Clocking over 5 million streams, Regard‘s latest single “HALLUCINATION” with pop royalty Years & Years is climbing the charts globally. The pair released the official music video for the track, honing in a dystopian era. Watch the video HERE.
In a darkened room lit only by eccentric characters, a dance competition takes place, with evident inspiration coming from the likes of the 1969 Sydney Pollack film, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, Squid Game, and Black Mirror. The music video showcases a cut-throat survival game, one with Regard as the puppet master and Years & Years striving to survive, plagued by intense competitiveness.
Complete with contemporary choreography, extravagant fashion and costumes, and a tense storyline, the video is a perfect contradiction to the ‘80s inspired synth-pop dance record.
Speaking about the video, director Sophia Ray says: “The concept for the video was inspired by the 1969 Sydney Pollack film They Shoot Horses Don’t They, we wanted to take the themes from this cult classic and then give the video our own creative spin on them. Setting it in a contemporary, perplexing, dystopian space. The video places Olly Alexander, as an apprehensive contestant, at the center of a ‘Dance-to-the-Death’ endurance marathon, where he has to sweat, pant, dive, and dance his way to an exhausted victory (driven by Meshach Henry’s trailblazing choreography). Regard, all the while, being a mysteriously sinister driving force behind-the-scenes of this dark competition.”
With nominations for a BRIT Award, American Music Award, and iHeart Radio Awards under his belt, the new single—and Regard‘s first release of 2022—is yet another example of the powerhouse producer’s versatility as he experiments with themes of 80s disco and synth-pop. The collaboration with Years & Years adds to his impressive record of collaborators including RAYE, Troye Sivan, Tate McRae, and more recently Kwabs on their single “Signals,” marking the singer’s first release since 2015.
About Regard
It was by accident that REGARD found his stage name. The word, “regardé,” came to the DJ during French class in high school. “To see” became the core behind Regard’s music. “When I perform,” he says, “I look at the people and how they feel the music.” For REGARD, his deep house mixes consist not only of sound, but also of sight. Performance is a reciprocal and intimate relationship between the DJ and the audience. Kosovan DJ and producer REGARD garnered global attention with his debut single “Ride It” which became an international hit, taking the internet and TikTok by storm and quickly followed it up with his second hit single and BRIT nominated “Secrets” featuring South London singer RAYE. He has gone on to achieve over 10X top 10 single chart placements globally. In the UK, “Ride It” has sold over 1 million records to date (2x Platinum), while “Secrets” was recently certified Platinum.
