Lael Neale — Tell Me How To Be Here

JUL 01 2025 · 12:00

Lael Neale — Tell Me How To Be Here (2025) Director: Lael Neale Era: Post-Pandemic Indie Minimalism (2025) - Self-sufficient home-recorded aesthetic era; Sub Pop artists embracing lo-fi handycam visuals and existential urban re-entry themes following rural COVID-era displacement High curatorial value as a precisely dateable artifact of post-COVID indie cultural experience (February 2025), documenting both a singular artist's aesthetic philosophy and a broader generational condition of urban alienation. The video's self-directed, Handycam-shot, double-exposure methodology is a teachable example of lo-fi auteur filmmaking as artistic integrity within a commercial music context. Its near-monochromatic desaturated palette (saturation 15.83) and slow editorial rhythm (avg. shot 9.25s) make it an unusually pure expression of the contemplative visual mode in contemporary indie pop. Context: Released February 20, 2025, as the lead single from Altogether Stranger (Sub Pop, May 2, 2025), 'Tell Me How To Be Here' documents Neale's psychological and geographic re-entry into Los Angeles after three years of rural isolation in Virginia. The video and song function as an artifact of post-pandemic urban dislocation — a phenomenon experienced broadly across indie artistic communities who retreated to rural environments during COVID-19 and returned to find cities both familiar and profoundly alien. Neale's use of a Sony Handycam and self-direction places the work in direct lineage with the lo-fi DIY video tradition exemplified by artists on labels like Sub Pop and 4AD, resisting the high-production visual economy of streaming-era pop while foregrounding intimacy and artist authorship. Director notes: The official video for 'Tell Me How To Be Here' was directed by Lael Neale and co-filmed by Neale and producer Guy Blakeslee in Los Angeles. Released February 20, 2025, it is part of Neale's established series of self-directed music videos. The video was shot on Neale's Sony Handycam and employs double exposure techniques, superimposing Los Angeles street and city imagery over footage of Neale performing. The visual approach directly mirrors the song's lyrical theme: Neale's self-described feeling of returning to LA as 'an extraterrestrial landing on a dystopian planet.' The piece continues the album's accompanying visual film narrative in which Neale portrays herself as an alien in a suit of mirrors wandering through modern-day LA.