Yony Premiere Their Affectionate and Comical “Be My Cocoon” Music Video

Welcome to the world of Mike Cionni. You’re about to set foot into the Yony frontman’s safe space with the release of his new album, More Truth In Fiction, plus the cool single, “Be My Cocoon.” And, accompanying the eccentric, slightly offbeat ballad is a rather comical music video with a ’60s kind of vibe. The song is Cionni musing on life and love, not to mention how his conception of both was affected by the fragile times in which it was written.

Yony is celebrating their fifth year together in 2022, a unit that is now a sextet after some member additions over the last couple of years. Cionni got the ball rolling with his eight-song debut Yony: The Album in 2017. After a few false starts towards assembling a band, things finally got moving with the release of 2019’s Automatic Thoughts EP which attracted the attention of keyboardist Alex Zudin. As that relationship began to blossom, so did the band.

Explaining how the new single was written and what it means to him, Cionni says:

“‘Be My Cocoon’ is a love letter to my partner, Bree. Quite frankly, I have no interest in writing romantic songs. It’s always felt like saying ‘I love you’ just to hear it repeated back. But the concept came up naturally, and felt like a path less traveled, so I took it. The lyrics were finished within an hour. I remember laughing a lot. Writing the song taught me something new about partnership. I always thought I needed someone who could make me a better person; iron out my weaknesses and help me reach my full potential. But what I really needed was a person whose strengths were my weaknesses.

“Every metaphor in ‘Be My Cocoon’ explores love as a force independent of the protagonist, a deus ex machina that helps our hero to achieve things he couldn’t accomplish on his own. I’m realizing that’s how love is supposed to feel. Not an agent of change, but of self-love. A companion who can be all the things I am not.”

Regarding the video, Cionni adds:

“Our good friend and photographer Sasha Dylan Bell had the idea to shoot a cheap video on Super 8, so we all went out to Placerita Canyon for a day of fun in the sun. The whole thing was very summer-of-love. After that, we captured some green screen footage to sprinkle in a semi-animated hero’s journey throughout. The man is a genius and a constant support to us. I don’t know what we’d do without him!”

The writing of More Truth In Fiction came about during the harsh days of the 2020 COVID-19 related lockdown. Inspired by witnessing the world quickly unravelling, Cionni proceeded through a very productive period of songwriting which felt comforting to them. The songs became a safe space for him to express his frustrations at what he was witnessing and the associated helplessness that came with it. Operating within the pandemic-related mandates and restrictions, the band started recording the album at Sir Tiger Studio and Cionni’s apartment. All the uncertainty turned out to be somewhat of a blessing in disguise, as it energized the band members and offered them some purpose.

With some relative normalcy restored, Cionni and his Yony bandmates hope that they can get back to doing normal rock band things, motivated by a growing legion of fans.

More Truth In Fiction Track Listing:

1. Leave Our Heads Behind
2. Waves of Exhaustion
3. Drift Away
4. More Truth in Fiction
5. Know Me Both
6. Morning Light
7. If It Happened 2 U
8. 1995
9. The Only Naked Guy at the Party
10. Be My Cocoon
11. Brianna

Artwork for the album ‘More Truth in Fiction’ by Yony