The Band Explains: The Great Yawn - 'California'

We talk to South African alt-country group The Great Yawn about their dreamy single and music video, ‘California’ which playfully explores the glamour of California and the themes of isolation and yearning.

Where was the video for 'California' filmed?
In a beautiful old house and backyard in Pretoria, South Africa.

How does the video connect with the song?
We aimed to create a dreamy scenario in the video, which is directly connected to the lyrical content. But while the lyrics are about longing or dreaming of a place, the video is the physical manifestation of that dream space, where everything is a little off-kilter. My dream-character is always ‘spectacularly fabulous’ and very eager to impress the strong man in her presence, who was hired to be the physical embodiment of California in the video. But he’s never quite impressed, always rather bored and more interested in his biceps, which only increases my longing for him.

Do you have any behind the scenes stories you could share with us?
The video was shot in about a 24-hour period, so it’s all quite a blur really. The following day we went into studio for a quick recording session, went home and packed our bags, and the next day we left on tour. So there was little time to reflect. It was pretty stressful, but I’m so happy we made the video.

Can you tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
A short while after recording ‘California’ my co-writer told me that he imagined a bodybuilder ‘titty-hopping’ to the beat in the opening bar of the track (the rest of the concept was crystallized and executed by sisters Helen and Susan Van Tonder of Tiger&Lilly Productions). And the rest, they say, is history, because it proved not to be very difficult finding a professional body-builder in our home town of Pretoria. But California has a much longer history of muscle men working-out on what is known as Muscle Beach, lifting pretty ladies onto their shoulders and what not. So our muscle man, characterised by Erich Werner, became the personification of California. My character’s only intention is to impress him, first with some fitness-bike exercise, and then with a lot of posing and being glamorous, and finally with a private performance and dance routine. But all of my character’s attempts turn out to be fruitless, and in the end, just before the dream dies, I’m left dancing and singing alone under the stars, with nothing but the yearning for someone out there to notice me, and listen to my songs, and feel the way I’m feeling.

Is there a message the video is trying to convey?
As a singer/songwriter living in South Africa, I tend to view the international music industry from afar. I see a lot of artists I like using song titles with ‘L.A.’ or ‘California’ in them, so I wrote my own ‘California’ as an ode to that feeling of isolation, and the video responds to that feeling by saying, “Hey, I can have fun too, I don’t always have to be so serious!”

Words of Karla Harris