
daddy issues
‘ursine major’
director ★ producer ★ production designer ★ editor
WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO
★
WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO ★
★ director & producer. LAUREN HESTER
★ cinematographer. SCOTT DI STEFANO
★ editor. LAUREN HESTER
★ production designer. LAUREN HESTER



















about the MUSIC VIDEO:
Released on Daddy Issues’ self-titled debut EP in 2024, ‘Ursine Major’ is a boppy and incandescent anti-patriarchal punk anthem, brimming with blistering riot grrrl energy. The track imagines a relationship between a ringleader and his puppet, a hungry bear and his prey, and serves as a dire warning from a desperate friend watching someone lose their sense of identity to a toxic relationship.
Inspired by the fable of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the music video depicts a twisted version of the classic story, wherein Goldilocks is stuck in a controlling relationship with one of the three bears. After being subjected to many affronts by the bear and his two bear housemates, Goldilocks embarks on a rampage – trashing their cottage classic ‘Goldilocks’ style – and eventually frees herself from this damaging relationship.
The video was directed by Daddy Issues guitarist Lauren Hester, who has previously directed videos for Grinspoon (Never Say Never) and Private Function (Give War a Chance).
“Ursine Major is a song about empowering femmes to free themselves from the clutches of toxic relationships and controlling masculinity, so I wanted to represent these themes of femme rage and empowerment in a really stylised and almost grotesque manner. In the original Goldilocks tale, the three bears were three bachelor housemates instead of a family, so the idea of turning the bears into stereotypical scummy sharehouse bros and playing with these exaggerated tropes whilst leaning into the unhinged nature of the Goldilocks character really appealed to me as a fun way to represent femme rage and empowerment.
“Creating exaggerated masks for Goldilocks also added a unique visual appeal to the video that helped to construct a strong storybook-inspired aesthetic, but with an unsettling undertone. Defiling the classic fairytale look with these grotesque masks as well as an excess of beers and unsightly material amongst the quaint cottage surroundings was such a fun process and harks back to the darker undertones of original fairytales, which perfectly encapsulates the undercurrent of feminine fury in the song.”