PREMIERE | Mild Orange, "Oh Yeah"

The magnificent and mellow moods of Mild Orange; photographed by Kenzie Pigman.

With our world still largely placed on lockdown and searching for healing in the wake of a global pandemic — humankind continues its quest to find that certain slice of peace and solace even from the sequestered confines of our familiar domiciles and homesteads. With sidewalks sparse, streets often empty, borders closing and opening in accordance to the latest WHO recommendations and the like; the collective goal has become to create these new inspirational celestial spaces right here where we dwell. The challenge in the face of a deluge of negativity has been to re-envision and re-imagine what our world can be, the process of reshaping our reality into a better, more inclusive and caring community that we want to both actively live and participate in. The lessons that we together as a universal village have learned in unison is that if we are to truly witness the wonders of a heavenly utopia and state of grace — it is then up to us to create and build those welcoming and wondrous palaces of infinite opulence right here on the humble and coarse organic earth from which we collectively stand.

Deep into these paths of discoveries and treasures trips are Mild Orange, as they traverse the terrain of Aotearoa, New Zealand writing and recording their third album Looking for Space. The band of friends Josh Mehrtens, Josh Reid, Tom Kelk and Jack Ferguson countered the closed borders situation on their island as an opportunity to make an aesthetic of affection, endearment and absolute illumination. Presenting us with the debut and corresponding visual from director Simon Levalois-Bazier — Mild Orange offer a first listen and look at “Oh Yeah” that embodies a sentiment, a state of mind, an emotion of spirituality and something that resembles the sublime and approximates the utter ineffable artistic eminence of the aura. Written and recorded on the west coast of New Zealand in Carters Beach with the video filmed in Biarritz, France; the quarter curates a sun glimmering portal to new places and dimensions that chart destinations from far away beaches to the beloved pathways of sand, asphalt and dirt that we get to know and love even more with each passing day.

"Oh Yeah" emerges from the day's early light with a sparkle and a crooked stoned from oversleep smile. Mild Orange's Josh Mehrtens and the band arrange a calming concert of chords to assuage the beleaguered and overwrought mind, allowing the sense of the experiential self to float gently down an astral, rippling stream. The progressions and lyrical lost trail expeditions dive into the hazy spirit wanderings of wayward spirit warriors in pursuit of a defined point in a place where no such distinction exists. The band riffs off the “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of a Bay” sentiment with a panache that sounds at home among their fellow NZ pop school institutions that counts luminaries like Princess Chelsea, Yumi Zouma to Lorde. "Oh Yeah" serves up a psychic stroll through the exfoliating sands where the jagged edges of the earthen world meet the surrounding embrace by the enveloping bodies of vast seas.

Saturated in the solar shine of spinning Kodak 16mm celluloid spools, Mild Orange present the Simon Levalois-Bazier film short for "Oh Yeah". Starring Evan Lunven and Clothilde Pasquier, the two take in a sunset on the Basque coast in Biarritz, France and playfully explore the serene, southwestern shores. The two chill out with leisurely picnic sessions, surf boarding adventures to just allowing themselves to get caught up in the conscious streams of a grassy midday dream scene nap. The upbeat and idle window shopping, day trips, conversations over ice cream and exotic locale feels like an art flick that wants to be about nothing but accidently stumbles upon an abundance of inexplicable substance and loverly meanings. The heart skipping exuberance seen on the screen further elevates the invigorating energy of the sounds that together paint a portrait of feelings and places of blissed out refuge that cannot be described any other way than “Oh Yeah.”

Styling stances with Mild Orange; photographed by Kenzie Pigman.

Josh Mehrtens from Mild Orange provided us with some of the following insights on the inception of “Oh Yeah” and the accompanying visuals from Simon Levalois-Bazier:

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.

Sitting down, huddling up and catching up with Mild Orange; photographed by Kenzie Pigman.

The video was directed and filmed by Simon Levalois-Bazier in Biarritz, France entirely on Kodak 16mm film, starring his groovy friends, Evan and Clothilde. We connected with Simon via Instagram. He's been a fan of Mild Orange for a while and was keen to contribute to the project. Look him up — he makes epic surf and lifestyle videos on film, including for Stab Magazine and various surfboard companies and he's an absolutely lovely dude. 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 & 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.

Mild Orange’s album Looking For Space will be available February 11 via AWAL.

Catch Mild Orange on the following tour dates:

February

16 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
18 – Toronto, ON – Baby G
19 – Chicago, IL – Schubas
23 – Oakland, CA – Starline
24 – Los Angeles, CA – The Roxy
26 – San Diego, CA – Soda Bar

March

4 - Mexico City, MX - Foro Indie Rocks