Jaialai Aims to Make Videos as Psychedelic as Its Music

When you dub yourself a psychedelic rock band, the look can be just as crucial as the sound. If you've ever seen the local space rockers of Jaialai play live, you've experienced their dedication to pleasing audience's eyes as well as the ears with the help of their light artist and honorary fifth member, Mikihumo. Now the Miami-based band is bringing its brand of trippiness to a pair of music videos.

The rollout began in November with the release of "Chariot." It's a 360-degree video that looks cool when you scroll around on it on a desktop but is completely immersive on a phone or tablet, where you can control the perspective. It moves from location to location while a comatose actor watches the band play the song on television. "It was directed by Giulia Jimenez," Jaialai guitarist Jose Vinicio Adames says. "I knew her from Venezuela. She's a supertalented student in Savannah. She filmed the whole thing with a couple of actors and an abandoned location."

Next on the docket is a video for their newest single, "Broken Satellite." They'll premiere the video May 15 after a one-hour performance at Ricky's South Beach. Singer Oscar Sardinia says the concept for this video came from the three directors, Eduardo Whaite, Josh DaSilva, and Mike Tang. "One of the directors saw us play and thought a video would be a way to collaborate. The video shows three different stories of three different band members acting in different ways to the same end-of-the-world scenario. Each setting is filmed by a different director using a different perspective and color palette." The video was filmed this past winter all over Miami-Dade, from Kendall to downtown to Little Haiti, at locations provided by friends.
"Broken Satellite" is the first single off the band's first full-length album, which is still untitled and expected out by September. "We have 12 songs all recorded," Sardinia says. 'We still have to mix it, put the final touches, and master it — you know, all the garnishes."

"Broken Satellite" was the first song Jaialai's members ever played together, so Sardinia says it's not entirely emblematic of what's to come. "This is more of a ballad," he says. "Most of the other songs on the album are a bit heavier. I wrote it when I was in Ibiza three years ago. I was helping a musical project there, and I started writing this song that was very Mediterranean while I looked at the sea. It's about telling someone you love to take a step back if you're finding the situation overwhelming. I wrote the song on acoustic guitar. It has very simple chords, so it almost sounds the same when the full band recorded it."

Miami isn't historically known for psychedelic rock, but Adames says Jaialai is happy to be one of the bands to change that reputation. "People complain that Miami doesn't have a music movement. That motivates us. We're this melting pot of cultures. People think it's this crazy, money-motivated city. Well, we want to break through with art."

And the band is happy to bring creative filmmakers along for the ride.

Jaialai. 10 p.m. Tuesday, May 15, at Ricky's South Beach, 1222 16th St., Miami Beach; 305-704-3602; rickyssouthbeach.com. Admission is free.