The Artist: L.A. alt-country band Nocona.
The Video: “Beverly Hills Blues”
Songwriter Says: “‘Beverly Hills Blues’ was originally a forgotten track in my phone recording library, I re-discovered it almost a year after I came up with the main riff,” epxlains frontman Chris Isom. “I loved the riff at the time but couldn’t finish it and it just got lost in the shuffle of new material. It killed me to put it down at the time, but I’ve learned if you can’t finish a song, you absolutely have to put it down and move on. When this one came back to me it was easy to write though, which I’m always incredibly thankful for. Songs either come back to you or they don’t.
“The song is a comic tragedy about high brow problems. I guess I was trying to create a kaleidoscope of what i think is bullshit bourgeois depression. ‘My uncle’s so stoned,’ ‘throw me the paper and get the fuck away from me,’ ‘And your record review, don’t make the evening news’ etc. Also, someone close to me was diagnosed with schizophrenia and I’ve lost all contact with this person and it effects me pretty deeply, they had a promising career in Hollywood, and someone else I knew with everything to live for killed himself around the time I was writing the song, I think these and maybe some other personal experiences were informing the inspiration for the lyrics.”