Video: Dylan Dunlap, ‘What We Had’

Kevin Bronson on September 25th, 2020

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“I don’t ever wanna change a single thing / that made me stand on my own two feet,” Dylan Dunlap asserts on his new single “What We Had,” a childhood remembrance-turned-identity statement from a 24-year-old who sounds haunted by the shadow of his father.

It’s the latest single from the onetime busker and contestant on “The Voice,” music school dropout and L.A. native who today announced that his new EP “Soldier On” would be out Feb. 5 via Nettwerk.

The song arrives with a video by Dunlap’s boyhood pal Tim Toda, who has documented much of the songwriter’s life and career and weaves in snippets of old footage. In the context of the song and its soaring chorus, the video isn’t so much of a highlight reel as it is therapeutic nostalgia.

As for the song, Dunlap says: “With it, I’m choosing to open up the conversation about toxic masculinity, alcoholism, depression/anxiety, the diagnosis of my mental health condition and coping through it all while still allowing room to grieve. My dad took off six years ago this summer, and since then, there has been nothing but the craziest updates that could write a soap opera.

“I feel like this song can finally be my opportunity to share my perseverance into adulthood and my refusal to worry about turning into him any longer. ‘I try so hard to think I’m not my father / I forget about what makes me who I am’ sums up that message in the pre[chorus]. I think it’s way more effective to sing from a vulnerable place than try to sound/look like somebody else.”

The new song arrives a month after the release of “Seriously,” which heralded the songwriter’s signing to Nettwerk.

||| Watch: The videos for “What We Had” and “Seriously”