Exclusive Video Premiere: ‘Cassidy,’ Brett Dennen
ABOVE: BRETT DENNEN. PHOTO COURTESY OF JIMMY FONTAINE.
Just as the heady month of July digs in its talons—and summer still feels endless—we’re pleased to premiere California native Brett Dennen’s beach-centric music video for “Cassidy,” a winding in-and-out of love song off of his latest LP, Por Favor (Elektra Records). The video was directed by Samuel Bayer, the visionary behind Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Green Day’s “American Idiot,” and stars real-life couple Hopper Penn and Uma Von Wittkamp.
“We wouldn’t have had a love story if we couldn’t get Hopper and Uma to do it,” Dennen tells us. “I got the idea for ‘Cassidy’ on vacation with my girlfriend but I couldn’t turn it into a song until months later. We were separated and I was missing her. It was pretty easy to write when I got started on it.”
Much like a home video dug up from the attic, the video is affectionately nostalgic; Bayer manipulated the film by hand to give it its warm-and-fuzzy ambiance. Less tangibly, sun-kissed Penn and Von Wittkamp bring a certain on-screen spark—likely because they’re, well, really in love. The effect of this is as though you’re peering into this couple’s private memories.
“The song is about traveling with your lover and resisting the pull of your regular life or some other place you have to be. So much of the album has to do with feeling torn,” Dennen says. “My whole life I’ve had a hard time being present in the moment and accepting things the way they are.”
FOR MORE ON BRETT DENNEN, VISIT HIS WEBSITE.
