Chloe Le Drezen
Overcoats — the Brooklyn duo of Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell — upped the ante on their new album The Fight, which dropped earlier this year. One of the many crescendos of the titular melee comes midway on “Apathetic Boys,” a pummeling ode to the disaffected male gaze. Today (on “International Men’s Day,” no less) they’re delivering a new video for the track, in which Elion and Mitchell sit behind the camera and let the boys give it their best go. In a press release, they elaborated their intentions behind the video:
“The music industry is obviously male dominated, from the executive level to the bands. Men are the gatekeepers of rock music, and not only men, but apathetic men. Male musicians often act like they don’t care and that makes them cooler–the tattered shirts, the emotionless expressions etc. When women care, it is deeply uncool. This puts us in a vicious cycle of having to try harder than men to get coverage, while having to appear that we aren’t trying. We have felt this cycle in the music industry as well as in our relationships (trying not to be too eager or too clingy). We wanted the video to be a commentary on how these decidedly male expectations permeate the genre.”
In addition to the music video, Elion and Mitchell are also sharing a new version of “Apathetic Boys,” re-worked by Porches. The track will appear on their forthcoming EP, The Fight (Remixed), which will also feature remixes from the likes of Yumi Zouma, Billy Lemos, and Shura. Watch the “Apathetic Boys” video, and hear Porches’ spin on the track, below.
Overcoats flip the script on their new “Apathetic Boys” video
