Hear Lies New Video/Single: Wide Awake Release Date: 1st July 2019
Formed just over a year ago, an alternative rock band Hear Lies released their second official music video today. Their first single ‘System Overhaul’ was premiered only 10 days after when the key members Orion Powell and James Macdonald made an announcement of reforming a band in May 2018. Then their first music video was released five weeks later. So this second video was long awaited by all who enjoyed the first one.
The music wise ‘Wide Awake’ is a lot gentler than ‘System Overhaul’. Orion’s clear and authentic voice tells the story, and to me, it is therapeutic. On the visual side, this video is a mini-movie. The scenery and the facial expressions are beautifully filmed with great care. Their quality craft needs to be experienced by a wider audience than ever.
The front-man Orion kindly explained about the song and the video as I was eager to ask him some questions. Now I can share this with you and it will help you to better understand this production as well as the band.
1. How did the story-line of the video come up?
So, the opening point was that we really wanted to do something heavily narrative driven. We had talked about that for our debut single, System Overhaul, but for a couple of reasons that wasn’t able to happen at the time. We felt more prepared to engage with arranging a story by the we came to this one. I spoke with my friend, Rick, who was due to direct, and we constructed the story together to try and compliment the energy of the song.
2. How long did you take to process everything?
A while! Haha. The video was shot over five days in Cambridge, Camber Sands, Eastbourne, Brighton and Hove, and Falmer. We also used around 30 people in terms of cast, crew, and extras, which has become one of my favourite things about it as so many friends have contributed – of course, that naturally created more organisational issues at the time with schedules etc.
We’re really excited about the outcome though!
3. Is the lyric based on your experience? Tell us about the lyrics a little!
“Andy Dufresne, the man who crawled through 500 yards of shit and came out clean the other end”
So, the short answer, I guess, would be that Wide Awake was written to reflect the darkness many of us feel, whilst inspiring people, not only to keep going, but to offer a hand to everyone around them.
4. Did the lyrics come first or the melodies first?
A little of both. There was an approximation of the music and key that Glenn came up with. Then I wrote the lyrics and melody, and afterwards we tweaked the music rhythmically etc.
5. Is there any message you have through the song?
As I said before, the main thing is that life is incredibly hard on many of us. Most of us don’t know where we’re going and we are part of a system that would often rather step on people when they’re down as oppose to help them.
When we played this song at our first few shows, the reaction was incredibly real and powerful and yet it’s lyrically been easy for people to get hold of.
If people are getting the message, which they seem to be, then they’re leaving feeling supported as part of a larger community, but also willing to extend a hand to other people that need it. We all need it sometimes, right?
Upcoming show:
22 Nov. 19 – Thousand Island, London (with Colt48)
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