Given that we kicked off 2024 by debuting a dramatic music video from SoCal dream-pop ensemble Fawning, it makes sense to close out the year by doing so again. “Under Your Skin” appeared on the same record as that previous track, released back in January via Graveface Records, and documents vocalist Cheyenne Avant’s feelings following the loss of a loved one. “It’s essentially the ‘anger’ stage of grief,” she shares. “It’s me navigating through these feelings of resentment toward other members of my family expressing what I thought were false feelings of sadness. It’s an imagined conversation between me and my deceased grandma who had so much love and empathy in her heart. I wanted to burn bridges and write people off, but she would likely tell me to take the higher road and try to see the good in everyone.”
Meanwhile, the instrumentation backing her soft vocals helps Avant get her angst-ridden point across, with crushing shoegaze riffs ultimately getting swallowed up by a blanket of distortion in its final moments. “Musically, we experimented more heavily with production in this song than any of our others, especially during the mixing process,” she adds.
Contrasting with the minimalist video for “All Around Me,” though, is a new clip for “Under Your Skin” which features the full band jamming the tune rather than just core members Avant and Devin Nunes. Also swapping out the gothic black-and-white aesthetic, the new video leans into the era of VHS home-recording technology that coexisted with the rise of shoegaze, as heard in the track’s heavy sounds. Check it out below, and listen to All Around Me here.
