Watch Sally Seltmann's Uplifting Night Moves in 'We Are the Music'

By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd  |  March 12, 2015 | 4:00pm
Entertainment

Australian pop songwriter Sally Seltmann says that “right now” she “just wants to make music that makes people happy,” and that’s reflected in her latest anthem. “We Are the Music,” a collaboration with Jon Lawless, Aaron Mohr, and her husband Darren Seltmann (The Avalanches), is feelgood in the extreme, a gossamer seratonin jam that encapsulates idyllic moments. It’s a little abstract—”the rhythm and the tune, the beat and the melody, like lovers on the first date”—but you’ll recognize the sentiment immediately.

In the brand-new video for the song, which is making its debut here, city lights are squinted out to beautiful blurs, as Sally herself bops around in a chalky cirrus cloud. “We own this town tonight/we are strong and mighty,” she sings, intimately—it’s propulsive, super-sweet pop and motivational but clearly perfect for headphones and walking around LA, as headphone guy in the video has figured out. (“Headphone guy” is actually photographer George Byrne. As Seltmann says: “We shot in the famous Westin Bonaventure Hotel, the Jewelry District of downtown Los Angeles, and at the Santa Monica Pier. The clip follows guest star and real life photographer George Byrne as he embarks on a night out photographing the streets of LA.”)

This is Seltmann’s first music since Hey Daydreamer, her fifth album which dropped a little over a year ago. If you feel familiar with her style but you can’t quite place it, you’re right: she’s also famous for cowriting “1234,” Feist’s 2007 indie pop smash, and she performed for a number of years under the name New Buffalo. Here, though, she’s just pure Sally Seltmann, unadorned, and it suits her. Also, George Byrne is Rose Byrne’s brother, all Aussie all the time.

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