it too! I do most of the arrangements but I’ll go off of a bass line he came up with or I record a demo of a song and he does the vocals. Every song is so different. Michelle will play a weird synth sound and it’ll immediately trigger me to come up with a part for it. Also, theres times we’ve all come up with songs on the spot at practice!
Brie: Like “Personality Change”?
Rod: Yeah, I actually can’t remember for sure haha but I vaguely recall I had come up with just the synth part and then we all got together at practice and everyone did their thing, which is great. Sometimes I’ll demo a song and then when everyone gets together to play it, it comes out differently because everyone has their own take on it and that makes it even better. It makes it sound like us.
Brie: I can confirm. That’s how it came to be. Aren’t you thankful for the day we found Justin ?
Rod: Yeah it just clicked instantly. The first day Justin and I got together we wrote your favorite song.
Brie: Ah yes, soon to be recorded… I always say, we weren’t fully Glove till Justin joined us.
Rod: I agree, we all fit together. It feels right. We all have our different personalities and strengths to share with each other.
Brie: Now this video, we hope people are about to watch… What was the whole concept of it?
Rod: I think we were inspired by live videos of some of our favorite bands like New Order, Gary Numan, Magazine. The song has such strong lyrics we wanted to keep things simple by using the video to highlight the song instead of send a larger message.
Brie: Thanks to an incredible team we were able to execute it accurately!
Rod: Especially great because it was all planned long distance. Everyone working on the video lived in NY except us. They all put in the work leading up to it. We got together the day before the video for coffee then the next day it was 12 hours on set.
Brie: Speaking of putting in work leading up to the video shout out to Anna Ling— who created the large scale mobiles in her friend’s basement, never seeing them set-up till the day of the shoot! Now that’s great planning.
Rod: Yeah it all worked out really well. I was confident in knowing Jen Dessinger was directing it. She has a great eye and I’ve always been a fan of everything she makes.
Brie: Agreed. Thank you, Jen!
Rod: Now go watch the video.
Brie: OK.