Bryant Barnes has joined forces with fellow rising alt-R&B artist d4vd for a new version of his single “I’d Rather Pretend.”
The piano ballad, underscored by cinematic strings, is an honest meditation on the anxiety of falling in love. The song serves as a defense mechanism, using reaction formation, to protect Barnes’ vulnerable heart in case he falls for someone who isn’t in his best interest. While he desires to be in love, part of him hesitates due to past heartbreak.
“Tell me, is this real to you? / ‘Cause I can feel my heart again / You’re so tempting but I’m scared so I’d rather pretend / That I don’t love you like I do / ‘Cause I don’t wanna hurt again,” he croons in the chorus.
D4vd appears in the second verse, singing from the perspective of someone dealing with the aftermath of what Barnes feared most. “I gave it all for you to fall / Let me be honest, I know / I know we both let go / You fake your love, I still want more,” he sings.
Speaking on his collaboration, Barnes shares, “I’m really grateful for how ‘I’d Rather Pretend’ is going. I hit the Billboard charts. I’m just really grateful that it’s been going up and I have the remix with d4vd. I’ve been wanting to work with d4vd for a while, even when he first began music because growing up he lived like 10 minutes away from me in my hometown. So it really just made a lot of sense to collaborate and I’m glad that we’re able to get on ‘I’d Rather Pretend’ together.”
D4vd adds, “I loved working with Bryant. This was a collab for the fans. Our fans were both spamming us to work with each other, so we knew we had to get it done. Hopefully, we do some more together in the future too.”
The original version of “I’d Rather Pretend” appears on the Houston-born artist’s debut EP, Vanity. Released July 26 via Mercury Records, the seven-track project featured standouts like “Don’t Want A Love Song” and “Give Me A Sign.”
As for dv4d (pronounced “David”), the emerging star released a few new songs this year, including “Withering,” “My House Is Not A Home,” “Feel It,” and “There Goes My Baby.” “Feel It,” with nearly 180 million streams on Spotify, was featured in season two of Prime Video’s animated series Invincible.
Regarding the accompanying video, dv4d explained, “When in the process of making the music video, my good friend Nick Walker (director) and I knew we wanted to do something much different than my usual music video aesthetic. We decided to incorporate my skills in martial arts and gymnastics to pay homage to the action packed animated show Invincible, which I wrote the song feel it for. It felt very full circle.”
Stream Bryant Barnes and dv4d’s “I’d Rather Pretend” below.
