Only Child delivers a sweet and salty kiss-off anthem in ‘Don’t Call Me BB’
The Boston camp-pop songwriter and multi-instrumentalist unveils new song and video on Friday, August 26
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Only Child’s glittery debut EP ‘SRS ONE’ set for release later this fall
Photo Credit: Mary Lee Desmond
BOSTON, MA [August 26, 2022] – There may be power in the phone call, but there’s even greater power in not picking up and letting it go to voicemail. Because let’s face it, no one needs unnecessary drama in their lives. That’s the vibe present in “Don’t Call Me BB,” the new song and video from Only Child, the camp-pop project from Boston singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Christopher James Martin. It’s silly, it’s salty, and it’s downright infectious as cotton candy color palettes contrast and complement acerbic lyrics: The bubbly single with serious undertones hits the streams on Friday, August 26, alongside an effervescent music video that positions Only Child as someone who will soon be fielding a lot of calls.
Will he pick up? That all depends.
“Lyrically the song is about realizing someone you’ve been obsessing over isn’t all that great,” says Martin, familiar to those in the Boston music scene through his band All Eyes on Me. “I like to think of the song as a kiss-off anthem. The most productive time for my songwriting usually occurs when I have a crush on someone and I can’t tell if it’s reciprocated. Of course, usually if you can’t tell if they’re not interested, they aren’t. But I’m obsessed with torturing myself, and the guessing game can be fun.”
That playful attitude is on full kaleidoscopic display, as Only Child draws from fellow queer-positive artists like Tegan and Sara, Robyn, Christine and the Queens, and Shamir. There’s a bubblegum bounce to “Don’t Call Me BB,” the type of earworm that takes residence in your head and refuses to leave as Martin sings the title refrain over and over – it’s a mantra, it’s a vibe, it’s a lifestyle. And it sets a playful tone for Only Child’s forthcoming debut EP, Srs One, set for release this fall through producer Casey Desmond’s diverse Jungle Up Records label.
“Thematically, I wanted the song to have an undertone of fun and campiness to offset the drama in the lyrics,” he adds. “I can be prone to melodrama in my personal life, and that’s not always fun, so I try not to take myself too seriously most of the time. That interplay between sincere, strong emotions with a sense of humor is a good way to describe the song’s theme. There’s also a way of viewing this song with a singular queer lens that’s both subtextual and overtly referenced in the title. There’s the theme of not being able to trust someone with your physical and emotional safety.”
Where Martin has full trust is within his network of friends, collaborators, and conspirators. With Casey Desmond producing the single, as well as the full EP, the glitzy music video for “Don’t Call Me BB” was directed by Mary Lee Desmond at Magic Room in Brighton. Kaitlyn Ciampa teamed with the Desmonds on filming the visual, as well as stylizing Martin’s hair and make up; while Martin’s self-described Butch Band of Kara MacDonald, Alison Pappas, and KT Sullivan not only gives him full backing support, but positions the artist as a sort of ringleader in the game for his heart. Martin describes the shoot as rife with “immaculate vibes of friendship and sisterhood throughout the entire long weekend,” and maybe even had a little bit of too much fun during the process.
“Mary Lee Desmond quickly picked up on a lot of the visual signifiers and color palette the video would need,” Martin says. “There are even what I would call Easter eggs in the ‘Don’t Call Me BB’ video that tease the rest of the EP. In ‘Palaver,’ I sing about someone wearing an ‘idiosyncratic crown’ as a way of talking about people that weaponize their personality quirks. There’s an antagonist in the ‘Don’t Call Me BB’ that wears what I visualize that crown looking like in reality. It’s a way I tried to build a shorthand for the world of Only Child. As for the narrative of the video, I knew I didn’t want it to have a typical ‘love story’ or to be about rejection or anything really romantic. Friendship was very sacred to me, and I wanted to represent the idea that someone can recover from a bruised ego by being around the people you are closest to who love you for being your truest self.”
Martin knew “Don’t Call Me BB” needed to have visual elements that were bright and fun contrasting with the track’s darker emotional tones. “The truth lives in that liminal space,” he notes, “and songwriting for me is a way of saying what is true.” That sentiment is what elevates the track – and video – into something light and airy, the type of synth-pop that dances with the clouds, fully aware the rain can come at any time.
“Something about the song felt different from the other songs I had written, I felt like I had written something that was still wistful and romantic but also silly and salty,” Martin adds. “It reflected my own personality more acutely than I felt about my songs in the past. Once I took the song to a place I felt comfortable to show to other people, one of the first to hear it was Casey Desmond. She has produced my bands’ music in the past, and I really enjoy her production style. We’ve been friends since we were very young, and I knew she would be able to take the song to the next level. I felt like she has an intuitive knowledge of what I’m trying to do as an artist and a songwriter, and she brings a lot of her own creativity as a songwriter to my music.”
He adds: “It was her idea to add the voice memo messages that play in the beginning and the end of the song. I called her on the phone and left a bunch of messages like a crazy person and she put them into the song.”
We’re glad he made the call.
Media Contact: Please direct all press inquiries to Only Child at onlychildbostonmusic@gmail.com or Michael Marotta at michael@publisist.co.
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‘Don’t Call Me BB’ single artwork:
Photo by Mary Lee Desmond / Design by Oliver Guiney
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‘Don’t Call Me BB’ production credits:
Written by Christopher James Martin
Produced by Casey Desmond
Video directed by Mary Lee Desmond
Video filmed by Kaitlyn Ciampa, Casey Desmond, and Mary Lee Desmond
Video hair and make up by Casey Desmond and Kaitlyn Ciampa
Butch Band: Kara MacDonald, Alison Pappas, KT Sullivan
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Only Child short bio:
How do we detach shame from our desires? How can we live in the discomfort of hiding our longing? Only Child, the musical project of songwriter Christopher James Martin, asks and seeks to answer those questions on debut EP Being Srs, set for Fall 2022 release through producer Casey Desmond’s Jungle Up Records. The EP is led by the bouncing electro-pop single “Don’t Call Me BB”, a campy kiss off anthem with a chorus that’s impossible to forget. Try to resist the temptation to send it to your ex. They’re just not worth your time.
Inspired by queer-fronted pop acts Tegan and Sara, Erasure, Shamir, and Christine and the Queens, Only Child combines ambient instrumentation with vocal hooks to craft sweet and sour pop songs. “‘Don’t Call Me BB’ started with a straightforward beat I learned at summer camp, an otherwise miserable experience for me,” says Martin. “It was one of the first times I thought about music in an obsessive way, which was the beginning of my relationship with songwriting.”
After singing about the nuances of modern relationships in Boston band All Eyes on Me, Only Child is forging a new path ahead, glazed in beats and treats with personal compositions written from the heart. From collaborating with Boston’s synth-pop queen Casey Desmond to assembling his own “butch band” for the “Don’t Call Me BB” music video, Only Child is both personal and collaborative. But it’s purely Only Child. “I want there to be a space for my songs that was more lighthearted, more upbeat, even if they might be lyrically similar to the songs I wrote for All Eyes on Me,” Martin adds.
With Being Srs, Only Child is making that space on his own terms.
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‘Don’t Call Me BB’ video screengrabs:
Photos by Mary Lee Desmond
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Press Contact: michael@publisist.co or onlychildbostonmusic@gmail.com