John Duff Releases “I Hate L.A.” Single and Music Video

Singer Rebrands ‘City of Dreams’ as ‘City of Living Beyond Your Means’

John Duff’s sings about his disdain for consumer culture in “I Hate L.A.,” his new mid-tempo pop anthem. “L.A. is a city that profits off of people not feeling good about themselves,” he laments. “It isn’t about Los Angeles, though - it’s about what Los Angeles represents ideologically. It’s about the product being sold - all in all, it’s about lack mentality.” He says it’s easy to feel less than when comparing yourself to others; and not just for regular people like him. When he looks up into the hills and sees the thirty-million-dollar mansions, he knows that the people living there aren’t content either. “They want to be Oprah!” Co-written with Aaron Pfeifer and produced by Koil PreAmple and Daniel Schaub, John Duff’s “I Hate L.A.” is being distributed independently and is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and all digital platforms. Its video is available on iTunes, Vimeo and on YouTube.

“I wanted to create something out of my negativity that sounded anthemic and proud,” John Duff continues about “I Hate L.A.”. “We all have negative thoughts; that isn’t unhealthy or unusual. So long as you don’t judge yourself for your feelings, there’s no inherent problem.”

Duff directed the “I Hate L.A.” music video with Brad Hammer, who has a far less hatred of the city than Duff. It was important to John that the video depict the city as he sees it. “I didn’t want the video to be about people doing coke, or the Kardashian’s; we’ve seen that, and it’s tired. I wanted the video to catch the reflection of the glaring hypocrisy. L.A. is a paradox. It’s this liberal paradise with the grossest wealth inequality. It’s morally corrupt.”

Duff set out to glamorize his perceived ugliness of Los Angeles. Every image in the video is layered with symbolism; such as when John is laying on Astroturf, dressed as a rhinestone cowboy, puffing on cigarettes while surrounded by healing crystals. In another scene, he is sticking out of a $130,000 G-wagon filled to the gills with plastic bottles from fancy juice places, wearing an “I Voted” sticker.

The painted face scene is a nod to the city’s beauty influencers, an industry that ranks low in Duff’s estimation. “I think marketing ‘facial improvement’ to children is kind of gross. To each their own, I’m sure people disagree with me. They should make their own music video about that.”

John Duff grew up in a suburb outside of Baltimore, Maryland. He studied musical theater at Syracuse University and after graduating college, he made his way to the bright lights of New York City. After six years in the Big Apple, he moved west to Hollywood to pursue his artistic dreams. He has been in Los Angeles for four years and has released several outrageously gay smash singles including “Hokie Pokie” and “Girly.”

“I encourage listeners to extract from “I Hate L.A.” what they want. If they simply want to hear it as a fun pop song with a colorful video, great. If they want to listen to the lyrics and read into the symbolism in the video, that’s cool, too. Either way, my job is done, so take whatever you want; just remember to tag me!”

John Duff’s “I Hate L.A.” is being distributed independently and is available on Apple Music, Spotify and all digital platforms. Its video is available on YouTube.

Follow John Duff on Facebook and Instagram @ iamjohnduff