PREMIERE: Windy Grins – ‘Drop Out’

Windy Grins – a songwriter from Sydney’s Soft Tigers gone solo – is about to trump the 90s VHS resurgence with the clip for his debut track, ‘Drop Out’: a montage of actual footage recorded on an actual 90s camcorder in the actual 90s. For real. It’s even dated ’97 with iPhones noticeably absent from all scenes, which 1) confuses me because why would people hang out with each other IRL if not to increase internet popularity and 2) is the reason I had to watch this a few times before I could put my finger on the fact that everyone appears to be genuinely having fun without peeking at their phones every 12 seconds to check if something better is happening somewhere else.

The track itself is equally refreshing in its authenticity, simple in its delivery and matches the sentiment of the clip pretty well. The frontman’s defiance and assuredness is bloody comforting as he reels off a list of your garden variety anxieties, like rent, where did these drugs come from, why aren’t I at uni and has everything always been this hard or … ? The vocals haven’t been pored over or produced to perfection, fuelling the track’s ‘chill the fuck out everything will be ok’ thrust. They plod along over steady drums and a couple of synth and guitar licks that build into an air-punching-ly uplifting climax, with a Scottish (?) guy rounding out the track, appropriately growling “I’m not goin’ down”.

Windy Grins will be releasing an EP later this year. For now, though, the curing powers of ‘Drop Out’ for the insecurities of 20-somethings everywhere will have to do.

Unearthed