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Photo: Julian Klincewicz

Musician and visual artist Deaton Chris Anthony teams up with New Zealand star BENEE on his latest tune, "Goodbuy My Old Life." The track is taken from Deaton's upcoming debut album SID THE KID, set to release July 29.

"Goobuy My Old Life" is an instant earworm, with its whimsical instrumentation, nostalgic synths, beats reminiscent of a '90s video game, and flighty vocals making for an irresistible left-field sonic cocktail. Deaton explains that Sid, the album's protagonist, "likes what he can't buy," including but not limited to "Power tools and Tabi boots/ And Mui Mui bags," and that it makes him angry that he can't have them. In the song's chorus, Deaton says farewell to his old life and explains that money is now why he acts the way he does. BENEE's smooth vocals blend perfectly with the vivid soundscape, chiming in to sing about the stresses of time and having to keep a job.

The accompanying music video, directed by Justice Vaughn Ott, begins with an opening scene of Sid, played by Sam Pillow, arriving at the bowling alley. Then, intercut with scenes of Deaton and BENEE hanging out in a claw machine full of banana plushies, chaos ensues after a mysterious keg of "Toxic Ooze" soda contaminates the alley. The equipment goes rogue and the mysterious substance brings a fleet of bowling pins to life, who then go on a cannibalistic murder spree. Yes, you read that correctly.

"Kansas was home for me all of my life before I moved to Los Angeles," shares Deaton. "Kansas is where I thought I was meant to do one thing and one thing only. Bowl. At the age of 12, I placed the highest score in my age group in all of Kansas. 246. I went on to become bowling captain in High School and demolished my high score with a 286 at regionals. As the years went by, I never could beat my high score. Those 14 missed pins haunted me. A 300 is every bowler's dream! I thought bowling was my purpose, but I was wrong."

Deaton continues, "Moving to Los Angeles crushed my bowling career, and my life became a rat race. Becoming the world's biggest pop star isn't easy after all. It's brutal. It's war. I've learned so much over the years recording music, but I have to be honest, these days, all I can think about is bowling. Bowling isn't just a sport or a thing to do with your friends. It's a lifestyle, and it's my life! Style. Where is it in bowling these days? Have you seen what the pros are wearing? Ouch. Bowling is in dire need of a rebrand. A revolution! My mission is to make bowling stylish again. Maybe even as stylish as the bowling animations on screen when you get a strike?"

SID THE KID is the titular character's story, a somewhat fictionalized version of young Deaton and his older brother Korbin's life growing up in Kansas, Deaton's actual home state. "I draw inspiration from childhood. I have an older brother, Korbin. This record is dedicated to him," says Deaton. "We would drive in the country in Kansas with the sunroof open. We'd listen to Dashboard Confessional, a lot of emo stuff, and he would scream the lyrics, looking up at the stars. That's where SID THE KID takes place: rural Kansas. Imagine this: I was a chubby ten-year-old, and my nickname was Sid the Kid. Korbin and I lived in this little shed in the middle of this forest. This shed had our computer, T.V., and all of our music gear. We'd walk to school nearby, and we hung out at the skate park and the bowling alley."

Deaton pushes his creativity in a bold new direction in the lead-up to SID THE KID. The synth whiz's first-ever guitar-based music will see him collaborating with various acclaimed artists, including Filipino-British singer-songwriter beabadoobee, rising New Zealand star BENEE, and multi-instrumentalist Mac Demarco. According to Deation, the visual language of the record is a spectrum of color, texture, and emotion that walks the line between modern nostalgia and contemporary visual vernacular, with each video paying homage to different aesthetics of early 2000s childhood—VHS memories, Sunday morning cartoons, skate videos on DVD, old family Super 8 films, and reality TV shows.

Watch the"Goodbuy My Old Life" video below: