Sydney Sprague has been hard at work since the release of her debut album maybe i will see you at the end of the world in 2021. From joining forces with The Maine to touring the world, she has been showing off her unique brand of self-deprecating pop rock anywhere that will have her.
And that downtrodden sentiment is bleeding into her new music as well. She has shared “smiley face”, her new track since the release of her debut, and it’s a bit of something special. Shimmering instrumentals and neon tinges coat Sydney’s beautiful croon as she goes over putting on a brave face even though everything is awful.
But the video is the star of the show here, unhinged and hilariously over the top. Featuring AI-generated images of cartoon characters, explosions and nightmarish visions, it’s a huge undertaking with a huge payoff.
Sydney has explained where the concept came from in great detail:
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“We used an app called ‘in3D’ to make (kind of cursed-looking) 3D scans of ourselves and lots of our friends, and Sebastien animated them in blender. My whole band, (Chuck, Sebastien, and Matt) are heavily featured, as well as Andy Park, who produced the song, and my parents. So grateful to everyone who granted us permission to use their likenesses to do pretty much whatever we wanted with.”
“From the beginning, I knew I wanted there to be a dance element to the video, so Sebastien, Chuck and I choreographed the dance in the bridge and shot it on green screen. The visual parts of making music can be really stressful for me, so going into the making of this video the most important thing to me was that everyone involved was having a good time. That’s why I really love this video, because every part of it was us going “what’s the dumbest thing that could happen” and doing that.”
With new music, that must mean there’s more on the way soon. But whilst you wait, here is Sydney performing “Into Your Arms” with The Maine, just because it is so lovely:
