"Young Love" is the latest from Frontperson, the new indie folk project made up of New Pornographers’ Kathryn Calder and Woodpigeon’s Mark Andrew.
The new song follows "Tick-Tock (Frontrunner)," the lead single and quasi title track from the duo’s upcoming debut, Frontrunner. Equally as gentle, "Young Love" is a honey-sweet tune about the jittery excitement of a new crush, or an old one. Calder's delicate voice flutters high over warm acoustic strumming as she sings in the chorus, "Through heartache and sorrow/ Through darkness and shadow/ Don’t worry about the sunset."
In an email, Calder explains:
'Young Love' was one of the last things we finished. It was kind of tricky to get right because it is a delicate song. Lyrically, I was trying to capture the feeling of meeting someone and those first days when everything is kind of unsettled but yet you also know it's the right thing. I remember the final glue to the song - when it felt like we had figured it out - was when Mark and I played our guitars together into one microphone, inspired by an early Leonard Cohen kind of sound. There was something kind of lo-fi about playing the song that way that really worked.
Plus, it arrives with some romantic visuals that are just as charming. The video -- directed by and starring Lorenz Tröbinger -- features hazy, stop-motion clips of Tröbinger and his boyfriend. It has all the makings of a cinematic, budding relationship -- climbing through trees, playing footsie, and frolicking through the grass.
Some background from Tröbinger:
The film is about me and my boyfriend James in London and our relationship that we decided to end when I left the city. About the sadness that came with knowing that the other person would soon be far away (we shot the video a week before I left) but at the same time about the beauty of making the most of the time we had together and separating on the best of terms -- Knowing that we would always have a very special friend in the other one.
It’s a song that’s just as lovely and sweet as its title. Listen and watch below.
Frontrunner is out 9/21 on Calder’s own label Oscar St. Records. You can pre-order it here.
