After yesterday’s release of Horses from her forthcoming album, Surrender, Maggie Rogers returns today with the official video for the track. The GRAMMY Award-nominated producer/songwriter/performer shot the simple yet powerful visual in a field in upstate New York, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar and co-directing with Michael Scanlon. Kelly Jeffries, another frequent visual collaborator of Rogers, served as cinematographer. View Horses HERE. Download / stream the song HERE.
Rogers recalls, “We laughed a lot. Drank wine. Talked about UFOs and marveled as the crescent moon set along the fields. We had a loose plan, but mostly trusted our instincts and our collective taste. And we had a blast. The way making art should be (in my philosophy). Not about the result, but about the process.”
Set for release on July 29 via Capitol Records, Surrender is the follow-up to 2019 Heard It in a Past Life, which entered Billboard Top Album Sales chart at No. 1, landed her a nomination for Best New Artist, and went on to amass over one billion combined global streams. Rogers will launch Surrender with a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, July 26.
Horses came in a burst of creative energy while she was recording at Peter Gabriel’s studio in the U.K.
Rogers says, There been only a few, rare times in my life when two songs have appeared in the same day. And only one time when three songs came at once. This was the case with Horses. I was at Real World Studios with my dearest collaborator, Kid Harpoon. On day one, I sat down at the piano and he sat down at the drums and Overdrive came pouring out. I knew immediately it would be the opening track of the record. We started day two with That’s Where I Am, caught I’ve Got A Friend after lunch, and came back for Horses after dinner and a glass or two of wine. Tom started playing guitar and immediately I started writing. I looked up to ask him what he thought and he simply said, keep going. I wondered if maybe it was time to call it a night and he simply said, keep going. When I finished the words, I suggested we record in the morning and he said, give it one take. That take is Horses. It’s a song about letting go. About wanting to feel free in a time where I felt an overwhelming amount of numbness. Sometimes I’m singing to a loved one, sometimes a friend. Sometimes I think I’m singing to myself. And I love that I can’t always tell the difference.
The song follows Want Want, which The New York Times praised for its intensity and crunchy guitar tones, going on to note, this tale of long-sublimated desire finally finds an explosive expression in its chorus: And I want you. V Magazine said, Want Want is a booming track, backed by a groovy drumline and Roger’s own powerful vocals.
Fans who pre-order the digital edition of Surrender will instantly receive Horses, Want Want, and That’s Where I Am, which SPIN chose as #1 on their list of the 30 Best Songs of 2022 (So Far). View the official video for That’s Where I Am, which features cameos by David Byrne, Quil Lemons, and Hamilton Leithauser, HERE.
After multiple sold-out headline tours and major festival performances in support of Heard It in a Past Life, Rogers retreated to the coast of Maine in early 2020 and completely cut herself off from the noise of the outside world. For months on end, she spent most of her time reading and resting and walking along the jagged cliffs, compelled by the fierce and unforgiving nature of the North Atlantic Ocean. Channeling the ocean’s unruly energy, she soon arrived at the controlled chaos and ecstatic physicality that would come to define Surrender. Over the course of 12 unfettered yet exactingly crafted tracks, Rogers fully captures the frenetic intensity of the last two years of her life, bringing her bracing honesty to stories of anger and peace and self-salvation, transcendence through sex and freedom through letting go.
