Swiss-German pairing BOY craft endlessly evocative alt-pop sculptures.
The duo took time out after their second album, a widely acclaimed work that saw them tour across Europe, and beyond.
Since then, Valeska had a baby and Sonja completed her first film score, experiences that have radically shifted their mindsets.
A new album is incoming, with BOY sharing their new single 'Fit Back In' as a preview.
Dulcet of tone, bucolic of atmosphere, its pensive, minimalist arrangement offers icy synths, and angelic vocals.
Lyrically, 'Fit Back In' was prompted by grief – it's an attempt by Valeska to explore the loss of her father.
“I feel so grateful for this song,” she comments. “Because I really learned something for myself. I started writing it after my father passed, when I had this weird feeling that, in just one more week, a year would have gone by and somehow I’d have to be magically over it and not feel so sad or lost. It’s like there’s this official mourning period, and after that you’re meant to be fine.”
“So I wrote it while I was ‘allowed’ to have this feeling, then sent the lyrics to Sonja, who wrote the music. Later we decided the end wasn’t working, and another few months passed, and then the line 'Time doesn’t heal / It just goes by' came to me. It felt like such a relief! There are so many well-worn phrases we don’t really question, like ‘Time heals everything’, but some things are just sad forever. I found comfort in acknowledging that, and at the same time I was able to see more and more clearly how, as time passes, it brings new life and new beauty and new things to look forward to.”
We're able to share an acoustic version of 'Fit Back In' which features a glorious, stripped back BOY performance augmented by the Kaiser Quartett.
BOY continue…
"It was important to us that the acoustic version clearly differs from the original, which also sounds rather organic. So we came up with the idea of getting our friends from the Kaiser Quartett on board. They have often accompanied us live at acoustic shows, the last time was in 2017 at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and we are very happy with the arrangement that Ingmar Süberkrüb (the quartet's violist) wrote for 'Fit Back In'."
Tune in now.
Photo Credit: Johan Sandberg
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