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Dec 09, 2022 By Caleb Campbell

Canadian indie pop outfit Bridal Party is back early next year with their sophomore LP Cool Down. Their latest effort builds on the soulful summer daydreams of their 2019 debut record, Too Much, cultivating a style full of warm and decadent grooves and beachy indie pop charm. The full record is out February 15th, and the band have already been teasing it this year with a pair of singles, “Cool Down” and “Pool.” Today, they’ve shared the accompanying video for “Pool,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Pool” is an alluring and airy indie pop gem, packed full of iridescent melodies and shuffling grooves. The band balances a magnetic pop appeal with a soft and insular focus, resulting in a track that feels subtle and understated, also yet instantly welcoming. That same balance between joy and intimacy comes up in the lyrics, which reflect on the joy of coming out of your shell following a long period of isolation一“Feeling my own worth and / Dwelling on what’s good for me now / Nothing comes easy / But I’m patient / I’ve been swimming inside my own pool / I just want to talk about it.”

Guitarist Joseph Leroux says of the track, “I wanted the lyrics to feel potent and understated. They were written with building myself up in mind, in a time when I was looking for a lot of validation from other people. I wanted to remind myself with a song, of the value of choosing yourself and choosing periods of quiet, before coming back into your communities.”

When Leroux first brought it to the band, the rest of the outfit helped work it out into the dreamy reverie it became. Drummer Adrain Heim explains, “I felt like in Joe’s demo the verse was actually the chorus and the chorus was the verse.”

Meanwhile, the accompanying music video, directed by Leta C-W and Koty Bannouvong, places the band as attendees in a gorgeous and richly decorated dinner party. Check out the track and accompanying music video below. Cool Down is out on February 15th. Pre-order the full record here and read below for our brief Q&A with the band on the track and album.

Can you tell us more about the message behind your latest single “Pool” and how the lyrics speak to that?

“Pool” is about hanging out in your own space for a while, to rest or to think or to work, and then realizing it’s time to go back to being more social, and being excited about that. The lyrics are meant to be pretty direct, with “swimming inside my own pool” meaning more or less just hanging out inside your head with your own thoughts and feelings. There is also an inertia to get over I feel, whenever it’s been a while since you’ve had your people around, and there is some of that in there, too.

How did the video for “Pool” come to life, and what was the shooting process like?

The video concept came to us from Koty Bannouvong and Leta Cushing-Woodcock, the director duo that helped us imagine all the video content for our upcoming album. We wanted a grand hall and our producer Sarah Alexander worked hard to get us the room you see, which is an Oddfellows hall hidden right in the heart of downtown Victoria, British Columbia, where we’re from. It’s all about showing people having fun with one another, sharing a meal, looking fabulous, sort of the opposite of being locked away in your thoughts.

The day of the shoot was surreal. A mix of being directed by Leta and us just all hanging out and having fun with our friends while the camera caught the right moments. The costume and makeup team were a highlight too, they made us feel so glamorous and were super creative in how they brought our personalities out in our looks. That giant room we shot in had no windows though, and time started to feel pretty weird as we kept the party going for the whole day.

You’ve just announced your forthcoming album ‘Cool Down’ due out in February - can you tell us more about it and what we can expect?

Writing and recording Cool Down turned us into a whole new band. We were able to really clarify what we were doing sonically, and make tracks that were joyful and fun to play live while also fitting into a more mellow at home listening space. This record emotes how we’ve been feeling these last few years; periods of boredom and reflection within this ever changing world of ours. It’s about shape shifting within stillness.