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Premiere: Grimson Shares New Single, “Spherical Journey Ticket”
Debut Album, Climbing Up The Chimney Out September 1st
Aug 08, 2023
Subsequent month, Berlin-based singer/songwriter Aiden Berglund is again with Climbing Up The Chimney, his debut full-length album underneath the moniker Grimson. After starting in New York’s indie folks scene, Berglund made his method to Berlin within the midst of the pandemic and started recording as Grimson, shifting his model into playful artwork rock accompanied by candy harmonies and baroque pop preparations.
As he describes, the songs on Climbing Up The Chimney have been written throughout his teenage years between 2013 and 2017 and “recorded in a bed room in Brooklyn, in a dorm room within the Hudson Valley, in a basement on Staten Island, in a bed room in Berlin, and at Impression Studios in Berlin.” He has additionally included a powerful multimedia factor into the world of his songs, pulling from his work as an animator, which incorporates the video for Weyes Blood’s “It’s Not Simply Me, It’s All people.”
The total report is out on September 1st, and Berglund has already shared a number of of the album’s tracks as earlier singles. In the present day, he’s again with one other new single, “Spherical Journey Ticket,” together with the accompanying animated video, premiering with Beneath the Radar.
“Spherical Journey Ticket” finds Berglund leaning into his expertise for charming instrumentation and lilting Beatles-esque melodies, taking a winding tour via a nostalgic and melancholic reverie. The easy rhythms and swaying guitar lend the monitor a candy and lulling factor, nearly as if Berglund is telling a joyful childhood story. But, the swelling strings inform a special story, including drama and coloration as Berglund explores the ache and confusion of separation via the lens of a kid: “You’d be shocked / How a lot a round-trip ticket might change / See, she might need gentle / However you may see it in her eyes / There was ache / In order the youngsters they fell and cried / And walked via the turn-style it turned / The purpose of their lives / The place nothing would ever be the identical.”
Try the tune and video beneath, directed and animated by Yara Pan. Climbing Up The Chimney is out all over the place on September 1st. Pre-order the report right here. You can too learn Berglund’s accompanying Q&A on the tune and album beneath.
What has the trail towards launch been like on your debut LP, Climbing Up the Chimney? What concerning the album do you are feeling encapsulates you as a songwriter?
All the songs on this album come from my teenage years, after I was trying to find my voice as a musician and as an individual. These have been the years when my influences like David Bowie, Elliott Smith and The Zombies mainly encapsulated my complete identification. The choice to launch it now stems from a need to formally shut that chapter of my life (I’m 26 now), but additionally honor these songs that actually outlined who I used to be at the moment. Probably the most stunning a part of the method of rerecording the songs now was the way it put my “extra mature” self in dialogue with my teenage self. I rewrote lyrics and adjusted preparations, and was compelled to relive the experiences that made these songs, besides from a barely extra assured perspective. Due to that, the trail in the direction of releasing this report has been actually tough – always questioning who I used to be, why I’m so possessive of this materials, and why I shouldn’t simply transfer on. On the finish of the day, I’m glad that it begins a street for individuals to find my music and comply with the trajectory of how I alter over time.
What are a few of the themes you drew on with Climbing Up the Chimney? Is there a broader throughline to the album?
Returning to those songs, it was attention-grabbing to see how my teenage self was interested in fatalism and self-victimizing mentalities. Due to that, the album is stuffed with anger wrapped in confusion. At that age – nothing is evident, however the need to specific emotions is robust anyway. To me the album seems like coping in all its completely different varieties. Dealing with self-doubt, household, early relationships, social stress. Typically it’s light and introspective, and different occasions it’s chaotic.
I additionally noticed that you just’ve additionally been constructing an viewers on TikTok. What attracted you to the platform?
Like many individuals, I downloaded Tiktok through the pandemic. I’m a bit bit older than the Tiktok technology, so it was attention-grabbing to be taught a complete new platform. I shortly got here to see that it was way more genuine than different platforms like Instagram. I by some means discovered the precise viewers of people that have been like me, solely a bit youthful. They appeared to love the identical indie music that formed who I used to be as an adolescent, and due to that I already spoke their language. It’s humorous to recollect how a lot time I spent on Youtube as a child, proper across the identical time I obtained into music. Tiktok affords the identical form of free-wheeling expression that Youtube did in its olden days – while you would simply share no matter got here to thoughts with none filter. I don’t thoughts being in entrance of the digital camera (vlog model), so for me it was a superb match to have interaction with individuals who like the identical music I do, and play with out it being too severe. It’s turn into one other outlet for me to specific issues whereas additionally sharing my music.
You’ve additionally created a really cool animated factor with lots of your music. How did you first get serious about animation as a medium?
As a child I made flip books of little stick figures preventing, and when within the early 2000s my mother obtained a pc, she confirmed me how one can do some flash animations. I grew up loving Wallace and Gromit, Pingu after which ultimately Don Hertzfeld and Michel Gondry (whose music movies I knew from The White Stripes). It was solely in faculty although that I actually began eager to dive in and make correct animations. It began with a 3D animation class the place I instantly made a music video for a tune I had written, and I then moved on to a 16mm movie class the place the instructor explicitly instructed me to not make a music video – which I clearly disobeyed. That was a monster of a undertaking, what would turn into the official “Chimney Sweeper” music video, consisting of over 1000 hand drawn frames shot right into a Bolex movie digital camera. Once I confirmed the ultimate undertaking in school, my instructor forgave me. Since then I’ve simply loved the repetition and solitude of animating.
How would you describe the visible world of Grimson?
I feel it’s a bit like Studio Ghibli, provided that it was animated by Tim Burton or Maurice Sendak. Like my music, there’s a high quality of innocence and luxury, however on the identical time it’s gnarly and infrequently sinister. I suppose it’s additionally a bit comical too. I don’t wish to faux that all the things is severe or deeply emotional, as a result of it isn’t. I as soon as made my therapist cry after describing a tree that I used to be enthralled by whereas on a shrooms journey within the Berlin Botanical Gardens. It was grey and spindly, and jogged my memory of the actor Invoice Nighy – and I associated a lot extra to this leafless tree than any of the overly curated flower preparations. I’m laughing now fascinated by it, but it surely was only a second after I realized how completely different Germany is from what I grew up with – I felt alone. That’s form of my visible world. Discovering magnificence in ugly tree that appears like Invoice Nighy.
You contributed animation to Weyes Blood’s “It’s Not Simply Me, It’s All people” video. What was that have like?
That was an unbelievable expertise, and I’m so completely satisfied to have been a part of it. I simply occurred to be in San Francisco at my brother’s commencement after I obtained a name from Sofie Struggle, a producer in LA who mentioned I ought to drive down and assist with the shoot on the United Artists Theater, which is a historic venue. I’d been an enormous Weyes Blood fan for some time, and really listened to “Do you want my love?” on repeat through the all-nighter after I completed the video for “Chimney Sweeper” in faculty. It was surreal to get to know her and Charlotte Ercoli, and notice with their concepts of a depraved iPhone in a sailor costume who would dance with Natalie after which eat lifeless individuals. As a result of the video needed to be shot with the animation in thoughts, I used to be given far more duty on the day of the shoot than I anticipated – an actual trial by hearth. The turnaround time was tremendous quick, so I had buddies in Berlin serving to me animate after I was asleep, and I’d take over after they went to mattress. All of the whereas I’d be on the telephone with Natalie and Charlotte attempting to prepare what they wished at breakneck pace. It sounds actually silly, however I used to be actually wanting ahead to speaking to Natalie about her music, however didn’t actually get the possibility on the day of the shoot. As destiny would have it, she lived near the home I used to be staying at in LA, and he or she and the editor came visiting to work on the video. I obtained a bit starstruck and needed to clear the home and purchase snacks earlier than they got here. It ended up all being very chill and now we’re friends. It was actually humorous to see my animated character projected in entrance of a whole lot of individuals when she performed in Berlin. And to have performed a small half in that unbelievable album launch? I’m honored.
I hear lots of theatrical components in your music. Is that an inspiration for you?
I used to be a Bowie obsessive after I was round 17/18. The primary album of his I actually discovered in and out was Hunky Dory, and there are lots of theatrical moments on that album, particularly the tip of “Bewlay Brothers.” I all the time revered the theatricality of his performances and movies, and after I wrote this report I positively had Bowie in thoughts. Identical goes for Sgt. Pepper, which has an identical eerie theatricality to it. I wished to behave after I was youthful, and took half in some faculty performs – however I’m a horrible actor. Actually – horrible. So I suppose I put that need for efficiency into the songs themselves.
How would you describe the themes and inspirations behind “Spherical Journey Ticket”?
“Spherical Journey Ticket” really began as a poem I wrote for sophistication after I should have been round 7 years previous. My mother and father had simply separated whereas we have been dwelling in South Africa, and I had moved again to NYC with my brother and my mother – not absolutely understanding what had occurred. I used to be 14 or 15 years previous after I wrote the tune primarily based off one thing my dad had instructed me about why he stayed in South Africa. One thing to do with a spherical journey ticket he had purchased to go to his household in Sweden. I don’t actually know. However I had been taking part in in a punk/grunge trio for years, and after I began writing my first “solo” songs, I wished to sing one thing melodic, and used a few of these phrases I wrote after I was 7 to make this tune.
The unique recording is on a 4 monitor tape recorder, with simply guitar, voice, and oddly sufficient – harmonica. I favored the thought of changing into a “folks” musician like Bob Dylan, and so I purchased a harmonica only for this tune. Ultimately, I changed the harmonica with a full string association, and added different devices to fill out the canvas. I instructed the session drummer (who has his personal children) to play “childlike,” and I really feel like the entire feeling of the tune has that nostalgic playfulness to it. However the tune itself comprises all these themes of loss, confusion, childhood, and an odd sense of acceptance – even for a 14 12 months previous
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