It’s been nearly a year since Iron & Wine‘s fourth album, Kiss Each Other Clean was released, but a new video surfaced today for the outstanding song “Godless Brother in Love.” In watching it, you get the sense that these people, at some level, are indeed in love — the use of silly string isn’t just for mere acquaintances. But there seems to be two different story lines, which turns out, are not that different at all.

“The idea for this video began with my own desire to explore a natural pool I’d heard about in Malibu,” says Claire Marie Vogel, who conceptualized and shot the piece. “The beauty of nature and relationships is a theme I’ve always felt present in Sam’s work, so asking my close friends to jump in the freezing pool of water felt right.”

Vogel’s prior work includes videos for Mute Math, Tegan & Sara and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., with this video taking on a more surreal feel than her previous ones. But that’s only a side-effect: “I wrote up the treatment and after getting the incredible news that Sam liked it, we worked on adding the the second element — the goofy, drunk yin to their field-frolicking yang,” she says. “Luckily, one of these friends had a birthday party coming up, so I brought my camera and filmed the party in all of its cake-fighting, piñata-bashing glory. In editing the two shoots together, the video felt like a baptismal experience shared amongst a group of friends following an evening of indulgence. However dreamy the video may feel, it’s strongly grounded in the reality. It is a document of real couples, friends and my own experience.”