Joshua Bassett’s new music video for his song “Doppelgänger” is winning fans over — and keeping them wondering about his past relationship with Olivia Rodrigo.
With the release of Rodrigo’s Sour last year, listeners felt that they had insight into the short-lived romance between her and her High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star, but Bassett finally coming out with his own music has provided another narrative, one that centers complicated feelings over casting the roles of hero and villain.
His video for “Doppelgänger” tells the story of seeing someone who looks like his ex and realizing he still has complicated emotions to work out over the breakup.
“I guess I’m not as over you as I thought that I was / I saw someone who looked like you at our favorite coffee shop / and part of me was hoping that we would get the chance to talk,” the song begins.
Another verse has Bassett singing, “Even when I left, I was still a wreck, trying to find the reason why,” as he recalls memories with his fictional ex-girlfriend only to eventually discover the woman in the coffee shop, of course, isn’t her.
The idea that this song is about Rodrigo is just fan conjecture, but it’s reasonable conjecture, considering Bassett previously spoke to GQ about how difficult it had been to avoid reminders of Rodrigo in the wake of her huge success with “Drivers License.” He even told a story of how a local coffee shop once started playing her songs until he left.
“I’m not here to expose people. It was eating me alive, and I couldn’t keep it in anymore,” he said, referring to his music.
“Doppelgänger,” for which Bassett co-directed the music video alongside Elle Mills, is the latest in a string of videos he has release in recent months. “Set Me Free,” “Secret,” and “Crisis” all dropped in December, as tracks and music videos.
“Anyone who sends hate on my ‘behalf’ is no fan of mine,” he warned at the time, already realizing his fans would interpret his songs to be about Rodrigo the exact same ways hers interpreted her music to be about him.
