The New Jersey band Arizona is obsessed with the Grand Canyon State. Admittedly, vocalist Zachary Charles says, the moniker was a bit of a joke.
“We were just making a few songs here and there,” Charles says.
“At the time Nate (Esquite, guitars) was wearing an Arizona Iced Tea hat or something. He pointed to his hat when we were thinking of a name and that was that. People from Arizona get the joke. We’re not from Arizona.”
But humor gave way to love, and the electropop band is all-in. They’ll headline the Super Bowl Experience at Hance Park at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, February 11.
“It’s a double-awesome thing because we, coincidentally, love Arizona just in general,” Charles says.
“The people there are just great. The music scene is awesome, and I mean it’s the Super Bowl. You can’t really beat both of those things together.”
Arizona is returning to music on Wednesday, February 8, with the release of the single “Moving On.” Complete with synth-infused beats and big pop hooks, the song marks the band’s first original music release in four years.
The trio has amassed more than 1 billion worldwide career streams, sold-out a series of headline tours, and played well-received sets at all the major U.S. festivals: Coachella, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Hangout, Firefly and Governors Ball.
To tie in with their namesake and love of the state, the band filmed a truly epic music video in Round Rock, which will be released in tandem with the new single.
One of the world’s top land artists Jim Denevan and his son created the video’s landscape art in a dry Arizona riverbed. It’s actually the first time that a piece of land art this size has been built for a music video, and marks the first music video project for Denevan. Once the sun sets, the art transforms into an intergalactic-style lightshow.
The video was also created in partnership with the community of Navajo Nation, who joined Denevan to build the artwork.
“The music video was pretty insane,” Charles says.
“It was also shot all over Arizona, really. We were there for about a week and then the whole crew was probably out there for a week or two before we were there.
“Because of the different landscapes, we were able to utilize both natural landscapes and landscape artists. Everybody who was a part of it was really, really good at what they do. It’s like this weird, trippy, alien-looking pyramid thing. It’s 300 by 300 wide. It’s a massive set. It was freezing cold. It was tricky to do the night shots, but seeing the final cuts we have now, it was worth it.”
At Hance Park, Arizona fans can expect to hear “Moving On” as well as, maybe, other new songs from an as-of-yet unnamed forthcoming album.
“You can expect a crazy, breezy party as always,” he says.
“We have a lot of pent-up energy. We haven’t played too many shows. Really over the past year or so, we’ve just been finishing our new album, which we just wrapped up before the end of the year. One of the most rewarding experiences of the whole job is being able to go play in front of people.”
Arizona
WHEN: 7:15 p.m. Saturday, February 11
WHERE: Margaret T. Hance Park, 67 W. Culver Street, Phoenix
COST: Free
INFO: superbowl.com
