American Songwriter Contest Finalist Lily Hain Tackles Seasonal Depression in New “Oh God” Music Video (Exclusive)

Lily Hain tackles seasonal depression head-on in “Oh God,” her pop rock banger about seasonal depression.

Hain, who was a finalist in American Songwriter’s 2023 song contest, released the video for “Oh God” today.

“It’s one of my favorite videos I’ve ever made,” Hain said. “I’m releasing it intentionally around daylight savings because I know people are going to be like, ‘Oh no, it’s dark out.’”

Hain knew as soon as she wrote the song that when she filmed the video, she wanted to do the shoot in the grocery store – and she wanted to smash some Cheerios.

“It’s a song about being angry at winter,” Hain said. “It literally just chronicled me going to the grocery store. It was cold out. I was miserable, it was dark. (Hain) got cat called. I wrote it basically on the way to the grocery store. The grocery store was just, I guess, in the back of my mind.”

Hain has always enjoyed unhinged music videos, and this was her opportunity to make one of her own.

Lily Hain Wanted to Destroy a Box of Cheerios

“I kind of wanted to just channel my rage,” she said. “(Hain) didn’t know how I was going to do it. I didn’t know how I was going to get a grocery store to let me kind trash their store, but it happened. I’m really excited about it.”

Hain didn’t trash the whole store, but she made a dent in the cereal aisle – and the bread.

“I didn’t end up doing Cheerios,” she said. “It was too messy, but we did bread instead.”

Hain is a North Carolina-born singer songwriter who now calls New York City home. “Oh God” is from her debut album Fatal Flaws that she released in February. She followed up with a deluxe version that she dropped to the market this fall.

The singer is anxious for the deluxe version because she feels she didn’t get the chance to properly promote her debut album when it came out. Her father died in January, and Fatal Flaws came out one moth later.

Lily Hain’s Father Died and She Couldn’t Promote Her Album

“It was just too much to handle both,” she said. “I didn’t really get to promote it in the way that I wanted to. I’m using this deluxe version as a way to get out all the things I wanted to get out with the first round. So, it’s kind of just like a do-over.”

But the deluxe edition isn’t all she is celebrating. Her song “Internalize” is part of Dove’s Self Esteem Campaign in Canada. The campaign launched in September and is her first time sync placement.

“Having my first sync placement be with Dove and also be part of such an impactful campaign means so much to me,” she said. “I feel like the campaign’s message of shedding a light on adolescents’ insecurities and trying to combat them really aligns with what I want to do and say with my music. ‘Internalize’ was inspired by my struggle with being a people pleaser and letting people walk all over me.”

(photo courtesy of Lily Hain)