Best Behavior’s New Video Is For All of the Outsiders

There’s something particularly pleasing about music videos that perfectly capture the vibe of the songs for which they’ve been created. Case in point: The new visual for Brooklyn, New York-based garage-pop outfit Best Behavior’s “Say.”

The work channels the band’s infectious garage-meets-surf rock sound to follow a schoolgirl’s colorful, sun-drenched day playing hooky from class on Coney Island. Though it sounds like a much better way to spend her time than being cooped up in classrooms all day, the young girl is met with a series of disappointments, from losing at the pinball machines to not being tall enough to ride the famed Cyclone roller coaster. 

“The world is a strange place when you're a child,” says songwriter and lead vocalist Alex Gruenburg of the inspiration for the video. “You never really know what is going on and it's hard to not feel like a bit of an outsider. For some reason, that feeling never went away for me. Often I feel very removed from people and the world around me. I think Hailey Sheppard, who stars in the video for 'Say,' did a great job expressing that sentiment.” 

The video takes a turn for the better once Sheppard joins an impromptu dance party on the boardwalk, but from the sounds of it, she enjoyed herself off-camera, too: “Hailey was really amazing because she's never been on camera in her life before,” Gruenburg says. “At 11 years old, she's probably tougher than me. By the end of the shoot, she was hanging with the locals holding a six-foot snake named Savage. I’m like, ‘Nah.’” 

Check out the video, above, and know you’re not alone in feeling like an outsider.