VIDEO PREMIERE: Dane Blacklock & The Preacher's Daughter - 'We're Comin' Up'

Dane Blacklock And The Preacher’s Daughter have returned with We’re Comin’ Up, but the most remarkable thing about this track is how it’s been released: through a video game which you can play here.

We’re Comin’ Up is a menacing yet funny horror-based tune. Blacklock references Lucifer alongside a theatrical, rock and roll instrumental, accompanied by backing vocals, trumpets and a rollicking beat. If the Netflix series Lucifer was still airing, this song would have belonged on the soundtrack.

On the We’re Comin’ Up game, you – the devil – have to go through three levels flying through a mountain pass without getting struck by fire, or angels, or hitting said mountains. Funnily enough, the game’s tempo speeds up as the song slows down. Just use your mouse, your spacebar, or tap on your phone to make your character fly.

About the sense of humour behind it all, Blacklock said, “I first approached Pat Naoum, my little brother, to make an animation music video. I wanted it to be all made of cutouts from renaissance paintings of demons and angels. There are so many wild paintings out there with so much drama and weirdness in them. Animating them, so they move like the South Park characters was just a really funny concept to me.

“But then Pat had been working on a computer game for years, this beautiful project where he was hand painting all of the backgrounds and characters and everything. So, he suggested a game instead of an animation. He said if I got all the assets, all the elements needed for the game cut out and complied, he would build the game from these,” Blacklock continued.

So, for most of his time stuck in lockdown, he painstakingly cut out demon wings, lightning bolts and angel swords and created clouds, rocks, mountains and flames on Photoshop before sending them over to Naoum.

The song thematically follows Lucifer’s fall from heaven and his followers’ chant of We’re Comin’ Up. “And their journey, through hell, and upwards, to earth, into the garden of Eden, to subvert mankind from god’s will, to ultimately offer Eve the choice of ignorant bliss, or power and autonomy through knowledge and rebellion against God’s oppressive and controlling regime,” Blacklock says.

He concludes, “The game has you begin as Lucifer, in hell, flapping your way through hellscapes, dodging fireballs, until you reach the gates of hell, where you then ascend, through the souls of demons, angels and mankind, and aggressive cherubs, upwards to the garden of Eden, where you must deliver the apple from the tree of knowledge to Eve, parrying attacks from arch angels and god himself shooting lightning bolts. As the gameplay changes, the music changes with it. 

“We really wanted to create a music video experience that had never been done. When you play We’re Coming Up, you experience the song in all its glory, but you get to embody the character in the song and heroically battle your way out of hell to save mankind from God’s tyranny.”

If you’re interested in more work from Pat Naoum, he’s just released the video game The Master’s Pupil, set within a hand-painted 2D puzzle game set inside Claude Monet's eyeball. Add it to your Steam list here.

Dane Blacklock And The Preacher’s Daughter 

Tour Dates

Saturday, 4 March - The Curtin, Melbourne with 8 Foot Felix & Sordid Ideal

Thursday, 30 March - Smith's Alternative, Canberra

Friday, 31 March - Link & Pin, Woy Woy with Neptune Power Federation

Saturday, 1 April - Crowbar, Sydney with Neptune Power Federation

Friday, 7 April - The Eastern, Ballarat