As the former leader of Saturday Looks Good To Me and bass player in His Name Is Alive, Fred Thomas might easily be considered\u00a0Southeast Michigan\u2019s godfather of indie rock. Ever prolific, his third solo record in four years, Aftering<\/em>, is set to drop this Friday. Ahead of that comes a video for his\u00a0<\/span>single <\/span>\u201cAltar,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0a visual representation of conflicting feelings – joy and isolation. Thomas says the song is a \u201cremarkably personal\u201d recount of a time where he felt ousted from a group of friends in a small town. The song\u2019s cutting lyrics paired with the disorienting visual accurately capture the lonely state of not knowing where you belong. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe song is about a situation where you feel ostracized by people that you know, people that you thought were your friends,\u201d says Thomas. \u201cWhere things have switched from \u2018everything\u2019s cool, everybody\u2019s my friend\u2019 to \u2018oh, everybody hates me.\u2019\u201d In the video, Thomas and his band – Anna Baghina (guitar), Erin Davis (bass), Stefan Krstovic (drums), Emily Roll (synths) – alternate between clean-cut euphoria and dirty catatonia. The scenes are meant to juxtapose that ecstatic time of belonging and community and the dull pain of estrangement. \u201cEvery attempt was made to hold on to that dislocated magic,\u201d Thomas sings, acutely recalling what it’s like to hang on to the skeleton of a support system. <\/span><\/p>\n

For anyone who has felt abandoned or burned by a friend (or multiple friends), this song hits close to home. Thomas\u2019s penchant for conversational lyricism and poignant metaphor has the ability to draw out the deepest buried memories. \u201cThose nights were spent\/
\nDigesting the ashes of a dead friend\/Putting barricades in place\/Cultivating contradictions\/Drinking whispers,\u201d Thomas sings, listing all the necessary ingredients for a burned bridge. <\/span><\/p>\n

But, however dark Thomas goes in his writing, he always intends to imbue his work with some levity, which the video makes obvious through the band\u2019s outfits and awkward thrashing. \u201cI want there to be humor and absurdity in everything I do,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n