Victoryland Sign To Dead Oceans Announce My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It (Deluxe), Out December 11 Release New Song “The Ugliest Girl On The Beach”

Victoryland, the project of songwriter Julian McCamman in partnership with producer Dan Howard, have signed to Dead Oceans and today announce a deluxe version of My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It, out on December 11.

Today also sees the release of brand new single “The Ugliest Girl On The Beach,” also featured on the deluxe. In true Victoryland style, the song pairs dark, self-lacerating lyrics with bright, shimmery guitar pop and arrives alongside a music video made by the band.

Julian says, “Sinking into the hot sand and watching the two blue lovers trying to kiss, forever caught in their parallel hell, I refused the barrier between me and nature. I’m still there, still trying for the answer: who am I when I’m alone?”

Recorded between Julian’s Bed-Stuy basement and Dan’s Williamsburg studio, My Heart is the sound of a bright and beaming collaboration, blending the glossiness of a radio-friendly hit with the distortion and rough edges of a home demo. Every song keeps at least one element of the initial recording, building around the loops and half-songs Julian scraped together. The record wrangles with heavy subject matter – love, disconnection, sexual frustration, emptiness – but its final statement is about the cleansing nature of pop music: if a song can force you to bliss out over a hook or a loop, or even make you dance, it can be the spoonful of sugar to swallow the hard pill with.

Victoryland originated in Philly in 2023, with their first tape, Sprain, arriving in 2024, which echoed more of what the Philly scene was dishing out: lo-fi, tape-recorded rock with a capital R. It was the collaborative efforts of producer Dan Howard that brought the new vision and sound into full focus. Dan and Julian had previously worked together on Loving You Backwards by Julian’s Texas-to-Philly-based band Blood – that experience pushed Julian toward a more personal process of recording, starting with home demos and then bringing them to Dan to shape into songs together. This relationship ultimately led Julian to move to New York, and the recording of My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It.

Much to their surprise, My Heart’s release ushered Victoryland into a whirlwind of a year. Pitchfork praised the album’s “bright, madcap approach reminiscent of the New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s Some Loud Thunder.” Stereogum named it their Album of the Week and proclaimed it “a surprisingly cohesive scrapbook of sounds from seemingly every corner of the indie pop umbrella.” After a string of sold-out shows in NYC, Victoryland later joined LCD Soundsystem on their North American tour and will be performing at Pitchfork London, Pitchfork Paris and other festivals across Europe.

See Victoryland Live:

Oct 30 – Amsterdam @ London Calling Festival, NL

Oct 31 – Les Nuits Weekender – Brussels, BE

Nov 02 – Neue Zukunft – Berlin, DE

Nov 03 – Rotown – Rotterdam, NL

Nov 05 – Pitchfork Music Festival – Paris, FR

Nov 06 – Iceland Airwaves – Reykjavík, IS

Nov 07 – Pitchfork Music Festival – London, UK