Straight from Cape Town, four-piece Forefront has debuted their first music video this week with their latest single “Happiest In Water,” an indie vibe perfect for the summer fun fast approaching the vibrant city.
The music video was directed and captured by Brett Rayner (Set For The Sky) in Gordon’s Bay with great sights and natural fun. “Happiest In Water” is Forefront’s third single (with a studio cover in their collection, as well) following a drastic change in sound from their first years.
“When we started off as a high school band,” drummer Jason Dionysopoulos begins explaining, “we were stuck in the teen angst stage of our lives. So that heavily influenced what we wanted to sound like as a band.
“We have since matured as individuals, and [have] all come to realize that our music should be an extension of our personalities. We are all happy, young, quirky guys and the feel of this ‘new style’ came naturally to us. You can see how well it fits [us] when we are up on stage.”
Compared to their first EP, Forefront now has an indie element to their music that fits their home city and culture, as well; “The stuff we are playing now is definitely more in line with the genres larger local bands are playing in South Africa. Our new sound has been very well received by the local scene.
“We are inspired by the immense amount of local talent,” Dionysopoulos tells us, “our goal was to create music that we feel so passionately about that it flows over to the audience.”
The passion has been obvious as Forefront is steadily growing a list of impressive venues they’ve performed at and artists they’ve opened nights for, which is also quickly pushing them up in local competitions. They have warmed up audiences for Al Bairre, Nomadic Orchestra, and Early Hours in venues such as The Assembly and Aanklas- “undoubtedly a recipe for success,” Dionysopoulos is proud to say, hoping to add bands such as Shortstraw, Grassy Spark, and December Streets to the list.
Riding the surf of their new energy and flow, the video for “Happiest In Water” is another extension of Forefront-
“We came up with the idea for the music video as a band. We felt the song was a definite summer tune and lent itself to the Cape Town landscape, which can be experienced by long scenic drives along the coast.”
The video was directed by Brett Rayner, who has worked with Set For The Sky- a band with ‘serious substance to it’ as the film artist described them in an interview, quite an impressive creative partner for Forefront. “Rayner is a live photographer that we have worked with at some of our shows. He is studying film and has done some music videos we had seen.
“He really understood what we were looking for out of the video, and as cliché, as it sounds, we knew he was the right man for the job from the start.”
Dionysopoulos goes on to say “Happiest In Water” was an ‘extremely fun’ video to shoot, highlights from the experience being playing his drum set on the back of the pick-up truck [bakkie in local terms] as it drove and on the beach with the scenic backdrop.
Check it all out in the video below:
