Singer-songwriter Danny Golden‘s new “Cigarettes & Sunburn” music video uses a retro French film style to tell a story of lost love and the emotions that come with it. The new clip is premiering exclusively via The Boot; press play above to watch.
In old-school, black-and-white style, Golden’s new video focuses on a woman, and his relationship with her. The clip, he tells The Boot, “explore[s] the pain of loss, which, like a sunburn, lingers until it slowly fades away.”
“Cigarettes & Sunburn” was inspired by the brief romantic flings Golden had during a summertime trip to Montauk, N.Y. “I would meet someone and have an incredibly passionate connection, but it would be gone just like that. Either I was on vacation, or
they were visiting or moving. Three or four days of magic, and then, poof,” the artist shares.
When this pattern looked as though it would repeat itself with a French woman, Golden tried to put a stop to it: “On the last night of this affair, as I was hoping to change my pattern and find a way to make this thing work in the long run, I turned to her and
said, ‘I’m really going to miss you when you leave,'” he recalls.
“She shushed me and said, ‘It’s like a sunburn, you know? Enjoyed getting it, felt pain after, and it peels off, all gone,” Golden recounts. “I hated that she was right.”
Golden recorded “Cigarettes & Sunburn” in one take, enlisting Spencer Garland to play accordion on the track. The instrument and a bit of spoken-word French, too, help tie the song to that short relationship.
“Cigarettes & Sunburn” is the last of four songs on Golden’s new EP, Changes, released on Friday (April 23). The project follows 2018’s Old Love album and was recorded in early 2020, completed as the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting down much of the United States.
Golden has lived in Austin, Texas, for the last half-decade, though he’s also spent time in New York City and Colorado. As the pandemic began, however, he headed for his parents’ house in Pittsburgh, Pa., where the singer found himself taking better care of himself and creatively inspired.
“I was full of inspiration and hope, even as the pandemic was bearing down on the world,” Golden admits. “I was feeling a peace that I had not known since I could remember.”
Fans can visit DannyGolden.com to learn more.