Bay Area singer-songwriter Madeline Kenney released her new EP Summer Quarter today (Jan. 22) via Carpark Records. Kenney self-produced Summer Quarter, recording the tracks in her Oakland home, and directed the music video for the EP’s second track “Wasted Time,” premiering exclusively at Paste today.
The four-song EP comes after Kenney’s tour in support of her album Sucker’s Lunch was canceled due to the global pandemic. In her time off, Kenney has explored her interest in experimental production, using otherworldly synths to provide a dreamy quality as she lyrically ponders the challenges of being an artist. The song’s video features Kenney and a handful of dancers moving freely around a large outdoor performance space: the Greek Theatre in Berkeley.
Kenney says of the video:
In making this music video, something inherently hands-on and collaborative, I wanted to make the process not only safe and comfortable for dancers amidst a pandemic, but also celebratory of their talents and a venue for them to move/ create/ express themselves in a way they may have not gotten the chance to do in a long time. We were super lucky to get let into the Greek Theatre to film, and using the drone made it easier to shoot the dancers safely. “Wasted Time” is about making art and finding the process of selling that art to be the thing that kills it, and how hard it can be to create under duress and urgency. The dancers seemed to fully embrace that theme and run with it, and I wanted the video to show them running (or improvising) with it.
Watch the video for “Wasted Time” below and revisit Kenney’s 2018 Paste Studio session further down. Keep scrolling for her’s EP artwork and tracklist. You can stream/buy Summer Quarter here.
Summer Quarter EP Artwork:
Summer Quarter Tracklist:
1. Summer Quarter
2. Wasted Time
3. Truth
4. Superstition
