Premiere: Watch Armors’ New Cowboy-Inspired Video for “Portland”

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They got them horses in the back.

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May 14, 2019 | Rachel Spang

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Photo Credit: Lhoycel Teope

Armors has something for everyone. Hailing from Orange County, the band effortlessly switches from sounds of indie rock to alternative pop, like the child of new Portugal. The Man and old Twenty-One Pilots. Whether it features clean piano and drums, or pumped up ‘80s synth and vocal distortion, each track has an emotionally vulnerable and candidly self-aware heart at its core that makes it distinctly Armors.

“Portland,” the first single off of the duo’s debut album, Who’s Gonna Love Me (When I’m Not Young), is an emotional tour-de-force of lost love and regret. The music video, in contrast, is delightfully campy, with frontman Olen Kittelsten singing in green screen-produced Old West settings while riding on a horse puppet and sporting a cowboy hat (the music video was originally supposed to feature a real horse, but we think the stick pony was the right move). With hilariously deadpan cameos by keyboardist Sam Beresford coupled with passionate lip syncing by Kittelsten, the video is the perfect combo of earnestness and sincerity to suit the band’s modern sound.

Photo Credit: Lhoycel Teope

Of the video, the band said, "We shot this music video in 30 minutes at the end of a 12-hour day shooting a different video. Our original idea was for Olen to be riding a real horse, but all of our horse connections fell through, so we settled on a stick pony. It all worked out though, and stick ponies became so much of a thing that our friend Lostboycrow performed with us on stage at a recent show while riding one.”

Check out the premiere of the “Portland” music video below, and be sure to catch Armors touring North America with pop icons Aly & AJ this spring.