On Wednesday, Reina del Cid released her new video for "Death Cap," a song featured on her 2015 album The Cooling. The video was shot in Iceland — with del Cid following in the footsteps of Björk, Bon Iver, Sigur Rós, and most recently Justin Bieber. As breathtaking as Iceland appears in the video, del Cid says it's even more beautiful in person.

“We originally were going to shoot a video for 'Death Cap' in Minneapolis and shortly before we were about to shoot the video, Jason Ho — the director — called me and said 'I think this video needs to be shot in Iceland,'" says del Cid. "I didn’t really question it...I think it was maybe the next day that I bought my tickets and got on a plane."

Del Cid said while she and Ho tend to be people that like to plan things out, the video really just came together organically. The video took six days to shoot, but del Cid and lead guitarist Toni Lindgren went six days early in order to go camping, hiking, drive dirt mountain roads, and even enjoy some whale watching. "When the guys aren't with us in the band," says del Cid, "Toni and I often turn into rugged mountain women and we just end up kind of hiking and seeing what we can see.

“I think the last thing that I wanted to do was just fly in, grab a Starbucks latte or something, shoot a music video and leave," del Cid continues. "I really wanted to explore the country and get a sense for what it was before I even tried to give our message with the song...I really wanted to understand it better, and I think the way to do that is to just kind of dig in.”

The song's lyrics touch on the fleeting aspects of life, especially the helplessness some people face at the end of life, realizing they only have a finite amount of time left.

“Iceland is this beautiful, gorgeous place, where life seems so permanent and vibrant," says del Cid, "and it’ll continue to exist after you’re gone. All you can really do is wonder around and appreciate it while you’re here...the landscape really lends itself to that message.”

The singer-songwriter says it's now time to "go back into the cave" and work on some new material. She also hints at a possible East Coast summer tour, with the possibility of some new material.

Just last night, del Cid and her band played a show at George Latimer Central Library for the "Loud in the Library" concert series. As an English major, del Cid says she was in her "natural habitat." An old tongue-in-cheek song of hers about being a library nerd, a song called "Library Girl," went over especially well.

"I think," says del Cid, "it resonated a little more than it usually would."

Mackenzie Martin is a podcast enthusiast and senior at Macalester College, where she majors in media & cultural studies.