Petey has become an idiosyncratic indie favorite over the past year-plus, and now he’s nearing a major career milestone, as his debut album, Lean Into Life, is set to drop at the end of the week. Before then, though, he has shared a video for the title track, and like his TikTok clips, it’s an absurd delight. In the clip, multiple characters (all played by Petey) work in an office building and interact with each other in other environments. Eventually, the characters learn how to “bust into life” and enjoy their existence more than they were before.
Petey previously said of the song, “‘Lean Into Life’ is about recognizing that things aren’t working, but instead of trying to take on everything at once, just making little changes that can start to point you in the right direction. I realized I didn’t need to take a huge leap in my life. I just needed to start leaning into things and taking tiny steps towards a healthier situation.”
In a recent interview with Uproxx, he spoke about the strangeness of his music and himself, saying, “I think that I’m really strange. I think that I’m really strange and a lot of people close to me tell me that I’m really strange. And I think that the music that I make is strange. Strange and not strange. And even the not strange, sometimes it’s strange how not strange it is. And with the TikTok too, because like I said, it’s just sort of all in the same bubble for me, I just sort of dive into what’s authentic about me, what I think makes me super weird. I realize how many people that resonates with and how many people are also super weird in the way that I think I’m super weird, which is why this is awesome and why this feels really good.”
Watch the “Lean Into Life” video above.
Lean Into Life is out 9/3 via Terrible Records. Pre-order it here.