On Florida indie outfit Holopaw‘s new song ”Discotheque,” we follow a character who returns to civilization after camping in a forest “in the hopes that it will make him feel less alone only to find that the opposite is true,” explains frontman John Orth. “He’s on the edge of town on a rainy night and then hesitates on a hill and watches as an empty discotheque runs through its sequence of lights hours before it’s about to open.”

As the character feels increasingly alienated, the listener is treated to an atmospheric slow dance that exquisitely captures his dark, solemn mood. The only token of the forest and the life he’s left behind is a whining pedal steel that darts and weaves around Orth’s breathy wails. “So many reasons to be lonely on this night,” he sings, “but then the discotheque is nothing, it’s just testing the light.” Orth takes good care to keep this character under wraps, but if the band’s recording process was any indication, it’s pretty likely that he was describing himself. “I like how it turned out,” Orth says of the song. “It has a bounce that implies the joy that was the recording process, but a dark, melancholy quality that takes it back to that rainy night overlooking the disco.”

Holopaw’s new album, Academy Songs, Volume 1, comes out January 15 on Misra Records. Their Winter 2013 tour starts February 1 in Atlanta. For all dates, click here.