Gus Dapperton drops his new video from the album Orca - “First Aid”

Directed by Dapperton himself, 'First Aid' boasts the usual vintage look, the pleasant grain, the familiar fade. With Dapperton’ mellow lyrics, it proves to be yet another delightful journey  down the memory lane from the 90s time machine.

The concept of the song -  and the video -  proves to be a lasting one, not defined by any era specifically. 

Savvy with the filmmaking matters, he has directed and produced a number of videos to date - some of them together with his close friend and collaborator Matthew Dillion Cohen. Cohen has directed Dapperton’s “Prune”, “You Talk Funny” amongst other videos. His name, like a glitch, appears five times at the top of Cohen’s portfolio’s landing page. Their most notable video to date has been”World Class Cinema”.

Regarding the video itself - It starts out with Gus being of a somewhat shade of blue - the theatre’s dressing room acting as the backdrop. First guess - preparing as Dr. Manhattan or some mythical elf creature for a reenactment.

The video  swiftly and suddenly changes from one fantasy setting to the other. We get to the performance part - the stage.

The perfect 90’s boy band dream is kept captive there by a mysterious figure in red.

Chained, on a leash, he’s “too atheist to pray for his own life” - his hands are handcuffed.

Followed by a shot with an eye catching, transparent cross around his neck it adds to the newly formed thought  that Gus is actually a good Christian boy, despite the threesome themed debut “ I'm Just Snacking“ video.

The red figure in the background keeps punishing him in the meantime, the scene turning into Kubrick’s famous “Eyes Wide Shut” masquerade sequence.

The sado-maso undertones borderlining with allegories to bald headed monks, it brings up the question - which one is which then? Perhaps the answer is in the reflective sequence that follows.

The violence ongoing, and the third act arrives with us suddenly seeing Gus battling his aptive, throwing some serious punches in the oppressor’s direction, in a style reminiscent of “Requiem for a dream”.

Gus gets back to reality , greeted by his sister’s arms. 

“I’d slit his wrists”, he sings, “If it wasn’t for my sister”.

The song turns out to be a love ode to his sibling, the girl who’s been there for him in real life - and a  sister who was sobbing throughout at harmonic intervals in the video.

- Diana Govina