Ever since a handful of bands realized there’s money to be made in selling a spoonfed version of one of recorded music’s first and proudest pastimes, folk has been in a bit of a crisis. The genre has been awash in empty chant-alongs and mayonnaise-tinged shouts of “hey!”, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Los Angeles duo Bjorn and the Sun show us a different way forward on their new song “Blue.” The song manages a version of radio-ready folk that still holds on to its American soul, one where the vocals feel warm and lived-in and the sentiments feel earned.
That might be because Amanda Bjorn literally drove across America to get the sound on the single right. Amanda Bjorn and David Donaldson roadtripped from their California home to Nashville’s Bomb Shelter studio to record “Blue” and the five other tracks on their debut EP, Young and Restless.
“The entire EP is about movement, transformation, leaving everyone and everything familiar behind, and driving across the country,” said Bjorn. “‘Blue’ is definitely the moodiest song on the EP. It’s the pause, the love ballad, the moment where you both turn to each other and are like, ‘I can’t believe we actually did this…but I’m so glad we did.'”
To translate that feeling of movement into the video, the couple went on another trip closer to home. The video for “Blue” is a trek up the Pacific Coast Highway, filmed in Super 8.
The group’s EP is available here and (if you happen to be in Los Angeles) don’t miss them at the Bootleg Theater on July 18.
