Semisonic Tap Into Childhood for “You’re Not Alone” Video

Semisonic released a new video for “You’re Not Alone,” the title track of their reunion EP, out September 18th on Pleasuresonic Recordings/Megaforce Records.

Directed by Phil Harder, the clip opens with frontman Dan Wilson standing on a beach as a child roams through the woods — climbing up a tree, walking on railway tracks, and crossing a bridge. Later, he inserts a message in a bottle and drops it into a river. “The water’s warm,” Wilson sings. “And no one ever told you life was long.”

Wilson said that for the video he began with memories of his own childhood in the woods. “Inspired partly by Richard Powers’ devastatingly beautiful novel The Overstory, partly by the paintings of Tomas Sanchez (one of which is featured on the sleeve of the single), and partly by the profound isolation we are experiencing during the pandemic, the video reflects the hopeful message of the song,” he said.

The EP You’re Not Alone marks Semisonic’s first new music since 2001. “All It Would Take,” “Basement Tapes,” “Don’t Make Up Your Mind,” and “Lightning,” round out the rest of the EP. “It was so fun and so inspiring to be back together and just make that sound that just comes out when we’re playing,” Wilson told Rolling Stone last month. “And it’s not premeditated — it’s not nothing we have to think about or anything.”