Aussie expat Lucas Laufen casts a spell with his new single, “I Know Where Silence Lives.” It’s a beautiful folky number inspired by Lucas’s experience watching the ocean from a bird-watching tower on the border of the Netherlands and Germany.
“It was the first time I’d seen the sea in months and I remember thinking, ‘this is where silence lives’,” he recalled. “The wind was super strong so it wasn’t actually silent but I felt at home with the salt spray and no one around. So it’s silence relating to peace as opposed to real acoustic silence.”
Much like the song itself, the songwriting process was a bit of a slow-burn.
“When I was growing up, my father would always wake up at 5:30 am to find a quiet place before the rest of the world woke up. I’d see him wandering down the beach by himself and I never really understood what he was doing. While writing this song I finally understood the reason for this and feel that I’ve grown to seek these moments out like my father did,” he added. “The song spans a one-year writing process, which is strange for me. I usually find it hard to hold onto an emotion for this long and a song will lose its meaning if it’s drawn out for this amount of time. It was my way of looking through his life and trying to understand him. I found that we are very similar people and hold this thought as an anchor when I’m trying to figure out when I’m going with my life.”
The film clip expands on Lucas’ original idea, telling the story of a woman who leaves city life to find her own quiet place in the Norwegian countryside.
“We purposefully begin the video with a greyish look and feel, the actress, Leona Grundig, is obviously sick of traffic and noise, the colours of her clothes are nondescript and she looks like she’s in the wrong place,” explained the director, Dennis Schischke. “Her mood lifts the closer she gets to her destination, the colours of her clothing changes and the colour grading is more saturated. Within the video there are three portraits of her, the last one shows the end of her journey and her reaction to finally finding her own silence.”
“I Know Where Silence Lives” is the title track from Lucas Laufen’s new album, which drops on December 6. He’ll play a string of shows around Europe in the coming months to support its release.
14 December 2019 – Privatclub, Berlin
30 January 2020 – L’Atelier, Basel
1 February 2020 – Chur Unplugged, Chur
3 February 2020 – Sofar Sounds, Paris
5 February 2020 – Cafe De Loge, Ghent
6 February 2020 – Cafe Litteraire Le Bovary, Luxembourg
9 February 2020 – Cafe de Witte, Assen
17 February 2020 – Viertal Bar, Wuppertal
18 February 2020 – Schlosskeller, Darmstadt
19 February 2020 – Lolita Bar, Kassel
20 February 2020 – Altes Wettburo, Dresden
21 February 2020 – Moritzhof, Magdeburg
22 February 2020 – Wohnzimmermucke, Bayreuth
24 February 2020 – Inspire, Chemnitz
25 February 2020 – Horns Erben, Leipzig
27 February 2020 – Stubenkonzerte, Aarau
28 February 2020 – La Cyma, Winterthur
2 March 2020 – Rififi, Innsbruck
3 March 2020 – Das Wohnzimmer, Klagenfurt
4 March 2020 – Guest Room, Graz
5 March 2020 – Rhiz, Wien
7 March 2020 – Foxis/Fuxbau, Freistadt
9 March 2020 – FOX, Munchen
10 March 2020 – Cafe Manheim, Nuremberg
11 March 2020 – Viertelkultur, Wurzburg
12 March 2020 – Kulturcafe Lichtung, Koln
16 March 2020 – Tonfink, Lubeck
17 March 2020 – Pony Bar, Hamburg
Image used with permission from Guerilla Music Promotion; credit: Jordan Kirk
