The Downtown Fiction is a pop punk band from Fairfax, Virginia who have just put out a music video that’s sure to blow you away. If you’ve been a fan of the band, odds are, “Hepburn Shades” is one of your favorite tunes and the video is sure to enhance that for you. If this is your first time hearing The Downtown Fiction, odds are, both the song and video will make you a fast fan.
“I watch you lying on the grass
Say you’ll never act your age
You look so inviting yet detached
In those white-rimmed Hepburn Shades
You say it’s not worth living
Why bother getting up today“
“Hepburn Shades” features Matilda Lutz as the star of the video who embodies both the protagonist and the antagonist as she fights a war within herself. The desert backdrop (the video was shot in Los Angeles) and the soft colors leave the viewer’s attention to be left solely on Matilda as she tries, and fails, to make peace with both sides of herself.
On one hand, Matilda personifies the American dream; lovely, well-dressed, and seemingly put together quite perfectly. On the other, she takes on a bit of the American wild-side (as some perceive, nightmare); pierced, wild, and just a bit messy.
Does she fight herself on her own accord, or is her struggle based off of society’s need to be the kind of different that’s actually the same as everyone else, not allowing her to truly embrace both parts of who she is? The answer is up to the viewer, although, what guitarist and vocalist Cameron Leahy had to say about the tune could shed some light for you.
“The song focuses on modern nihilism, the glorification of death and the struggle to find optimism in a world that thrives on a suffocating brand of irony, condemning anyone who really tries.”
Watch the video for “Hepburn Shades” and we’re sure you’ll find a bit of yourself in both personas.