If you thought Ben Platt would opt for levity after his raw, chilling performance in Broadway’s “Dear Evan Hansen,” well, think again.
The Tony-winning actor and singer unveiled the music video for his first single, “Bad Habit,” Friday. The clip, viewed above, finds a forlorn Platt at a piano and roaming the streets of New York as he reminisces about a lost love. (Keep your eyes peeled for a surprise cameo, too.)
“It’s sung from the perspective of someone looking retrospectively at a relationship that they have gotten out of and realizing that it’s someone they can’t seem to escape,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “There’s an attraction and comfort to someone that might not be the right person for us, but there’s an [undeniable] connection where you can’t help but go back again and again.”
“Bad Habit” coincides with the release of a second single, “Ease My Mind,” which finds Platt opening up about his struggles with anxiety. Both “Bad Habit” and “Ease My Mind” appear on Platt’s hotly anticipated debut album. Due out March 29, “Sing To Me Instead” comprises 12 original tracks that chart the highs and lows of a romantic relationship from start to finish.
In making his transition from Broadway breakout to brooding singer-songwriter, Platt said he looked to the work of Adele, James Taylor and Carole King ― among other artists ― for inspiration. He told the Los Angeles Times that the album represents “an amalgam” of different relationships he’s had rather than one specific person, and “the very small amount that I’ve learned while grappling with love and romance.”
And though he’d like “Sing To Me Instead” to “be the first of many records,” he hopes to strike a balance between his acting and musical pursuits. Later this year, he’ll star in Ryan Murphy’s “The Politician,” a Netflix comedy series with Jessica Lange and Gwyneth Paltrow. Along with roles in the forthcoming films “Run This Town” and “Broken Diamonds,” he’s said to be in early talks for a big-screen adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen,” too.
“It was nice to have acting ability and craft to call upon as a way in and a way to feel comfortable and a vehicle to express the personal experience,” he said. “I definitely revealed more of my own interpretations and instincts than I would were I playing a character but performance is always in the back of my mind.”
Listen to “Ease My Mind” below.
