Queer Couple CocoVera Premieres Sin-Inspired Video For ‘Preachers’

L.A.-based artists Alejandra Robles and Janelle Obert are partners in life and now, in music. The two have played in several bands (Robles in Le Butcherettes and backing Madame Gandhi, The Flaming Lips, Ani DiFranco, and At the Drive-In; Obert with Stars at Night and No Girlfriends), but their new project, CocoVera, is perhaps their darkest, most-inspired work yet. Their premiere track, “Preachers,” is about the seven deadly sins, and how the definition of sin is up to the definer.

“The concept of sinning is so subjective. That’s why this video was so fun,” Robles tells INTO.

“’Preachers’ is about working through your own demons,” Obert says. “It is also about our growing intolerance of the hypocrisy of organized religion. The main line, ‘Making myself sick again,’ was what started the whole song, and it is really open for your own interpretation. Is it psychological? Physiological?”

The duo filmed and edited the video for “Preachers,” too, which is a magnetic black-and-white portrait of Christian-based sins such as gluttony or lust, but also of those queers and other marginalized people that organized religion might deem equally evil.

“Some forms of Christianity view merely enjoying food as a sin, so we thought ‘Let’s just pile squid ink pasta into our mouths,'” Obert says. “The video is meant to make the viewer feel, whether it be disgusted, melancholy, arousal, just as long as they feel.”

“Alejandra actually started throwing it up at the end because she’s a vegetarian, and she’s going to find out in this interview that there were actual squids in there,” Obert adds. “See! Sins are fun.”

CocoVera’s debut album comes out Oct. 10. Follow them on Instagram @CocoVeraMusic.