Since being plucked from Spring Break by a casting director in 2015, i-D cover star Sasha Lane has gone road-tripping with Shia LaBeouf and flown to Paris with Louis Vuitton. The breakout, badass American Honey actress now lives in Los Angeles, where she rolls with another idiosyncratic crew: LA Poolside. The upbeat Angeltown pop band have just dropped the music video for their first proper single “Make It Boom,” an M.I.A. and Beastie Boys-inspired track that’s a solid advance contender for the song of summer. As we premiere the video on i-D, we talk to the trio about sharing sneakers, getting spontaneous tattoos, and all things L.A.
How did you connect with Sasha?
Michael and Thomas: She’s a real pal, in every sense of the word. We met at a friend’s house about a year ago and there was no turning back. We were immediately drawn to her free spirit, kindness and authenticity. Sasha, from the beginning, has been very encouraging and supportive of LA Poolside. We unanimously agreed that we needed Sasha to breathe life into our video. Fortunately for us, she was down!
I love all the sneakers and pantsuits. What was the idea behind the outfits?
Marika: I guess the inspiration behind the pantsuit was one overly cultured murder-mystery writer from Cabot Cove, Maine. Murder, She Wrote has 12 seasons and 22 episodes, and each episode runs about 45 minutes… you do the pantsuit math. And as far as the sneakers go, they were in my closet, they worked with the outfits, and luckily Sasha and I share the same shoe size.
Did you actually get tattoos?
Marika: Yes, we got real tattoos, baby! The night before we shot the music video, Sasha spontaneously decided that getting a tattoo was a must. So we all piled into a car and headed to the nearest parlor. The price of one tattoo was pretty steep, so getting multiple tattoos was out of the question. That’s when I got the idea to do tattoos in the music video. I called my cousin, he brought his gun, and there you have it… free tattoos.
Is this your first time directing a music video? Did you use choreography or just let the dancers do their own thing?
Michael and Thomas: Yes! Our buddy Sam Pepke shot it. He’s part of our crew which made it easy to translate our vision and style. Since this video we haven’t taken our directing caps off. We’ve been working on video content for the Cold War Kids’ new album, so keep your eyes open for that. As far as dancing goes, we love to get down. You looking for someone to start the dance party at your wedding? You know who to call. For this video we just instructed our friends to be themselves and have fun. The style of this video is unplanned, impromptu, and intuitive.
Did you grow up in LA? What about the city inspires your sound?
Marika: Born and raised! L.A. for life. The twins have been here for about eight years, they grew up in “The Windy City.” And they are now just starting to adjust. They still call Santa Barbara “upstate.” Our sonic inspiration is not limited to the great and beautiful city of Los Angeles. But we definitely are able to milk the sights and the sounds of this diverse city. Our goal is to try to put fun/funny back in music, I mean “Make It Boom” sounds like a song you’d samba to in the Sambódromo. My friend Pearl M. told me our music is spunky, which is a to-die-for description. It’s a party, it’s satire, it’s kook-ish… which is L.A. baby.
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Photography Kevin Jansen