Dark Willow 2

Dark Willow

in Alternative/Alternative|English/English/Uk/Uk|English/United Kingdom/United Kingdom 1991 views

Dark Willow

When did the project begin? 

We’ve always made music together as we grew up in the same family. Dark Willow is a project we started this year after the break up of our previous band Drop Out Venus. We met ourselves through playing music together since childhood.

What song of yours is the one you like the most?

I don’t know if there is a song we like the most, but this song called I Don’t Know is very special to us because we wrote it in one breath many years ago and it hasn’t changed since then. 
 


LYRICS
This guy’s a painter and he’s real suave
He’s got a waistcoat on and he just got thirty thou
He mixed twenty shades of red to paint that one red stripe
And he looks at me like I can’t breathe the air around his life

What do I know?
I’m an animal
Ain’t that what you said
I’m an animal?
I don’t know any better
’cause I’m an animal
I either scream in ecstacy
or I wannna die

But I don’t know about your paint
It all looks the same to me
But what do I know
I’m a wild beast can’t you see?

The man who says he knows about dreams
is asking me to talk to him or so it seems
I start to tell and then he puts his finger on my lips
‘We have to move on,’ he says, ‘enough about your dreams.
I’m the expert and you’re the patient,’ and he pulls me like a zip
But I don’t like it when they pretend
And I don’t like his phoney compliments
He says he knows and what do I know
I’m either peaceful or I feel like breaking a wall

What do I know?
I’m an animal
Ain’t that what you said
I’m an animal?
I don’t know any better
’cause I’m an animal
I either scream in ecstasy
or I wannna die

But I don’t believe you care one little gram
about anyone’s dreams but just your little lines
You’re a charlatan
Why do you lie?
You lie you lie
And now you have you’ve made mad
and I can’t control the way I feel
I can’t control the way I feel
Can’t control the way I feel
I can’t control the way I feel
I can’t control the way I feel

You see these hands?
They’re just a disguise
for the big big paws I hide inside
My smooth skin hides the softness of fur
And I’m gonna spend my time playing round with your blood

‘Cause I’m an animal
Ain’t that what you said
I’m an animal
And I don’t know any better
I don’t know no thank you
I don’t know no please
I’m an animal
and I don’t want your peace
No no no thank you
I can’t control the way I feel
No no no thank you
I can’t control the way I feel
No no no thank you
I can’t control the way I feel
No no no thank you
I can’t control the way I feel 

How do you write your music?

Our lives are pretty hectic, so any chance we get we write music. Sometimes we sit and compose things together and sometimes separately and then work on the sonic architecture of the song together. Most of the time the songs are written spontaneously and then we spend a lot of time trying to create a coherent and interesting narrative by dressing the songs up with the right sounds, instruments and colours. We have a shared synesthesia so we like to communicate about the songs as if they are paintings.

dark willow3What influences do you have? 

Just our lives I guess and what goes on in the world near and far. Our animals, nature, our loved ones. Rothko, Francis Bacon, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Emily Dickinson, Smog, Elliott Smith, Cat Power, Deptford Goth, Thelonious Monk.

What´s the best experience you have had with your project? 

I guess recording a record a month this year is both the best and worst thing about our project. It can be wonderful, but also keeps us on the edge a lot of the time.  

What plans do you have this year? 

To survive.  

Mention something you don´t like about your project. 

I guess sometimes I don’t like that people immediately assume that we are named after a Buffy reference. My name Iva is a type of weeping willow in Bulgaria which is where our roots are from, so the name actually came from that, but we do also love Buffy like crazy, so it’s not the worst thing ever at all.  

11174697_1602314630027352_240792120696075220_omusicsoundrocks2 - copiaMention the biggest sacrifice you did for your project.

I suppose probably the biggest sacrifice was getting out of the label game and turning our backs on the blanket of money that various people were attempting to cover us with. It was both extremely difficult and also very liberating, which is why we decided to start the album a month project in 2015.

What band, music project or solist from your city do you like?

Bat For Lashes is from our city (Brighton) and we really like her. She’s a very graceful and inventive musician and makes pop music exciting and new.

If your project was a word, what would it be?
– Shady.

 
– These questions were answered by Iva in Chris’s (my brother and bandmate) living room.

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