Ryanhood – “Alright Tonight” (video) (premiere)

The duo Ryanhood has been all about proudly exhibiting their scrapes and scars for the world to see. This much couldn’t be any clearer than on Yearbook, their latest album released earlier this year. Ryan Green and Cameron Hood, two of Tucson’s most well-regarded artists, take this general fact about their artistic output and set it against an anthemic backdrop in their music video for “Alright Tonight”.

Their signature harmonies cut clear across the song’s center, carrying along with all of the musical workings of a catchy pop-rock anthem. Yet, especially in the message that they carry along with the song, there is something more here. Set to photographer Taylor Noel’s “Passing Faces” photo project, which, according to Hood, “includes highly candid, conversational portraits taken during long-form interviews where the subjects — including Ryan, myself, and some of our favorite friends, artists, musicians, and moms — talk openly about daring to discover and reveal who we are underneath the clothing of our personalities.”

On “Alright Tonight” and its accompanying music video, Hood says: “I once heard it said that the best thing that could happen to you would be for your darkest secrets to be broadcast on the 5 o’clock news in your hometown. If you think about your secrets for a moment, it’s absolutely terrifying. But then there’s this hidden gift: once it’s all out there — the good, the bad, the broken, the beautiful — you’re free. You don’t have to hide or pretend anymore. You can throw up your hands and say ‘Yep, this is me, for better or worse, this is actually who I am!’

And when they see your secret talents, addictions, bad habits, and fears, those who are going to judge you will judge you, while those who are going to love you will go on loving you. I’d like to think when the dust settles, there will be more people in the love camp than the judgment camp; that there are more people who relate with brokenness than with perfection. So that’s where this song is coming from. It’s an invitation to show our true selves, and to be free.”