By Ellie Odurny
Jun 3, 2020 17:45
Itâs no secret that the music industry is having a tough time at the moment. With festivals, gigs and tours on hold for the foreseeable future, it was refreshing to hear a whole lot of positivity when we spoke to Wallflower vocalist and guitarist Vini Moreira-Yeoell about their upcoming release âTeach Yourself To Swimâ.
A few years in the making, âTeach Yourself To Swimâ is Wallflowerâs debut album. Having appeared on festival line ups over the past few years, and toured with the likes of Boston Manor and Employed To Serve, the band had been holding back on committing to shows more recently in order to focus on plans for tour dates to support the release. Although they had an idea before of how things were going to go with promoting the album, the tour plans are the only thing thatâs really changed. While touring may have been the main focus on getting new fans exposed to Wallflowerâs music, they have instead been given âa nice opportunity to spend a little bit more time with the people who were already invested in the band and having stuff for them to enjoyâ.
Talking about promo, Moreira-Yeoell says âa lot of it has been thinking on our feet and improvising, but I feel like we were always going to end up doing a bit of that anywayâ. In fact, he talks about how theyâve been lucky to be able to do more than they previously would have in some aspects, like making a video from their bedrooms, putting out covers in support of CALM and starting a podcast. The home filmed video in question was put together by Wallflowerâs long-time collaborator Callum Jupp, and released for second single âEat Away At My Heartâ. Moreira-Yeoell describes the whole process as a chance to âspend a bit more time on this thing that we enjoy doing so much,â giving the album a good push into the world and working with what theyâve got.
The three videos supporting each of the releases from the album so far are very different, with a hard hitting edit for first release âHungry Eyesâ and a digital visualisation accompanying âPasser Byâ along with the âEat Away At My Heartâ lockdown take. Moreira-Yeoell talks about how this reflects the varied sound of each of the tracks, which all have a different energy and a different message to put across. This sense of variety is something the band really wanted to emphasise in the album campaign, showing that this debut record displays different sides to the band both musically and visually, but remains quintessentially Wallflower at the heart of it.
Moreira-Yeoell admits that they might have previously encouraged the perception of being a serious, moody band, but stresses that this doesnât mean that theyâre boring people, describing how the video for âEat Away At My Heartâ allows Wallflower to show the fun side of their personalities in a way that fans perhaps havenât seen before.
Looking at the darker side of Wallflower for a moment, we talk about the inspiration behind the writing for âHungry Eyesâ, which is heavier than most of the album, and also explores new lyrical avenues compared to the bandâs previous output. Where earlier tracks have been written from a place of self-reflection, this was more of a reaction to external events, looking at the numbness of society towards global injustices. Moreira-Yeoell describes how âthat outward thing that happens definitely has inward effects on all of us in the same way that personal problems doâ and how the writing is still self-reflective at the same time as contemplating everything else. He adds that putting a political undertone into a Wallflower song felt like stepping out of their comfort zone, but that the band agreed they were all more than happy for these avenues to be explored. They don’t want to restrict themselves to being a band who are just about political messages though. âWeâre never going to be a Rage Against The Machine who have that one purposeâ.