Alt-pop duo Bestfriend announces “places I’ve left” EP + share single/music video “Anxious People” via Nettwerk

Today, Canadian alt-pop duo Bestfriend, comprised of Stacy Kim (vocals/instrumentals) and Kaelan Geoffrey (vocals/production), have announced their sophomore EP places i’ve left out April 21st via Nettwerk. The announcement is accompanied by the band’s new single “Anxious People” and its music video co-directed by Kyle Ball and Kim herself.

The immediately danceable and aptly titled, “Anxious People,” is a panic-driven pop song about all of us huddled together, trying to figure out what to do with the panic, and the feeling of staying in place while it happens. “Anxious People” is a meticulously crafted slice of heavenly dream-pop, navigated by lo-fi, fuzzy instrumentation alongside Stacy Kim’s despondent yet expressive vocals. Bestfriend composes a narrative through the uncertain feelings and bittersweet observations of quarter-life disillusions. The “Anxious People” music video features both eccentric and sci-fi visuals chronicling daily life’s mundane activities in an infinite loop.

Bestfriend shares this of the track, 
“‘Anxious People’ (named after Stacy’s favorite novel by Fredrik Backman) is about all of the people that you walk past on the sidewalk, people who are on the same bus as you, that one guy you worked with during your very first retail job. It’s about how each of these people have lived an entire life completely outside your own; the understanding that you have no idea what any particular person has been through, and likely never will. This song started as a slower demo, but we wanted to make it into more of a frenzied song to work in tandem with its themes.”

WATCH + SHARE “ANXIOUS PEOPLE” MUSIC VIDEO

The band shares this about the “Anxious People” music video,

“We’ve been wanting to make a music video for a very long time as two very visual people, so it’s really rewarding to see it come to life. This music video is about feeling trapped in an endless loop; I’ve always been a big fan of movies and TV shows that are direct analogies for the human psyche, particularly when it’s done in outlandish, abstract ways. The ‘Anxious People’ music video ties in with the song in the sense that sometimes, we all feel a bit like a character in a glitchy, no-cheat-code version of Sims. Kyle Ball and I directed this one; Kyle’s always had such a knack for capturing the many concepts in our heads and bringing them to life — this is no exception. Neta Ben Ezra did the video editing & effects and nailed what we were going for on the first try. We shot all of this in a random apartment Kyle found off Giggster within 6 hours and couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.”

The band’s debut EP places i’ve lived reflected on in-the-moment agony and angst. places i’ve left, their follow-up EP, provides a comforting second act to that narrative. “The places sister EPs (‘places I’ve lived’ and now, ‘places I’ve left’) are a set of love letters to a past life; your childhood home, your first love, the very specific feeling of being young in the summer, at a party or out with friends when you’ve got a paper due the next day. The anxiety simmering just underneath your skin that feels almost biologically ingrained into your generation,” says Bestfriend. “‘places i’ve lived’ was a retrospective glance into this life: ‘This is what happened. This is how it felt. This is why it felt that way. This is what I did.’ ‘places i’ve left’ asks: ‘What now? What do I do with everything that happened? How do we move forward from here?’” 

This past December, Bestfriend shared “LEMON LIME,” the first single off places I’ve left. The track is handled with the care of Kim’s alluring yet commanding vocals floating on top of Geoffrey’s mastery work of swirling, magnetic synths. The intuitive lyrics “I wanna die but only for a year / At least until the smoke clears” is brimming with relevance amongst a generation of young folks trying to find their way in a seemingly lost world. “LEMON LIME” garnered acclaim from Alternative Press, Under The Radar, Ones To Watch, Exclaim!, Sweety High, and more as well as landing spots on Spotify’s New Music Friday (CA), Lorem, and borderless playlists.

 “Anxious People” is available at all digital retailers here:https://bestfriend.ffm.to/anxiouspeople

Pre-save places I’ve left EP here: 

https://bestfriend.ffm.to/placesiveleft

places I’ve left EP Tracklist:

PLACES

LEMON LIME

Anxious People

Matador

Tuesday Waltz

Love Always Came So Easy For You

More Info:

Bestfriend is a culmination of two young artists, Stacy Kim and Kaelan Geoffrey, making music from thousands of miles apart; Stacy in Vancouver, Kaelan in Toronto. Together, they craft songs that are raw and unreserved, complemented with coruscating sonic textures and piercing lyrics relating to nostalgia, adulthood, and the constant battle of getting your shit together.

The duo was half-formed through a mutual friend and half-formed through Instagram DMs in 2018. Created remotely, with Stacy on the west coast and Kaelan in the east, Stacy would write songs, create rough demos, and send them to Kaelan, who would then produce it from there, passing it back and forth between each other to add/detract elements.

Through trial and error (and many gigabytes of .wav files sent back and forth), Bestfriend found their stride in dreamy, story-telling pop songs when they made their debut in 2019 with the dual-release singles, “Television ‘99” and “twentyfour.” Kaelan Geoffrey’s expert use of dreamy, almost euphoric synthesizers paired with Stacy Kim’s guiding, melodious vocals pull listeners into a shared space, creating harmony within the themes of uncertainty.

After the release of a handful of singles, Bestfriend released their debut EP places i’ve lived in 2021, resulting in a slew of accolades from the likes of Under The Radar, EARMILK, Exclaim!, The Line of Best Fit, amassing over 1.5M streams within the first 4 months of release, and landing placements on Spotify playlists New Music Friday (CA), Lorem, soda, Fresh Finds, RADAR Canada, It’s A Bop, my life is a movie, and indie pop & chill. places i’ve lived EP was written and produced entirely by the duo, mixed by Grammy-nominated Travis Ference (Ariana Grande, Tori Kelly, Imagine Dragons) and mastered by Randy Merrill (Olivia Rodrigo, Harry Styles, Troye Sivan) and Derek Hoffman (Arkells, GRAE, Caveboy).