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Mar 11, 2022 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Dylan Dawkins

Last year, Charleston-based indie rock outfit Brave Baby returned after a three-year hiatus, beginning in 2018. In the intervening years, frontman Keon Masters released his solo debut, Many Thanks, drummer Wolfgang Zimmerman ventured further into production work, and guitarist Christian Chidester works as a session player and is crafting his solo debut. Meanwhile, Steven Walker and bassist Jordan Hicks have been playing in gothic Americana outfit Susto, who just released a new album last year.

That hiatus ended in 2021 with a pair of new singles, “Yesterday Was Going Great” and “Blue Year.” Earlier this year, the band’s creative streak continued with another new single, “Standard

Deviation.” Today, the band are back with the accompanying video for “Standard Deviation,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Standard Deviation” sees the band exploring synth-laden ‘80s soundscapes, but diverting in unexpected directions at every turn. The band initially works their syncopated synth chords into a thrumming funk groove, only to settle into a steady beat for the sing-along chorus. In the latter half, the band takes another turn, soaring above for a dense and textured synthwave climax, abandoning the funk pulse of the track for an arena-ready finish. The accompanying video knits together the track’s VHS-era stylistic choices and the band’s exploratory psychedelic edge, tracing the band in neon-lit ‘80s portraits.

The band says of the video, “Working with Dylan ( Persona La Ave) is always such a treat. He’s a dear friend to all of us and has been for a long time so there’s not a lot of explaining to be had when it comes to who we are as artists and what feeling we’d like to evoke. We filmed this in a few hours at Wolfie’s studio “The Space,” and Dylan wanted detailed portrait shots of everyone on this VHS camera and his goal was to merge it all together with some psychedelic edits. Everyone’s expressions were to remain pretty static as the edits were going to be wild juxtaposed to these mellow portrait shots. It really exceeded our expectations as a final product, but I wasn’t surprised with the end result because that’s generally what Dylan does.”

Check out the song and video below.