In an inspiring feat of indie-rock, Choosing Sides has created a sonic capsule of the fleeting moments of life. The band’s latest single, ‘Flicker’, is an exploration of life’s moments, and more importantly, how quickly they pass and the weight they hold on our existence. Through a captivating instrumental performance, huge hooks, and a mesmerising chorus that leaves its mark, Choosing Sides has constructed an emotional anthem for our most universal experiences. Loving what the band had to offer we had the chance to chat with them about their music!
‘Flicker’ really captures the essence of life being flickers of moments, and how we choose to use this flicker is up to us! What inspired you to create such a deep track? Was this concept something that had been weighing on you?
Will: The writing process for 'Flicker' came about after some personal reflection on the last year and how fast things move in life. After watching a bunch of videos about space and the universe, it made me realise how small we actually are. Looking at the stars with friends, I think we all gaze at the enormity of this world and our self-importance quickly seems pointless.
In the theme of moments, what is your favorite moment/memory of when you were creating this single?
Will: Throughout the process of writing this song, we were being filmed for an upcoming documentary about the local music scene. It was really quite strange having cameras pointing at us whilst creating the song but it was super fun and we made some really good friends in the process. The highlight had to be when they saw Eli skateboarding home and asked “hey can you do any tricks” and Eli hit the cleanest kickflip we've ever seen. They got it in 4k with full cinema audio…
The previous years have seen you conquer and dominate the stage! How do you think this has inspired your creative process? Do you find yourself writing songs with the end goal of performing in mind?
Eli: Each song for us has a very different creative process. Whilst most of them begin with Will recording acoustic demos in his room - we sometimes write a song with a goal in mind. With 'Flicker', we wanted to create a song that would be irresistibly fun live and structured the song to be as dancy and as fun as possible. Developing from an acoustic demo to begin with, we got together in the studio and in the space of 2 days ‘Flicker’ was made!
The music video for flicker is quite eccentric and is a super eye-catching visual to go with the track! What was it like filming this and what were the main ideas behind it when putting it together?
Will: We came to the film producer (the amazing Deadend Visuals) with a theme of shiny, iridescent textures and wanted to use the concept of old-school TVs to intertwine with the idea of flickers. Whilst we approached the project with somewhat of an aesthetic direction, Deadend really took the ideas and ran with them to create a whole visual world. In the end, we wanted to make a video that was not just shots of the band playing and incorporated a story that would add meaning to the lyrics.
This track is submerged in a more prominent alt-rock feel. Who were some of your main acts of inspiration when exploring this sound for the track?
Will: Our inspiration comes a lot from the modern and early 2000’s British indie-rock scene and draws similarities from stadium alt-rock sounds. We take massive inspiration from bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Catfish and the Bottlemen, and Nothing But Thieves in our sound but also have tonal similarities to bands like Kings of Leon and Stereophonics.
How have you been coping with the wacky world of 2021; times of uncertainty, moments of freedom interrupted with lockdown. Is this fuelling your creative fires or have you faced yet another challenging creative period as many artists have?
Frankie: We’ve absolutely tried our best to keep pushing out as much content as possible through these crazy times, and are always staying in touch 24/7 to write new music and bounce ideas off each other. It’s certainly been a challenge as we’re a tight-knit group so working remotely has forced us to think outside the box so that we can come out of these trying times stronger than ever!
These new tracks have marked an incredible start to the year and we can't wait to see more! So, what comes next for Choosing Sides?
Will: We can’t say too much as of right now, but you should expect to see some new music very soon. 'Flicker' is just the start of something crazy that we’ve been working on for a long time!