Diiv are back with a new song, “Return of Youth.” The track’s accompanying music video was filmed after the fires in Altadena, California, that destroyed hundreds of businesses and homes, including one belonging to Diiv frontman Zachary Cole Smith. You can see the video below.
Smith, his pregnant wife, and two-year-old son safely evacuated their Altadena house before it was lost in January’s deadly wildfires, but Smith’s friend launched a GoFundMe on the artist’s behalf to help recoup the loss of their house, musical instruments, car, and more belongings. With all that’s happened since then, including what’s captured in this new video, Smith shared a long statement tied to “Return of Youth”:
hi
diiv has a new song out today, “return of youth”. sorry for the long statement
‘frog’ was an album that focused our gaze outward at the world around us. it captured a series of snapshots of our condition, in confusion and disgust and awe.
the writing period for this album was part of a beautiful time in my life, as we prepared and waited for our first child to be born. that beauty was cut with a profound existential dilemma: how can we bring a child into this world?
the common thread running through the fragmented world of the album was hope. we’ve talked about it a bit. real hope, false hope, something to give your life meaning. its an individual journey. i found it in parenthood, but you can find it anywhere you want.
“return of youth” was written before our son was born, a projection, zooming in until the larger existential dilemmas were out of frame. where “fender on the freeway” found peace in the patterns of a gigantic macro, this one finds it in a mundane and simple micro. i imagined seeing myself through the eyes of my child, a rebirth of sorts, laced with fear and insecurity, discovering beauty and serenity together in the simplest places.
at the very beginning of the year my family and i lost our home and everything we owned to the wildfires in altadena, ca. we had been preparing for the birth of our second son. we were living in the beautiful world at home that i had imagined in this song, and at once that world was gone.
when we re-approached this song to finally release it, i couldn’t help but hear the song differently in the aftermath. what makes a home? can you ever escape the outside world? is hope just a delusion? is anyone actually prepared to be a parent? how CAN you bring a child into this world?
i found again the big questions were irrelevant. you just keep on living i guess. life happens on life’s terms.
anyway, make of the song and the video whatever you want, it’s just a snapshot, albeit a more personal one this time.
enjoy.
Cole
“Return of Youth” arrives almost one year to the day since Diiv released Frog in Boiling Water. They recently shared a remix of the Frog in Boiling Water song “Everyone Out” by Mount Kimbie, too. The shoegaze band will head out on a European tour this summer in support of the LP, with shows in Los Angeles and Australia also slated to take place beforehand.
Read about Diiv’s Deceiver in “The Best Rock Albums of 2019.”