Balloon Boy is an electronic duo comprised of vocalist Nannen Gatchell and instrumentalist Kelby Clark. The New Orleans-based project is currently readying their self-titled debut EP for release on October 2nd via DKA Records. In anticipation of the upcoming effort, the pair have a new video for their track “Rebirth.”
The title seems quite apt for a collection of songs that went missing in 2016, only to be discovered four years later. Gatchell and Clark had launched the project in Valdosta, Ga., after having played together in the post-punk outfit Smiler. Influenced by the synth-pop of the ’70s and ’80s, as well as post-punk’s eclectic approach to electric instrumentation during that period, Balloon Boy followed suit by recording straight to tape using vintage analog equipment.
After the original tracks went missing, they turned up four years later during the duo’s relocation to New Orleans. Balloon Boy reveals that they then rewrote and rerecorded the EP’s lyrics in the Spring of this year. Set in an atmosphere of pummeling ambiance and reverberating rhythm, “Rebirth” finds Nannen Gatchell delivering her Promethean directives with brooding intensity. The video for the cut follows suit with a series of Gothic imagery in which the vocalist stylishly holds court in a cemetery.
