Premiere: Matthew Pinder strikes upon the ‘Golden Hour’ in new video

Pinks, purples and soft oranges skip across the water. The sand is just cooling as the sun crests the horizon, meeting the glassy surface with a penetrating caress. Palm fronds crunch in the dusky breeze. It’s a tranquil scene that elicits restoration and peace. Pressing his lyrics with traditional folk music, a subtle indie sensibility imprinted below, musician Matthew Pinder‘s emotions bleed out onto record with his new song “Golden Hour,” a decorative, sobering piece set to the waves’ gentle crash along the shoreline. “There were ashes on my lips from the words I breathed / The same lips I kissed you with,” he sings in muted trickles, opening the song up with the sweet babble of foam and crackling sea shells. “And it was hard to see from all the smoke / Started reaching out when you spoke.”

The music video, premiering today via B-Sides & Badlands, is an apt vehicle for the song’s inherent expanse, feeling as much a part of nature as the seagulls gliding mid-air or the salty mist descending about the earth. “I always wanted to shoot the video in the Bahamas. The song always felt like home to me,” says Pinder, whose voice is both crystalline, almost fragile, and gravity-laden. “I remember the first time I let one of my close friends hear [the song]. She said it felt like floating. We got as many shots of the ocean as we could because the Bahamian waters are so tied into the song.”

“Golden Hour,” not to be confused with Kacey Musgraves‘ equally feathered, lilting song of the same name, reaches into the soul and uncovers the most quivering of emotions. It’s a dainty kiss during twilight. It is two bodies embracing, clinging for life, as the ocean swallows them whole. It’s the faint memory of a summer romance that no longer exists. “I wrote the song sitting on a balcony looking out over the ocean. I’m thrilled that we got a video to feel tranquil like the sea on the night I wrote the song,” adds Pinder. “I wanted to show the world where I come from. This video is special to me because it was filmed in a place thats so engrained into my memories. I couldn’t think of a better place to shoot it.”

Native to Nassau in the Bahamas, Pinder lures us into his world at the edge of existence. The camera work slips down the curtain, one of allure and almost fantastical beauty, for what an everyday is really like. It is the mundane buried beneath layers of Hollywood glamour and distorted perceptions. “When people think of the Bahamas, it’s typically honeymoons and all-inclusive resorts,” says video director Sam Street, whose charm with framing intimacy is palpable and fresh. “The video provides a different perspective. We wanted the video to feel like a real day in Spanish Wells, a quaint island with a population of less than 2,000. We spent two days on the island, traveling by golf cart and filming the documentary-style surf film-inspired video. As someone from the states, I feel what we captured perfectly represents what it is to be a native in Caribbean. ”

“Golden Hour” samples Pinder’s new album, Give Me Some Time, produced by Chris Jacobie (Penny & Sparrow, Jarrod Dickenson), out later this year.

Watch below:

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