While the duo of Detroit indie electro-pop band Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. prefers not to be defined with labels, they can’t deny that they have a thing for one-garment outfits — namely, jumpsuits and footie pajamas.
In their first music video, for “Nothing But Our Love,” both sport footie PJs — on loan from a friend, though band member Daniel Zott has been on the hunt for his own pair.
“I found one similar to that in [Midwestern department store chain] Meijer in the pregnant women’s section,” Zott says dryly. “Most people don’t find them because most people aren’t pregnant.”
The jumpsuits, on the other hand — seen here in their publicity photo — are not just about comfort. The band’s namesake is notable NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr. And while it might seem odd that a band who echoes delicate pop groups like The Postal Service would choose such a macho name, it’s that very incongruity they were going for.
“Music can be such a segregated thing — ‘I like everything, but I hate hip-hop or country music,’” bandmate Joshua Epstein explains. “I think it’s the same in sports. Fans are like that about NASCAR. That metaphor kind of lent itself to this. We don’t want to be genre-specific. We want a ton of people to access our music and find something in it.”
Though they may already be indie darlings with their first EP, “Horse Power,” attracting critical praise, the duo hopes to reach a much wider audience than the usual hipster crowd.
“I think somewhere down the line, pop music got a bad connotation,” Epstein says. “[Our music] is kind of an homage to the days when the music that people were consuming in mass amounts was music that is widely respected.”
