New music video set in Manitou Springs Penny Arcade | Arts & Entertainment

For decades, Manitou Springs Penny Arcade has been the backdrop to blossoming love affairs and agonizing breakups.

For California musician Kristen Castro, the arcade represents both. And now she’s paid homage to the popular, longtime tourist attraction and other familiar locations in the Pikes Peak region, including Garden of the Gods and the Manitou Incline, in a new music video, “Arcade Back in Manitou.” It’s one of the songs off the same-named debut album by her new project, Wild Heart Club. The dreamy, pop-flavored album is set to drop Friday. Watch the video online at tinyurl.com/39da6rfs.

“It’s a lot of guitar soundscapes,” Castro said. “That juxtaposing happy/sad feeling is through the whole record — sad lyrics, but sonically upbeat and happy.”

The singer-songwriter has made music since she was 10, even playing guitar in metal bands during her teenage years. She spent six years in the indie country trio Maybe April, and in 2019 she released several solo singles. She’s toured the country and made regular stops in Denver and the Springs, where she played at Stargazers Theatre and Event Center, among other venues.

Castro first visited the penny arcade several years ago with her then girlfriend. As they wandered through Manitou, the heavens opened and they sought refuge inside the arcade, where she created an indelible memory among the classic coin-operated pinball machines, Skee-Ball, 12-player mechanical horse racing game and others dating back to the last century.

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“It was like walking in a movie. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Castro said. “It had so much nostalgia. You could feel the history.”

Unfortunately, that relationship, nurtured under the arcade’s twinkling lights and cotton candy-scented air, went bust, leaving Castro broken-hearted. To help heal, she fled to her brother’s home in Los Angeles, where she began writing her new album.

While boarding a flight early last year, the memories from the arcade came flooding back, along with the idea for a song.

“She was from there and she loved the arcade,” Castro said. “When you’re in a relationship, you love the person you’re with, and you fall in love with the things they love. After the relationship I still loved the town.”

In the wake of inspiration, came the next idea — shoot a music video in the arcade.

“My friend said are you sure? You’re revisiting sad wounds,” Castro said. “I thought it’s worth the art.”

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She and a friend filmed over five days in June, waking with the dawn to get shots in Garden of the Gods, before heading into Manitou, where the streets were empty. Castro imagined a gray, rain-soaked video, and the weather cooperated by turning foggy. She admits it was hard to be back where she’d once been in love, but wisdom came in the guise of an older woman who worked at the Royal Tavern, a Manitou bar.

“She told us childhood stories about the first time she went to the arcade,” Castro said. “It became more of this isn’t about me, but honoring this town that’s so special. Here’s this personal story, and how can we capture something that’s so loved by the town? That’s what the week became. There were a lot of ups and downs emotionally.”

Contact the writer: 636-0270