Brand new Belgian band I will, I swear first caught our attention when they released their video for “Long Days,” a cinematic song laced with bittersweet sentiments.
We’ve only fallen more in love with Fien’s delicate vocals and the patient arrangements of these songs as we proudly premiere their sophomore release “Sleep,” a climactic piece that reminds us of one of our favorite films, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
Watch the exclusive video premiere of “Sleep” below, then read our interview with band member Jonathan underneath.
Hello, I will, I swear. Your music and videos are quite sad. Genius and sad. Would you say you’re generally driven more towards the melancholy aspects of life or is it just when you put pen to paper that the more sad elements come out?
I wrote “Long Days” and “Sleep” when I was going through a rather difficult time in my life. I think writing those songs really helped me cope with all that stuff. I’ve been making music since a few years now, but this was the first time that I put all of my heart in writing the lyrics. And I happen to like minor chords as well.
Another music blog described us as being “young, depressed musicians,” but I can guarantee that’s not true at all!
We’re all people who love life. We even know how to smile, really!
I don’t sit down and think, “I have to make a sad song now.” We might even do some more happy and uptempo stuff in the future, who knows. It’s our goal to make good music that people can relate to.
The video for your first song “Long Days” is taken from a short film by Shanah Noynaert. How did that collaboration come about?
We had been planning to do a video for “Long Days” since we signed at Unday Records. In my search for inspiration, I started browsing videos on YouTube and Vimeo. One day I stumbled upon Shanah’s video. It was exactly what I wanted. I watched it a few times, muted the sound and played “Long Days” instead. I immediately knew that making a video from scratch would be ridiculous, it would never have been as good as Shanah’s footage and story.
I just messaged her through Facebook, and just a few days later we were sitting together to do the edit. Trying to keep a 7 minute story intact in a 3 and a half minute video was a bit of a challenge, but it worked out perfectly.
We still keep in touch, we really want to work with her again for future videos. She’s so talented, it’s ridiculous!
Tell us three interesting facts about the creation of this new video for “Sleep?”
1: The video was made by Sofie Lang, a close friend of Shanah. Shanah was filming her graduation project in Sofie’s lovely house, so we met there to do the editing for the “Long Days” video. Sofie fell in love with “Sleep” the first time she heard it. When she asked me if she could use the song for her graduation project I didn’t even have to think about it. She could relate to the lyrics so well that I just knew she would do a great job translating the song to a meaningful video.
2: The boy in the video is actually Shanah’s boyfriend. Eef, the girl in the video, was no stranger to us either. Tineke, the girl from the “Long Days” video, is also a photographer, and had done a few shoots with Eef and her twin sister. What a small world!
3: The video for “Sleep” was shot in one day. I didn’t attend the shooting itself, but I did help writing down the lyrics for “Sleep” about a million times at 8 in the morning. Just when we finished, Sofie realized that writing down the lyrics once was actually enough, since she has a scanner/printer in the same room we sat in writing on these pieces of paper.. oh snap!
We’re always humbled and encouraged when we hear that Invisible Children’s message has made it outside of our own borders. How did you find the story in Belgium?
Same way as the rest of the world I guess, the KONY 2012 video had a huge impact online. Anyone who wasn’t living under a rock in 2012 must have seen the video. The film was a bit of a shocker, and a well needed eye-opener for a lot of us. But I’m glad IC is not all about shocking. Music and art can mean a lot and keeps it interesting for everybody to keep following what you do.
Your first live shows are coming up. Talk us through your emotions. Is it scary, exciting, a mixture?
I have always been more of a ‘studio man’.. I like crafting songs, spending hours finding the right piano sound. When I’m recording I can really forget about the world around me. I like the fact that I can take my time to have everything sounding exactly like I want it to.
I played in a band before, and even though I liked performing live, I could never really relax. We used backing tracks and click tracks. Our songs had string arrangements, but we didn’t have live strings. We used a lot of samples..
In the beginning, there were no intentions of performing live with I will, I swear.. But I found the right musicians, we get to play with actual string players, instead of relying on a Macbook Pro to do all the hard work. I always dreamed of playing with live strings, and I’m so glad we get the chance to do it now. I can’t wait to get on stage. I really want I will, I swear to be a unique experience when playing live.
Your vinyl for the single just came out. 1) Congrats! 2) What’s next for you all? Essentially: when can we schedule on our calendar to buy your album?
Thanks! We’ve been incredibly lucky with the people at Unday Records being crazy enough to invest in a young band nobody had heard of. Everyone knows the music business has been going through hard times the last few years. Finding a label is hard enough, and most of the indie labels don’t have any budget at all. Selling records is important, of course. A record label won’t just “give you money” because they like your music. Same thing at Unday Records, but it doesn’t feel that way at all. Sometimes I visit the Unday office, mostly to just talk about music and drink beers. Trixie Whitley, another artist signed at Unday, sold 10.000 copies of her album in the first week after the release. But Tim, our label manager, is just as enthusiastic about us getting 10.000 plays on YouTube or Soundcloud. Tim understands the importance of online promotion. You can stream every Unday release for free on Soundcloud. I don’t know a lot of labels who offer that kind of service to potential buyers..
We’re working hard on new stuff. Maybe an EP, maybe a full album, we don’t know yet. We’re aiming to release some new music by the end of the year, maybe the beginning of next year. It all depends on how the songwriting goes. We received some raving reviews for Long Days/Sleep, and we want to continue to live up to the expectations of our listeners. And of course, my own expectations. In 8 years of songwriting, I’ve never been as happy with the result as now, with Long Days/Sleep.
I have always been making music by myself because I like to be in control. But the last few months I learned that working together with other people shouldn’t be a bad thing. Fien, our singer, knows how to write great lyrics, and Pieter, our guitar player, has some really good ideas as well. And knowing that we can count on 5 experienced string players will make the writing even more fun of course!
Think people should hear about this?