Super-producer, songwriter, and music director Zach Henderson (aka oddCouple) and lyrical savant Zarif Wilder (aka theMIND) teamed up for a soulful masterpiece that’s as dark and moody as it is catchy. Though the two are an obviously compatible match sonically—theMIND’s hauntingly beautiful vocals blend seamlessly with oddCouple’s unusual use of instruments, sounds, and dreamy layers—“Enemies” is their first collaboration, and hopefully not the last.

The accompanying visual—an animated music video oddCouple describes as a “trailer”—is set within an abstract dream world, as our protagonist tries to outrun “bad guys” with unrecognizable, continuously morphing faces: a metaphor for the conflicts we often create ourselves from the overactive fears and paranoia in our own minds.

Animated by Nat Alder and directed and edited by NEW TRASH, the slow-motion chase takes place first in a secluded desert, with cowboys running through quicksand up to their knees. The climax is a final duel on top of the inner workings of a giant metallic clock’s dangerously winding gears. Just like the track itself, the video might require several plays to catch all of the cleverly nuanced details.

We caught up with our good friends oddCouple & theMIND to talk about “Enemies,” what it means, and what’s next. Read our Q&A below (part one of a three-part interview series), and listen to “Enemies” on your streaming service of choice. Check out theMIND’s latest project, Don’t Let It Go To Your Head, and stay tuned for oddCouple’s upcoming 15-song project, Reflections, dropping soon.

Tell me about this song you guys collaborated on…

oddCouple: So we have a record coming out called “Enemies” from my new project, Reflections. The project itself is along the same thought process, with a lot of shared experiences that [theMIND] went through throughout the creation of Don’t Let It Go To Your Head.

theMIND: [Like with ‘Gemini Shit’] it was this back and forth aspect of not knowing exactly who you are. The question that gets repeated [on ‘Gemini Shit’] is “Who are you?” and I think that I meant that almost sarcastically...like, “Who even are you right now? You were this person five seconds ago. How are you now like a completely different person?” And I think throughout Don't Let It Go To Your Head, I’m like, the anti-hero. There's no point where I'm the good guy.

oddCouple: And that's what I really loved about Don’t Let It Go To Your Head. “Enemies” could’ve fit on there theoretically. It’s this mood of like, a look back at yourself, but also [a mindset of] “I’d do it again if I had to.” It just had this attitude to it that I really fucked with.

theMind: Aww, shucks, man.

oddCouple: So the line that repeats throughout the record is, “Maybe I made a few too many enemies.” Like, maybe my demeanor created too much friction, but also maybe I made too many...

...like it was all in your head

oddCouple: Yeah, maybe it was all in my head, and that’s just as real. There are so many things going on —the panning is crazy, there are vocal chants, there are hymns, [theMIND’s] got 25 fuckin’ layers on his own in there. *everyone laughs*

There are so many different things just working together to put you in this mood, and the visuals just all put them together. And the idea that I was inspired by my own personal growth of accepting some shit. Forgiving some shit, but also taking accountability for some shit. This song with you is such an important record for this fuckin’ album ‘cause it’s like the backbone. It’s the “man up” moment. And it’s a song I always wanted to make. Sending this one to you was a big step for me cuz I had never sent you music before. I had to be like, “Dude, send him the record.”

theMIND: It’s a stressful thing! Sending people music like, “Aye, you wanna do this record with me?” “Aw yeah, send it over,” and you send it over, and you’re like, shit…

...and just waiting on the response!

theMind: Exactly. It could be fifteen minutes between emails, and you’re like, “They don’t fuck with it. They hate this shit.”

oddCouple: “I should’ve got a job!”

theMind: “Shit is trash!” *everyone laughs*

oddCouple: The project really is a big step on the staircase for me...to come back and make something that I felt was like a new sound with new collaborations.

It sounds like you were really challenging yourself.

oddCouple: Yeah, exactly! I really challenged myself to just make some shit that was new, that I would be a fan of, that I had never done. I really just leaned into being a producer, leaned into the fact that I don’t myself have a voice, but the music is the voice. I feel shitty ‘cause I haven’t sent it to him yet. He hasn’t heard the final version or seen the video.

theMIND: I like experiencing things with the world, though. After you’re sitting on a song for like a year, it gets old to you. But if I have the ability to step away from it for a while, it allows it to feel brand new for me again. And it also doesn’t feel like me. I be like, “Oh shit, theMIND be going crazy.” *everyone laughs*

oddCouple: So the concept for the video is like, imagine going inside your mind, but inside your mind was a desert or an old Western. And it’s you on the run from the bad guys. And throughout this process, as the video starts to unfold, it’s like, “Oh, shit, is this real? And beyond is this real, where am I? Who are these guys? Where did they fucking come from?” And then, slowly but surely throughout the video, you start to realize like, “Damn, this shit is in my head.” All these fucking demons, all these enemies that I’m fighting, that I’m battling and shit, like, “Yo, this dude did this to me.” But how did you respond? Because how you respond is the actual reality.

theMIND: You can initiate something. You can create a conflict by literally your reaction to something.

oddCouple: Yeah, it could end up not being a problem. It could end up not being a conflict.

theMIND: Some things are inevitable, though.

oddCouple: Some things are inevitable. But another one of the lines he repeats is like, “Now I gotta handle my shit,” because, at the end of the day, that’s what you gotta do.

Well, that’s accountability…

oddCouple: Yeah, exactly. No matter what circle you go in, if you have accountability, it always comes back to “I gotta handle my shit.”

theMIND: It does.

It could be so simple!

oddCouple: It could be so simple. We could start with that, or we could end with that, but no matter where you go...

theMIND: ...you’re gonna end up there.

oddCouple & theMIND talk "Enemies"