Joe Arcidiacono

Superhuman Happiness, the collective headed up by Arcade Fire saxophonist Stuart Bogie, will release their new album, Beacon, on October 19 via Yeggs Records, and today we premiere the new single from the effort, “Release Identity,” along with the accompanying video.

“The song deals with ideas of letting go, releasing preconceived notions of yourself or the other,” vocalist Dia Luna says of the funky, electro-leaning track. “Who are you without your prescribed race, gender or creed? Who are you without your stories, sorrows, or victories? It also deals thematically with the joy of being in the moment, with the realization of our smallness in the scope of time and ‘the infinite.’ It basks in embodying and embracing the duality and uncertainty of the human condition.”

Bogie produced the new single, along with composing the music and, Luna notes, brought the song’s opening chant to the table, prompting the singer to write lyrics “that imagined what it would be like to be truly free, ‘floating into the secret of the night’—the secret that the here and now is all we have.”

“‘Release Identity’ started as a beat I sent to Dia Luna while she was visiting New Orleans,” Bogie adds. “I imagined her strutting through the streets and wanted to soundtrack that vibe. We filled the arrangement with interlocking synths, Ian Hersey’s bass work, and these playful guitar stabs by Richard Reed Parry [of Arcade Fire].”

“I wanted it to feel really free and limitless vocally,” Luna continues. “I thought about all the great 90s club singers—like Robin S of ‘Show Me Love.’ The record is called Beacon because we’re churning through the darkness of identity, relationships, life, but there’s something guiding us through to the other side, and the feeling of finally making it there is what ‘Release Identity’ becomes sonically in the scope of the record. It’s the moment of hope, happiness, and acceptance. We’ve made peace. We’re off the shipwreck, out of the water, on dry land, all together.”

Listen to the new track below, and pre-order Beacon here.