Bern (Single 2020)

The Boy I Used To Be

Expressive Melancholic Music

Already in December 2019, The Boy I Used To Be aka Philipp Timmelmayer announced a new CD for the upcoming year. And the careful watcher might recognize a new song title next to the first two EPs. That would bring close a record title like the “Discography 2012-2014” and let one think of other similar compilations like “No Remorse” or “A Collection Of Depravation”.

The new song finally got released with a “fancy one shot animationvideo” by Thomas Leitner. As the title “Bern” reveals, it was written during a journey to the Swiss capital. It starts quite classically The Boy-like, while blurs of color appear on the screen. They form a river, which waves can remind of the logo that is available on shirt and sticker. The singing follows the melody of the guitar, like Tony Iommi said he likes about Ozzy Osbourne but the bigger surprise is just about to come.

While the video visualizes parts of the lyrics with trees, birds and the wind, a young man appears as well, passing a marker looking bit like a tombstone. Then The Boy’s voice rises for a speaking part. The camera zooms in, to give space to think about the words, while a stick passes by on the river. As it zooms out again, the young man has grown old and the sun is red. A solo loop part follows, as the Zytglogge comes in. A beat commences, being positively moving, as the sky turns reddish as well and the bird is back. At the end, the man is standing on top of a hill, looking down on the town. Like the general colour pattern of The Boy, everything stayed black and white, except of the river and sky.

Like Brendan Benson, anymajordude and just recently Pearl Jam used animated videos, this one greatly manages to accompany this wonderful new single over even five minutes. For the right sound, David Furrer (Milk+) was responsible for mixing and Alphamastering for mastering. And meanwhile, The Boy planned his next tour with his buddy Yunger, and the next single with another special production…