Comprised of four longtime friends Ben Grey (vocals, guitar), Austin Hayman (guitar), Keith Cooper (drums) and Lucy Lawrence (bass), the Los Angeles-based indie rock quartet Dear Boy had a breakthrough 2018 — while crafting music that’s both deeply personal and a celebration of their hometown: local critics and music publications hailed the quartet as one of the best, up-and-coming area bands; they played multiple sold out hometown shows and toured with Rogue Wave, Day Wave and Sunflower Bean.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the members of Dear Boy will be releasing the Strawberry EP on March 1, 2019 through the band’s Easy Hell Records and Burnside/The Orchard and the EP’s first single is the bittersweet and anthemic “Semester.” Centered around shimmering guitar chords, a sinuous bass line, an infectious hook and plaintive vocals, the song focuses on profound loss — and that peculiar moment in the immediate aftermath in which you can’t quite figure out how to feel, what to do next or if you can even move forward. As the band’s Ben Gray says in press notes, “Most of us have whole periods of our lives that are defined by one person… And when that person leaves, returning to your normal life feels strange. Almost as if the world moved on behind your back.”

Directed by Samuel Bayer, the recently released video features black and white footage of the band earnestly performing the song in an art gallery with the camera artfully going in and out of focus.