"I felt the challenge was to create something that had a foundation of beauty which would reflect the song's kind of gentle emotion, but then find a device that could pull you from that space almost abusively," Wahlrab writes in an email. Houck co-directed the video with Djuna Wahlrab, who says the tension between the song's beauty and the pain of the lyrics is reflected in that long tracking shot. "I will not open myself up this way again." "I saw love disfigure me into something I am not recognizing," he sings over an echoing bass line and brittle drums that pull soaring synths, guitar and strings back toward hard ground. But like many of Houck's songs, "Zula" ends up being an ode to lessons learned in the wake of a love that leaves scars behind after the flames have faded. In a single slow-motion tracking shot, the camera approaches a distant figure dressed in rags, bashing at chains that hold her to the ground.Īt the opening of "Song For Zula," Phosphorescent's lead singer Matthew Houck nods to June Carter and Johnny Cash's devotional "Ring of Fire" ("Some say love is a burning thing, that it makes a fiery ring"). The brand new video for Phosphorescent's "Song For Zula," from the band's sixth album, Muchacho, forgoes a literal illustration of song's heartbroken story for something more allegorical.