BOYO—the lo-fi bedroom project of Angeleno Robert Tilden—is just under two months out from releasing his latest collection of songs, titled Where Have All My Friends Gone?, through the soft-psych friendly label Park the Van Records. The product of several years’ recovery from diagnosed frontal-lobe epilepsy, the record is an introverted re-evaluation of the songwriter’s life thus far, citing iconic dream- and noise-pop figures Bradford Cox and Mark Linkous as influences.
Tilden just recently shared WHAMFG?’s third single, “Tough Kid,” and today he’s following up the reveal with a warm video for the scuzzy track animated by Rozalina Burkova, setting the reverb-drenched instrumentals to a dreamy visual placing colorful illustrations amid television-static backgrounds. “Take me to the places I can recognize,” Tilden sings wistfully over the pleasant din.
“In ‘Tough Kid,’ I’m trying to pep myself up while also talking down to myself,” shares Tilden of the single. “I’m no tough kid, no matter how much I’d like to be. We walk through life curating a version of ourselves, and then putting our guards up to whatever extent a situation calls for. It’s when we let our guard down, and drop the tough exterior, that we can be our truest forms.”
Watch the video below—Where Have All My Friends Gone? drops June 26 via Park the Van, and you can pre-order it here.
