The new single and video from the Brooklyn indie-punk band is about ditching your demons and finding yourself in the unfamiliar
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Home is where the heart is.
There’s no place like home.
Home, is where I want to be // But I guess I’m already there...
Whether in the form of Talking Heads lyrics, Hollywood quotes or phrases embroidered on throw pillows to be plumped and propped on the suburb sofas of middle America, the concept of ~home~ is one that’s been debated and dissected for likely all of eternity. Is it a set of coordinates or a certain feeling? Is it where we come from, or something we’re searching for? Is it a specific place or is it more about the people we meet along the way?
Perhaps the best way to define something so ambiguous is with an idea that’s equally abstract: Home is where you (finally) find, and feel, most yourself. This is a premise that I believe is explored, at least in part, by Sik Oheso in “Lost and Lonely.” In their new song and video—which I’m super pumped to premiere on BdBK!—the Brooklyn indie-punk band proposes confronting, calling out and conquering your depressed demons (here represented in fish and police form), then leaving them behind and moving on to (re)discover who you really are.
“In the street light // I can feel right“
Ahead of the release, vocalist Shawn Mehrens of Sik Oheso sent over some intel on the BK-based indie-punk band’s new song.
“First things first, ‘Lost and Lonely’ is actually about the lostness and loneliness of your demons (cops and piranhas in my case),” he told me over email. “This song is about how good it feels to ditch those mf’s and just go for a walk in the streetlight at the end of a long day. Kinda like remembering who you are—the unexpected thrill of feeling familiar in an unfamiliar place. In that way it’s a love song from Tokyo to New York City.”
As for the music video, it’s a tale of two cities in footage form, using music, film and friendship as the uniting factors while merging shots of the first time Shawn and bandmate Jon Yi (guitar/bass) hung out in Tokyo back in 2015 with present-day scenes of NYC captured with the same “obscure” Swedish digital camera that Jon, a director, used to shoot a music video for Fat Wreck Chords artist Sundowner. While shot in two locations on opposite sides of the world six years apart, the content blends together seamlessly, perhaps once again illustrating that home is ultimately independent of your latitude, longitude and the location of the “you are here” marker on your mall-map equivalent of real life. That you can find it and feel it, sometimes unexpectedly, at any time or in any place.
And speaking of times and places! Don’t miss your opp to catch Sik Oheso in real-not-video form when the band hits the stage of The Broadway with Daddy’s Beemer and Raavi on Wednesday, November 10th. (Tickets are available here!)
Personally, I’m a big believer that home is where ~the art~ is. So you know I’ll see you there.
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Follow Sik Oheso at @sik_oheso, buy music on Bandcamp and add the songs to your Spotify playlists!
Photo (provided by the band): Ester Segretto