Queer folk rock pioneers Mouths of Babes let us into their world in their new music video for “World Brand New,” the title track to their recent album. As we wrote in our review of the album, Mouths of Babes have honed their songwriting over decades of touring — both as a duo and separately. Ty Greenstein (Girlyman) and Ingrid Elizabeth (Coyote Grace.) The married couple bring their separate sensibilities to World Brand New: there’s no mistaking Elizabeth’s folk bona fides, while Greenstein brings a sense of twee pop melodies to the proceedings, giving the album texture to complicate its easy confidence.
“I wrote World Brand New in 2020 during lockdown. After years of touring constantly, we were trapped in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Berkeley. To our surprise, being forced to stay home was a relief,” Greenstein explains. “For the first time, the whole world prioritized rest and safety. We found ourselves delighting in simple activities: listening to records, hanging out with dogs, taking walks, playing guitars. The slower pace of life made total sense to us both and reminded us of parts of ourselves and of life that we missed. With this video, we wanted to capture that feeling of just being humans without a lot of expectations and enjoying the analog joys of the world.”
If it looks like the couple were having fun in the video, they are. “We had a complete blast making the video with Skyler Jenkins, so all the shots of us cracking up and making googly eyes at each other are 100% authentic.”
There’s only one part of the video that isn’t 100% authentic.
“We felt like this video needed a dog to be complete, but sadly our dog Kali passed away last November. So we borrowed our Skyler’s sweet senior pup July and she did a bangup job! Her slow, chill energy was perfect for the vibe of ‘World Brand New’ and we were fine with her stealing the show.”