Toronto-based singer-songwriter and filmmaker David Jane delves into the uncanny experience of returning home to a place that no longer feels familiar with his latest single, “Five and Dime.” Introspective and riveting, the track blends acoustic-driven singer-songwriter stylings with atmospheric indie production, capturing a profound sense of disconnection and longing.

Following the success of his contemplative single, “Garden Out Back,” which reflected on the lingering ache of a love left behind, “Five and Dime” shifts focus to David‘s own journey of re-acclimating to a post-Vancouver reality. It chronicles the often unhealthy coping mechanisms used to navigate this transitional phase, such as immersing oneself in fictional narratives, offering a window into the internal conflict of seeking comfort in escapism versus facing life’s stark realities. The track is a testament to the chemistry between David and producer Sam Arion (Mute Choir), marking their third collaboration.

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? 

“Five and Dime” might be the most personal song I’ve ever written. It deals with the kind of uncanny feeling that comes with returning to a home that no longer feels familiar and the unhealthy ways of coping, which to a cinephile like me with as much of my heart in film as there is in music, means wiling away countless hours binging classic movies. In this case, I was returning home from the most inspiring year of my life studying film in Vancouver only to find that, while I was gone, most of my friends had moved away and nothing about my home really felt comforting or familiar anymore. Rather than facing that feeling head on, it’s easy instead to slip into these fictional narratives. I think there’s a fine line between drawing inspiration from these incredible artistic expressions and dissociating into them, using them as an escape. “Five and Dime” exists right in that subtle intersection. Mentally, I even built the structure of the song and production around The Hero’s Journey—perhaps the most deeply rooted story structure in all narrative, especially film. These cinematic inspirations and inclinations were just crying out for some visuals to match. 

2. What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)? 

“Five and Dime” is the second single building to an upcoming EP that really captures the transformative feelings of this transition from Vancouver back to my hometown and feeling somehow disconnected from this whole different version of myself I left behind. In the first single’s video, “Garden Out Back,” we see this duality represented through a quiet, disaffected version of myself contrasted with an elevated, desperate, pleading version, both trapped in the same small space. In “Five and Dime,” I again partnered with Chara Ho of ZestyNobody who helped on “Garden Out Back”,  to double down on this idea of duplicity—in this version, there’s the confident, idealized vision you see on the TV contrasted with the dissociative, disaffected reality of sitting at home alone on a Friday night. To tie into this vintage “Five and Dime,” classic Hollywood theme I had going, I wanted the TV performance footage to appear in grainy black & white, like an old Ed Sullivan performance or Dylan in “Don’t Look Back” or something. As previously mentioned, the disaffected version finds a source of light and inspiration in this idealized performance, only to be suckered by the unreality of it once it ends.

3. What was the process of making this video?

“Garden Out Back” was a very simple shoot – Chara and I rented a photo studio for a few hours with a couple cool ideas to capture as much footage as we could. I figured we’d do something similar here, though she suggested we up the ante and find a proper cinematographer to help. Luckily, I know Hayden Salter from my short film “Apnea,” who was happy to hop on board. Within days of Hayden’s involvement, he’d confirmed access to a top line camera and gear, an accessible studio space and a whole light setup, all within our tiny little pocket budget. Suddenly, we had three days to flesh out a full-fledged music video and full-on production with just three people. Safe to say it turned into one of the most frenetic weeks of my life: on set, I’d be loading gear up four flights of stairs, hanging off ladders and shuffling furniture around all within minutes of fixing up my makeup/wardrobe and hopping in front of the camera. My favourite shots from the video might be me sitting in front of a projection of the black & white performance footage. We shot all the black and white performance footage first thing in the morning so that we could quickly apply some colour correction and render out a proper video to project against the blank wall before re-setting the space into the living room. It ended up taking nearly eight hours before this render came out so the three of us had to improvise about four different set ups in the meantime. Nothing went smooth per se, but Chara, Hayden and I were having so much fun capturing something we truly believed in so it was easy to push through any setbacks and keep going. I edited the video myself with colouring support from Marco Leung and about a month after shooting, it was gearing to go.