Dave Monks, singer-songwriter and frontman of Tokyo Police Club has released a video for his new single, “Sweet”. The single follows his March release, “Love”. The single’s intimate lo-fi production and delicate near-whisper vocals parallel the slow Sunday-morning-moment lyrics that, zoomed out, show a larger complex picture of love.
“The first line was a very stream of consciousness kind of thing but then as I added to it, it started to paint a very real and detailed picture for me. I think the song has an approachable grade-school way of asking the hardest question lovers can ask each other. Sometimes we think of music production as making something flashy or “big” sounding, but it can also take you into tiny personal spaces and add to the feeling in that way. My engineer, Jesse (Turnbull), was trying out different cheap microphones on my vocals and it gave the song a really intimate bedroom vibe.”
In the last few months Monks has opened up on Tiktok: sharing motivational pep talks for songwriters to no BS thoughts on the music industry to acoustic performances of new and old tracks. Expanding his online presence to Patreon, Monks enlisted the creative contributions of fans there to complete the nostalgic and intimate visuals of the music video for “Sweet”:
“I decided to start making a video on my own and it was weirdly exciting and visceral to feel the home-spun mood take shape visually. I eventually opened it up to my Patreon followers to make it more of a collaborative thing. Looking through all the clips I was sent, I felt very moved to have been brought into the beautiful and sometimes cluttered corners of people’s homes and lives.
At the very end of the video, I needed something to help it build so I took a quick clip of me walking to the studio door. It was one shot. In it, I think I answer the question “Are you sweet on me?” with a quick movement of my head: yes.”
Check out the video for “Sweet” below, and stay up to date with Dave via his socials.