Music VideoWatch: Darren Criss Releases New Music Video Starring Stranger Things’ Gaten MatarazzoCriss and his brother, Chuck Criss, combine forces in their band Computer Games.
By
Ruthie Fierberg
August 24, 2017
For those of you who don’t know: Darren Criss has a band. The former star of Broadway’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and his brother, instrumentalist Chuck Criss, comprise the indie pop rock band Computer Games.
The two debuted their first album, Lost Boys Life, in March, and today they release the music video of the title track, which “explores the journey of trying to maintain boyhood ideologies while navigating the throes of adulthood.” Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo is the face of that lost boy. Criss and Matarazzo met during the second annual Elsie Fest, the music festival for Broadway founded by Criss. Matarazzo made his Broadway debut in 2011 as the replacement for Benji in Priscilla Queen of the Desert and appeared in the 2014 revival of Les Misérables as Gavroche.
“We wrote the entire treatment around [Matarazzo],” said Criss. “Thank God he said yes, because otherwise it probably would have just been me running around in a silly wig, trying to be Gaten.” Directed and written by Mia Elan, the music video premiered August 24.
The brothers Criss have been singing and writing music together since high school, and Computer Games marks a realization of a years-long dream.
“Lost Boys Life”was edited by Cami Starkman with director of photography Chapin Hall, and produced by Ricky Rollins and Jesy Odio.