Trap Rabbit | photo courtesy of the artist
Watch Trap Rabbit take it to the streets on their new music video for “Empress”
Unlike their name may lead you to believe, Trap Rabbit does not make trap music. Rather, the instrumental key/drum duo from Philly creates a dynamic mixture of progressive jazz, rock and hip-hop beats in their live shows and on their most recent project, 2018’s Empress EP.
Late last week, music blog OkayPlayer debuted the music video for title track, “Empress,” following the duo of drummer Arjun Dube and keyboardist Logan Roth in what seems like a normal get together. The Bob Sweeney-directed video starts off with the duo hanging out in the band’s Fishtown studio, but slowly devolves into a full-blown fistfight out on the street.
In a press release describing the inspiration for the song, the band says,
“The song was inspired by the emotional impression left by Empress Wu Zeitan, an ancient Chinese monarch who ruled during the Tang dynasty. During her rise to power, she orchestrated sinister deeds to secure her position, even killing her own children. While the song is in no way an ode to her horrible memory, the complex instrumental arrangement conjures similar feelings of dynamic power struggles that exist in us all –a sort of villain’s theme song.”
Check out the music video below, and go to XPN’s concert calendar for info and tickets to Trap Rabbit’s upcoming Philly shows. The duo perform at Milkboy on June 7, opening for Paris Monster and Three Oranges.