Like many of the songs on Jeff Gay’s new album, he says that “XOXO” takes a look at the darker side of romance. That might be putting it lightly. Featuring Christina Martin, the new single channels REM to explore what might better be described as gut-wrenching manipulation as Jeff Gay makes his music video debut in the middle of quarantine.
Without leaning entirely into a full-on concept album, “XOXO” plays the role of thematic overture on Stargazer. Catchy, with the guitar and bass bouncing off each other with Gay and Martin’s vocals interweaving, the track is deceptively fun considering its subject matter.
“With ‘XOXO’, I was honestly thinking about women that I had known through the years who had told me stories about how their partners who had threatened to commit suicide in order to hang on to them. Just another one of those manipulative, fucked up things men do,” explains Gay.
“As much as I despise this idea and that kind of person, I really wanted to get into the head of a person who would do something like this. I imagined a sort of self-absorbed individual, or else someone with real depression or mental illness.
“Truly, it is open to interpretation of what type of individual is singing ‘XOXO’. Like, maybe it could be you, maybe it’s me? Or maybe it’s just a composite sketch of a typical manipulative, fucked up man doin’ his thing, looking for that impossible person to put the stars in his crown.
“I think one line says it all: ‘I love, and I grieve, and I always feel bad,’ as if his trouble should be his lover’s problem.”
Gay pulls it together over a combination of inspirations, including Sly Stone and Halifax’s The Everywheres, drawing on the patterns of straight forward rock progression, but more importantly, by asking himself: “How would Sam [Hill] come up with a melody for this one?”
Directed by Paul MacRae, the video for “XOXO” completes the late ’90s feel with Gay wanders through b-roll of the Dartmouth Commons, Sullivan’s Pond, Halifax beaches, amidst frantically interlaced overlays. They’ve successfully delivered another era in high definition and nostalgia in a brand spanking new video.
“XOXO” appears on Jeff Gay’s album, Stargazer, which was released on August 14, 2020.