Watch Toro y Moi Embrace Normcore Style (Including Tevas!) in His New Music Video
Halfway through Chaz Bear’s music video for “Freelance,” a track from his just-announced Toro y Moi album, Outer Peace, there’s a lighthearted moment where he points out his footwear of choice. “Cazadero got me wearing all camo/Decked in Patagonia head to toe . . . /No more shoes and socks/I only rock sandals.” The camera first zooms in on his camouflage hoodie emblazoned with Cazadero, the Northern California town where Bear vacations—he says the Russian River is particularly peaceful—then director Harry Israelson pans down to his feet, revealing a humble pair of . . . Tevas.
It may seem like a post-ironic fashion statement, given trend forecaster K-Hole’s thoughts on normcore, suggesting “good style” has become more about fitting in with the masses (i.e., in sneakers and light-wash jeans) than dressing like a true individual. But Bear isn’t being tongue-in-cheek here. He’s sincere about his favorite sandals, albeit with a slight caveat: “I’m more of a Birkenstocks guy, but Tevas win me over just because they’re waterproof.”
That appreciation for practical, down-to-earth fashion likely goes back to his childhood and teenage years. Growing up in South Carolina, Bear wasn’t exactly tapped into fashion trends; he was more into functional clothes that lent themselves to skateboarding. A similar normcore-ish aesthetic pervades the “Freelance” video, which mimics a photo shoot (in fact, the album cover actually came from the video, something Bear notes he’s always wanted to do). “In this post-Instagram world, when we’re not really sure where the subculture is, everyone is [trying] to be ‘normal,’ though I feel like it’s just sort of aligned with where I’ve always been,” Bear says. To wit, the only “fashion” item he wears in the video is a quilted Bode jacket (which is more homespun than haute, anyway).
The song itself is loosely tied to normcore, too, with lyrics questioning what is “normal” in the creative freelance economy. Bear has been working for himself as a professional musician for nearly a decade, having studied graphic design in school; freelancers and office workers alike will chuckle at his compact desk space and exercise ball turned chair. “I feel like I’ve found who I’m talking to with my music,” he says. “For the longest time, I thought I was talking to music lovers or even a specific age group. But now I feel like I’m talking to anyone who is creative.” He recognizes that the “hustle” is especially tough for freelancers: “Once you open Pandora’s box on that freelance work ethic, you think about it [during] every meal and every shower—there’s no turning it off.”
“Freelance” is fine-tuned for that overworked state of mind. “This is music for someone who has a brain that’s just constantly thinking,” he says. “They’re okay with being trendy or not being trendy, [because] they’re aware of what the trends are. I think that’s all that matters now. I think that’s the essence of normcore: You know about all of these higher worlds of culture, but you choose not to participate, almost [in] a subcultural way. It’s an awareness—like, yeah, I know what it is, but it’s not me.”
Bear may not be actively playing the fashion game, but his functional basics are still speaking to us—and considering how many young creatives are going freelance right now (the freelance workforce is expected to reach 50 percent in the next decade), we may have just found their new anthem.
