Video premiere: Wildling, ‘Leavin’’

Kevin Bronson on July 14th, 2017

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“Leavin’,” the new single from L.A. quintet Wildling, is a campfire song — that is, if campfires were built at the center of stadiums. But the Eric Ogden-directed video for the song is an action flick, with a skater kid engaging in an act of derring-do, only to be pursued by bad guys in an epic chase scene, only to end up … well, we won’t spoil it for you.

The video stars Savannah Headden, Stefanos Miltsakakis, Igor Petrovik and Meredith Adelaide, the latter of whom starred in Ogden’s video for Wildling’s previous single, “Lilywhite.” “When we met with the director,” the band says, “we told him we wanted something narrative but also something that didn’t take itself too seriously and was fun. We talked about our love of Beastie Boys videos and skating and a desire to connect the characters of ‘Lilywhite’ to ‘Leavin’.’”

Both new songs are from the forthcoming debut album by Wildling — brothers Ryan and Justin Levine, Andrew Ampaya, Erik Janson and Casey Wojtalewicz — to be released by Warner Bros., probably next year. The quintet regards “Leavin’” as their “drinking song,” owing to its outsized rhythms and shout-along chorus. “For me, it speaks to the feeling of being misunderstood and not being afraid to walk away from people or situations that don’t feel authentic anymore,” Ryan Levine says. “It’s a barn burner.”

Wildling has been crafting that bigger sound since 2014; their early-2015 residency at the Satellite was something of a coming-out party to their L.A. followers. The songs on the forthcoming album materialized during the band’s trips to Joshua Tree in 2016, and they worked in the studio with producers Joe Chiccarelli and Alex Salibian. Ready the handclaps and save your voices.

||| Watch: The video for “Leavin’”