Kinder’s ‘Come Along’ Video Is The Serotonin Boost We All Need
Prepare to feel joy again.
“It’s been a really special and cathartic experience for us,” Briony Osei says after a pause, her younger sister Savannah nodding beside her.
“We haven’t really explored that part of us,” Savannah adds. “Now there’s an opportunity, we really can focus on that side [of our culture].”
The two sisters — known to the world as Kinder — are chatting to Music Junkee over Zoom about their new single ‘Come Along’, a thumping summer club anthem that features New Zealand artist A.Girl.
Specifically, we’re here to discuss its official video, which has just been released. Filmed across Ghana and Sydney, it’s a knitting together of their two cultures and homelands, inspired by Briony’s memories of a trip to Ghana.
On the set of ‘Come Along’ in Ghana. Photo courtesy of Warner Music Australia
“We grew up in regional Maitland, we grew up with our Mum who is from Australia — not our [Ghanaian] dad,” Briony elaborates. “So while we saw him a lot, we didn’t really have much to do with that side of our culture. So now that we’re older and we’ve connected with him more and our siblings — who are fully Ghanaian — it’s been really great for us to explore.”
“It was hard to immerse ourself in that culture [when we were young] because we…we weren’t exposed to it,” Savannah says.
In a non-COVID world the duo planned to head to Ghana to film the clip — but once the pandemic border closures hit, they were forced to be a little more creative. They enlisted two directors — Dre, to shoot in Ghana, and Josh and Paven from SONDR Films in Sydney — with the choreography reflected across the two groups of dancers.
“We got the footage back [from Dre] and we were like ‘How are going to dance like this?’ It was better than we could have imagined,” Briony laughs.
In the end, it only took about three weeks to stitch the whole thing together.
Kinder on set in Sydney. Photo courtesy of Warner Music Australia
The clip is joyous, vibrant — a much-needed boost of serotonin in the bleakness of 2020. It’s also bold declaration of their new direction and sound; having previously bounced around on DJ circuits across Sydney and Bathurst, where Briony went to university, the duo took a couple of years off to regroup and figure out exactly what they wanted their music to be.
“We were put in a really funny position because around town we were known as DJs, but we really wanted to put music out — so we just put music out without ever really sitting with it,” Briony explains. “We’re not saying we’re not proud of our first stuff, but it’s definitely been a great opportunity to have time to evolve, and this is really where we want to be.”
“We were told by certain people that we couldn’t do the pop melodies with [that club sound] — because it would sound too much like a remix,” Savannah says. “But that was our desire, that’s what we wanted. So we finally thought…’Who cares? Let’s just do it.’ Then we did the track and were like ‘Well this is exactly what we wanted the whole time’.”
‘Come Along’ shoot in Ghana. Photo courtesy of Warner Music Australia
Having just signed to Warner Music Australia, ‘Come Along’ is the first piece of music in the new era of Kinder. Their tight-lipped about what comes next, tentatively admitting that an EP is on the cards for 2021. They’re in no rush — they just want to get it right.
“[Come Along] is the closest thing we’ve ever done that is like… ‘This is our sound, this is what we want, this is our vision, it’s just us’,” Savannah says as we wind up our chat.
“We don’t have expectations for it because we’re so happy with what we’ve done, and it’s a nice feeling,” Briony finishes. Whoever sees this…whatever. We’ve done what we wanted to do. I’m proud of us for sticking to our guns.”
‘Come Along’ is out now via Warner Music Australia.