Childhood’s “Californian Light” Video Is A Love Letter To The People Of South London

Hailing from south London, Childhood makes vibrant, soul-infused psych-pop. Today, the band returns with the visual for new single “Californian Light,” the first single from its next album Universal High. With crisp drum patterns and psychedelic guitar riffs sat next to mellow vocals, Childhood displays exuberance and maturity in lyrics professing lost love. The video sees Ben Romans-Hopcraftof the band hanging out with market traders and dancing with friends through the streets of his neighborhood of Walworth in London.

“Ironically, the sentiment of 'Californian Light,' has nothing to do with the sunshine state at all,” Romans-Hopcraft explained to The FADER over email. “It was written as an ode to my relationships that define me as a person in London. The 'light' itself is a reference to an experience me and a bunch of my best friends had in San Francisco.

“What we thought was an inviting celestial light, whilst we ran around inebriated one evening, actually turned out to be a beaming light from two cop cars, with their guns pointed directly at us. This deception of when something you feel is eternal and magnificent, turns out to be a brutal sobering reality, was a notion I used to sum up a lot of the relationships I've had in London over the years."

Universal High is out on July 21 on Marathon Artists. Watch the video for “Californian Light” above.

Thumbnail image via Adama Jalloh.