Performer is pumped to premiere the video for “New Day,” the first single from the new Thoughts Detecting Machines debut album Work The Circuits. Thoughts Detecting Machines is Poster Children front man Rick Valentin’s new project, and we adore it.
“This is a simple song about how things like self-help mantras, life hacks, and fad diets are supposed to solve problems, but are problems themselves,” says Rick Valentin. “Musically, I think of it as a kind of suburban raga that gets interrupted by pogoing guitars.”
The music video for the song is a retro-futurist vision of a world where everything is experienced through a gesture controlled virtual environment. Games, work and workouts are all programs and users control colorful avatars while sitting in a blank room wearing grey jumpsuits.
“I find the idea of playing a workout game instead of actually working out kinda funny,” Valentin says. “But conversely, I was always really irritated by ‘music’ games. Friends would challenge me to a Guitar Hero battle and then brag when I would lose as if it had anything to do with actually playing guitar!”
The video is basically a day in the life of a person who lives completely in virtual reality. But there are no evil robots or alien overlords in this future world. It’s just business as usual: go to work, work out, play games, talk to friends – except that you never have to leave your room.
“I guess it’s not much different than the way things are right now,” Valentin concludes.
Work The Circuits by Thoughts Detecting Machines – the latest project from Rick Valentin, the man behind the pioneering late-80’s alternative band, Poster Children and its concurrent electronic side project, Salaryman – is out now.