Premiere: Watch "Any Other Day"

Brooklyn-based artist and musician Saara Untracht-Oakner (SUO, BOYTOY) spent the majority of the pandemic like everyone else, split between two planes of existence: the real world, crumbling before her eyes, and the fantasy world of her quarantine bubble. When that fantasy bubble burst after a breakup, Saara sat down with her heartache and wrote a song. She had been experiencing a relatively "music-less quarantine for a year and a half," she tells me, until "Any Other Day" burst out of her.

SUO's new single is her most revealing yet. She's stripped down, bare, vulnerable, her voice soaring with steady earnestness. For the video, Saara dressed up as a clown, a figure both "joyous and fearful, simultaneously loved and lonely," a character split between worlds. Warning: if you've been through a pandemic breakup or feel any sort of dichotomy within yourself, this may hit a nerve.

The concept for the video was, again, inspired by the pandemic, but in a much more reflective way. Directed by documentary filmmakers Cyrus Moussavi and Brittany Nugent, the video takes place at Deno's Wonder Wheel in Coney Island and The Jalopy Theater in Red Hook, which at the time of filming was empty. "We were all stuck inside having to imagine what live performances were actually like. Would they ever come back? Would a full theater be a thing of the past?" –Maya Eslami.

Read our interview with Saara Untracht-Oakner below, and if you’re in New Jersey on Sunday, watch SUO play the JETTY Coquina Jam, an all women's surf contest in LBI.

Inherent Bummer: Tell me about SUO? We know you from BOYTOY, what have you been doing since then?

Saara Untracht-Oakner: Once BOYTOY went on indefinite hiatus, I had a bunch of songs and ideas for a solo project. I wanted to create something that was outside the confines of members being tied to their role and instruments. I made the first full length record with Kyle Mullarky in Topanga, who also recorded the last BOYTOY record "Night Leaf." I love the idea of making every song a bit different and using different musicians and instrumentation to lend itself to each song in particular. I played about 6 NY shows with SUO and then did a tour in Europe in February 2020 and got back just in time to sit in a music-less quarantine for a year and a half! I can't believe it, watching footage from our shows and being like, that was TWO YEARS AGO. But within that time, I was able to write a lot of new music and demo another full album's worth of material. I also have been making a lot of visual art and will be showing paintings and a furniture series at a gallery called iRL in Greenpoint, Brooklyn August 25-29.

"Any Other Day" is a much different style than we're used to hearing from you. What inspired you to write the song?

I had a new Covid romance and my girlfriend broke up with me kind of out of the blue. I had a few heartbreaks under my belt within a short period of time and was feeling pretty low, on top of it being the dead of winter and middle of a global pandemic. Luckily I feel most creative when I'm feeling down and this song poured out of me in a couple of hours. I have this chord theory book and when I don't know what to play sometimes I pick it up and try the weird finger shapes I'm unfamiliar with. Two chords struck me and they ended up being the first two chords of the song. I actually sent my girlfriend the voice memo, first version demo, of this song when I wrote it, maybe it's a bit more tortured, and I think that's what won her back haha.

The two songs that I just released are part of a limited run 7" that I recorded in upstate NY with Oakley Munson (Black Lips). Oakley has a great ear and we understand each other's vision so he instantly got the vibe. I played guitar, bass and percussion. Oakley played drums and organ. We got Shaun Couture from The Nude Party to play 12 string guitar, Joshua Rouah of Kizmit Studio (who also plays in my live band) to play and record piano, and Jake Falby at New Math in Venice, CA to record strings. A bicoastal collaboration!

Where did the idea for the video come from?

I had an idea for a double feature video of the two songs on the 7". This one ended up being the one to pan out (maybe a prequel is in the future). I think I was talking to my roommate, who has worked as an actual clown in the past, and thinking about a sad clown imagining a full performance in a theater that in reality is empty. We were all stuck inside having to imagine what live performances were actually like. Would they ever come back? Would a full theater be a thing of the past? When I shared this concept with music documentary filmmakers Cyruss Moussavi and Brittany Nugent, Brittany had the idea to incorporate scenes from Coney Island. What better a dreamy backdrop than rides and people and carnival lights. It added a whole other element of fantasy to the video and ended up being my favorite part of shooting. I realized that I actually had A LOT of fun being a clown!

What's your deal with clowns?

I really didn't know I had a thing until this video to be honest haha. I came up with the video concept first. Then when talking with Roeg Cohen who shot the album artwork, he mentioned that the makeup artist Mical Clip had been wanting to do a shoot where they could do clown makeup on someone, and asked if I would be into that. It serendipitously worked out perfectly with the video idea and formed a cohesive visual concept for the songs. I also think the clown is the perfect symbol for a person in love. You often find yourself acting like a fool, silly and giddy, and in the end, heartbreak always kind of makes you feel like a foolish clown, even if it's not the reality. A guy at one of the booths in Coney Island told me that if I got a portable printer and printed photos for people on the spot as a clown I could make a decent wage on the weekends. I'm giving good thought into clowning at Coney Island for a bit. I didn't see any other clowns there so I would have a good hold on the market. Maybe you'll find me there one day.