Portland, Oregon’s Balto came together after frontman Daniel Sheron returned to the United States after an extended stay in from Russia. He composed the songs on the  lively Americana group’s debut album back while was living in Siberia. Balto is currently working on new material with an eye towards an upcoming release and the interim, we share two videos for the group’s alluring, hypnotic song “Born Astray” (the official video and a bonus karaoke version).

“We were trying to create a world for the song to live in,” Sheron says of the video, “somewhere grotesque and lurid and a little decadent even as it decays – call it Reno, NV c. 1973-76. ‘Born Astray’ can be a heavy song, and while we wanted the video to express that weight, we also wanted to be able to laugh at its own navel gazing. So we went down to one of our favorite bars in town, the Spare Room, and while they stayed open, we drank all day and made this movie, with cameos from some of our best friends.”

“Born Astray” Karaoke