Video premiere: Jazzie Young, ‘California’

Kevin Bronson on October 6th, 2022

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Jazzie Young’s lilting folk-pop is the stuff of sunrises and sunsets, inviting and intimate, and imbued with the restless spirit of a searcher. The singer-songwriter, the daughter of Jesse Colin Young (singer on the Youngbloods’ late-’60s hit “Get Together”), released her debut EP, “Grown Up & Grown Apart,” last year. And this summer she followed up with a second EP, “27 Club.”

Though born in Marin County, Young did not make California her home until four years ago, when she moved to L.A. But you’d never know she was a relative newbie from her single “California,” or its gorgeous, 1970s-styled video. The ballad is an ode to a place that, for her, simply felt right.

“I wrote ‘California’ as a semi-autobiographical song mixed with a love song,” Young says. “It chronicles my decision to move to L.A. and the ups and downs that come with living in a city built by dreamers. It’s this push-pull relationship. I was born in California and always knew that one day I would move back here. When I decided to fully pursue music full time, L.A. was calling my name. I wanted the song to have deep, singer-songwriter storytelling and for California itself to almost feel like a lover.

“It’s also one of the more story-driven songs that I’ve written. It’s based on very specific and real periods throughout the four years that I’ve lived in L.A.”

The video, directed by Shelby Parks, styled by the artist herself and made with an all-female team, stars a rented 1976 Mercedes — and some prime Los Angeles scenery, including Mulholland Drive.

“Since the song starts off with my cross-country road trip from the East Coast to the West Coast, I really wanted the concept of this video to be a never-ending road trip,” Young says. “Something that was super simple but shows the passing of time, the restlessness that is in the song, as well as the 1960s singer-songwriter flair that echos in the harmonies and instruments. … This song to me sounds like something you’d listen to on a cool sunny day with the windows down. It just has that kind of feel to it.”

||| Watch: The video for “California”