See also:

*Nick Waterhouse: The Young Man Who Makes Old R&B

*Top 10 Los Angeles Albums of 2011

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue came out this week, and for some reason it went all indie on everybody's asses. A-Trak, the world's most hipster DJ, graces the pages, and the models' videos are soundtracked by all sorts of bands you thought only you and your Thirsty Crow drinking buddy were into.

They include Toro Y Moi, Black Lips, and SoCal dudes made good including Delta Spirit, Hanni El Khatib and Nick Waterhouse, both off the Innovative Leisure label. All of this seemed to come out of absolutely nowhere, so we caught up with Waterhouse to find out how it went down. Turns out he got to meet his model! (Their video is below.)

How did this come about?!

They asked if they could use the song in some video and I didn't even know what it was for! Sports Illustrated contacted the label, and it turned out that they were having a music festival too and they invited me to play.

Indie music and bikinis — it's kind of an odd pairing in a way. What did you think of the video?

I think Ariel did a great job. And I don't mind having a pretty woman move around to my song. It's fine — that's what these kinds of records are for!

Did you get to meet any of the models?

Actually, Ariel picked my song herself! I guess she likes that kind of music. She'll also be introducing me [at my show in Las Vegas last night]. I don't think she'll be wearing a bikini though, these are classy ladies, not like in the rest of Las Vegas. They're actually wearing more clothes than most of the women I see out and about here.

law logo2x bHas your mom seen the video?

Yup. She said, “viva Las Vegas.”

Sounds like a lot of your friends are going to be jealous.

Well, being here is weird, it brings out primal stuff. It's like high school, in a way. I feel like the guy the pretty girls didn't like and the guys wanted to beat up.

Did you ever actually get beat up in high school?

Only once!

Waterhouse performs tomorrow night, February 17 at the Speakeasy in Venice.

Below, the video for Hanni el Khatib's video with swimsuit model Julie Henderson.

See also:

*Our feature story on Nick Waterhouse: The Young Man Who Makes Old R&B

*Top 10 Los Angeles Albums of 2011

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