Luna Shadows‘ video for “god.drugs.u” is entrancing. The visual displays Shadows standing confidently in red, while female skaters ride effortlessly around her. Being a skater herself, she put together a playlist of tunes to listen to while she rides. Read through the breakdown of each track and watch the video below.

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Hi I’m Luna Shadows! I’m an artist, songwriting, producer, and instrumentalist currently living in Los Angeles. I moved to LA in 2008, and one of the first things I did was buy a skateboard. I would travel everywhere on it – it carried me from classes to meetings to parties to heartbreaks and back home again. For me, it’s a really fun and peaceful way to get around. It’s also a thing I like to do when I get stuck on songwriting or creative ideas. If I were to skate around town today (which I might), here’s what I would put on my playlist: 

1. Bags – Clairo 

This song makes me feel like I’m on the go. Maybe because the hook is “walking out the door with your bags.” But the constant loop-like nature of it is the perfect backdrop for a cruisy skate around the neighborhood.

2. Baby One More Time – The Marias 

A too cool for school, cruisy cover of a classic Britney song. What more could you want for your moody skate around town? The original was one of the reasons I became a musician. I saw an infomercial on MTV for Britney’s first single and my jaw dropped. I could not get over how brilliant the melodies in this song were. I only needed to hear 20 seconds of it to know how big it would become. And I think this version is a clever reinvention.

3. Doin’ Time – Lana del Rey

On the topic of covers, Lana performs this like she wrote it. This sounds like the original version, as if Sublime covered Lana del Rey. This song’s origins are Long Beach, a surf and skate capital. For that reason, it gets automatic playlisting on my skate playlist.

4. Leaning on Myself – Anna of the North

I love this laid back track from my label mate Anna. It’s such a confident chorus with a DGAF attitude. A perfect outlook to pair with an afternoon skate down the beach boardwalk, passing a million strangers while staying in the zone. Perhaps even skating with an ice cream in one hand?? Idk.

5. Beach Break – Julietta 

Another track from my friend & label mate Julietta. This is an instant summer classic. It makes me want to dance and move. It makes me feel cooler than I am. I get this temporary confidence when I hear it, like I could do a kickflip (I cannot*).

6. Your Dog – Soccer Mommy

I used to put my headphones in and ride my skateboard home from class. This song is precisely the kind of song that I would put on. It has a “tune everything else” attitude. This is a great selection if you need any salty encouragement to check out for a minute.

7. Cheap Queen – King Princess 

A huge part of skateboarding for me personally is simply having confidence – having the confidence to try things, to not think too hard about things, and to be commanding. I like how commanding King Princess is with this song. It makes me feel like I can just “be.”

8. Smoke Signals – Phoebe Bridgers

This beautiful, meandering melody feels like the perfect underscore to a suburban skate in the valley passing by all the houses full of strangers. It’s haunting. It makes mountains of the mundane in the most beautiful way. Almost sounds like nostalgia for something that never happened. I can imagine skateboarding all around Studio City and Burbank with this on repeat.

9. Dreams Tonite – Alvvays 

This song has been a summer favorite of mine for the last few summers. It sounds splashy, surfy, and skate-able. Retro done right! Like summer at the beach. Instant spot on the skate playlist. 

10. Doesn’t matter – Christine & The Queens 

This beat makes me want to be in motion as soon as it starts. I love when songs wake up your whole body and make you want to participate in physical motion. This is just the kind of song that makes me want to get into gear and move along.

11. Take Care – Beach House

Closing it out on a cinematic summer classic. A song for the home stretch, just for when you’re rounding the corner to your house, savoring those last few moments on wheels.