The New Video from Band of Horses is Also Branded Content for Sonos

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By: Digiday

The phrase "dad rock" as an epithet for music made by/for square dudes who were probably hip in their twenties has, mercifully, gone out of style in the two years since it was minted. But it's not really a put-down to describe the new Band Of Horses track, "Whatever, Wherever" with the phrase—it's just accurate.

The song is built around the group's signature harmonies, light melodies, and breezy acoustic guitars, and the accompanying video, shot to look like it's old family vacation footage filmed on a Super 8, is what the band calls "about as day-in-the real life as we could capture." There are long sequences of the band and their families, hanging out at a cookout, playing with their kids by the pool, kicking it with their instruments in a living room, or watching the kids on a swingset. It's an intensely personal song and video—which makes the fact that it was sponsored by Sonos, and debuted in a blog post on the speaker brand's website, somewhat surprising.

The days when bands promoting their music through brands was taboo have long passed, but it's interesting that Band of Horses and Sonos picked one with so much obvious meaning to partner up on. But according to Sonos and lead singer Ben Bridwell, those personal themes are exactly why this song made sense to work on together. Sonos Executive Creative Director, Dmitri Siegel tells Co.Create that, after meeting Bridwell at SXSW this past March, he learned that Bridwell's relationship to his dad and his relationship to his father were tied together intrinsicly—and that's something Sonos tries to help accomplish, too. When Bridwell told Sonos that "music helped us transcend the normal father-son relationship," and that he recalled how "it would be a big deal when some new record would come out by somebody, and I'd bring it home and we'd all listen to it," Siegel immediately connected with it.

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