Vision Video share ’Death in a Hallway’ from upcoming LP ‘Haunted Hours’

Gothic post-punk quartet Vision Video have returned with their latest single + video Death In A Hallway, lifted from their upcoming sophomore album ‘Haunted Hours’ out October 11. They have also announced a fall North American tour in support of the LP [dates below]. The track is a rumination on the unnecessary loss of life during the pandemic due to misinformation and failed leadership. You can watch the Death In A Hallway video clip via YouTube below. Pre-order ‘Haunted Hours’ here. 

Discussing, the band’s songwriter/guitarist Dusty Gannon noted, “I wrote this song at the peak of the Omicron wave of Covid. It was a really bitterly cold winter and at my day job as an Atlanta Fire Department EMT, we were inundated with transporting severe Covid patients to the hospital. I was intensely frustrated, because despite the preponderance of scientific evidence of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, an overwhelming majority of those critical patients were unvaccinated.

I kept thinking about all the lies and bullshit that brought us to this point, where we are now at over a million dead Americans (and by many estimates, that may be a severe undercount) and many, many of those people died because of the massive misinformation and outright lies that came from people like Donald Trump throughout the past two years. Here in Georgia, we had a Senator (amongst many others similarly) named Kelly Loeffler who had been caught effectively trading on the stock market with impending knowledge of the pandemic’s severity, yet was downplaying it in the media.

All this brought us to multiple waves of Covid where I watched first hand and cared for patients who literally died in hallways at the Emergency Department of the hospitals because there were no beds available and not enough medical staff to treat everyone. It was truly apocalyptic and this song is the unadulterated distillation of my anger and disbelief in our government’s gross incompetence.”

‘Haunted Hours’ is the follow-up Vision Video’s 2021 debut, ‘Inked In Red,’ which garnered praise from Pitchfork, Paste, WUGA (NPR), with the band gracing the cover of Athens weekly paper, Flagpole. Released in the midst of the pandemic, Vision Video’s Gannon turned to social media to open up about his experiences, which ultimately led him back to the world of goth and post-punk music, creating his ‘Goth Dad’ alter-ego via TikTok, garnering well over 400k followers on the platform, along over 150k on Instagram.

Gannon, who after the Army, became an EMT with the Atlanta Fire Department, continues his journey, grappling with the darkest demons of the human soul and mind with ‘Haunted Hours,’ though through the outlet of creativity, he has managed to embrace some of the light… the parts that make us or completes us, as human beings, including music and being together to share a moment.

This time around Gannon is not content to just tell his own story. He draws from the experiences of Vision Video’s new legion of fans, or ‘Baby Bats’, as they are known in TikTok circles. This new, empathetic approach to writing is fully realized in the title track Haunted Hours which channels the true story of a fan’s husband’s untimely passing that was transformed into arguably the most accessible, yet meaningful song the band has written. Dusty reflected on this track – “I wanted to capture the ache of loss, the weight of memory and the appreciation of memory all at once.” This sentiment is realized through the melody of an incredibly catchy chorus that captures loss wrapped in beauty. 

Gannon is joined in Vision Video by classically trained pianist  Emily Fredock on keys and vocals, Dan Geller – the producer behind synth-pop act, I am the World Trade Center – on bass, and Jason Fusco of the punk band Shehehe on drums. The album was once again produced by Tom Ashton (The March Violets), who manned the helm on ‘Inked In Red’. 

Ultimately the story of ‘Haunted Hours’ would be incomplete though without a discussion of the Goth Dad phenomenon. After experiencing so much pain and suffering first-hand, Dusty threw himself into a character he created on social media to help others deal with their pain, be it the loss we all share from the pandemic, or accepting yourself for who you truly are no matter what other people think. This fervent leverage of the time lockdown provided has been the story of Vision Video, the band used this opportunity to create, build a following, and reach out to the world, letting them know they are not alone. The message resonated, leading to over 500k followers across social media platforms. 

Goth Dad is now part of the band, and the love and support provided by the Baby Bats has let the band flourish. Vision Video made a tough decision to not sign to a label and control their own destiny. The Baby Bats have provided the support to make an independent Vision Video successful, allowing them to make another record on their own terms, and the band is forever grateful.

Tour dates [purchase tickets]
08/26 – Savannah, GA @ Lodge of Sorrows
08/27 – Jacksonville, FL @ 1904 Music Hall
09/27 – Athens, GA @ Southern Brewing
10/13 – Memphis, TN @ Growlers
10/14 – Ft. Worth, TX @ Tulips
10/15 – Houston, TX @ The End
10/16 – Austin, TX @ Valhalla
10/18 – El Paso, TX @ The Reagan
10/20 – Pomona, CA @ The Glasshouse
10/22 – Las Vegas, NV @ Artifice
10/24 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
10/25 – Portland, OR @ Coffin Club
10/26 – Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown
10/27 – Tacoma, WA @ Real Art
10/28 – Seattle, WA @ Vera Project
10/29 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux
10/30 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Aces High Salon
10/31 – Denver, CO @ HQ
11/03 – Milwaukee, WI @ X-Ray Arcade
11/04 – Minneapolis, MN @ Hook & Ladder
11/05 – Des Moines, IA @ Gas Lamp
11/08 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
11/09 – Detroit, MI @ Smalls
11/10 – Toronto, ON @ Hard Luck
11/11 – Montreal, PQ @ Casa del Popolo
11/13 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Meadows
11/14 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
11/15 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
11/16 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
11/17 – Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor
11/18 – Greenville, SC @ Swanson’s Warehouse