DELANILA’s new single, “It’s Been A While Since I Went Outside,” premieres today, the fourth from forthcoming debut album, Overloaded, set for release on May 1. Stream or download the track and pre-order/pre-save the album HERE. A self-shot “visual poem” accompanies the single, documenting the empty streets of New York City in the throes of the COVID-19 lockdown. The video may be viewed and shared HERE, with further details below.
Created long before the current pandemic, “It’s Been A While Since I Went Outside” describes the paradoxical sense of isolation often experienced at the hands of our hyper-connection through screens—and becomes even more prescient in this collective moment of social distancing. Composer, performer and multimedia artist Danielle Eva Schwob says, “I wrote and recorded this song a while back, during a time when I was working alone a lot, connected to the outside world through TV, phone and computer screens—and feeling deeply isolated in a way that, in a horrible twist of irony, reflects what many of us in lockdown are currently experiencing.”
To accompany the single, Schwob has created a “visual poem” of sorts, documenting the empty streets of Lower Manhattan during quarantine. Of the self-produced video, she notes, “While I don’t claim to be a cinematographer or a colorist or really a serious filmmaker of any kind, I am a proud, longtime New Yorker whose sense of reality has been totally undermined by what’s happening in the city. I shot this one afternoon and evening on my iPhone XS, early on in the lockdown while out alone for a solo, socially distant walk. It felt utterly dystopian. I have found it really quite emotional to see this extraordinary place, which is always packed even at strange times in the morning, so deserted. It’s like a weird dream. One that never ends, and that for me has made the gravity of the global situation really hit home locally.”
The music video for “The Philosopher,” the previous single by DELANILA, recently debuted and can be streamed and shared HERE. The video premiered at Clash, who call the song a “crisp, seismic slice of pop-edged songwriting, but one that comes complete with a black, black heart.” Check out the premiere HERE.
Previously released tracks from Overloaded include “Time Slips Away” (view video/share HERE) and “Turning On the TV” (listen/share HERE). mxdwn calls the “Times Slips Away” video “a dramatically-choreographed clip that serves as the perfect vehicle to express the song’s theme of disconnection and isolation in our current digital age,” while Analogue praises the track as “a hypnotic, ghostly song whose musical mood matches the shadowy subject about which [Schwob] sings.” The video has also received numerous honors on the festival circuit, including the “Best Music Video” award at the Independent Shorts Awards and the Spotlight Film Awards, Semi-Finalist for “Best Music Video” at the Los Angeles Film Awards, Finalist for “Best Music Video” and “Best Cinematography” at the Indie X Festival, and an “Official Selection” at the LA Shorts Awards.
Written by Schwob and co-produced at London’s Abbey Road studio and in New York with three-time Grammy winner David Bottrill (Tool, Muse, Peter Gabriel), Overloaded is a reflection on the innate tension between humanity, technology and the strange connected-yet-disconnected lives we all live today. Orchestrated and performed largely by Schwob on a wide range of instruments both acoustic and electric, the record also features contributions from Grammy-winning engineer Emily Lazar (Beck, Sia), programmer Pearse MacIntyre, drummer Aaron Steele (Portugal. The Man), bassists Reuben Cainer (Animus Rexx) and Jordan Brooks (Albert Hammond Jr), violinist Jennifer Choi (John Zorn), keyboardist Nick Semrad and guitarist Adam Agati (both of Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles), among others.
Born in London and now dividing her time between Los Angeles and New York, Schwob has garnered international acclaim for her concert music, alt-rock songs and film scores. She has been called a “notable cross-genre composer” by The New Yorker and a “worldly musical chameleon” by Time Out New York, while The New York Times has praised her “hard-edged pop songs” and Consequence of Sound has called her music “dark and beautiful.” Her work has been featured by Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, Chamber Music America, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MATA Festival and more, earning honors from The Aaron Copland Fund, New Music USA, The American Composers Forum, ASCAP, CMNY and BMI, among others. She was a Sundance Composers Lab Fellow, a Con Edison EtM Composer-in-Residence, an ACA Associate Artist in Residence and a MAP Fund Finalist.
Schwob has worked with artists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ben Folds, Tara Hugo & Philip Glass, Ido Zmishlany, The Pogues and David Simon, as well as on Darren Aronofsky’s mother!, Shakespeare in the Park, David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies, Manhattan Night and Indignation. Her work has been performed and/or recorded by artists including the American Modern Ensemble, PUBLIQuartet, Janus Trio, pianist Vicky Chow and cellist Michael Nicolas.
OVERLOADED TRACKLIST
1. The Philosopher
2. I Get Bored
3. Never Enough
4. Turning on the TV
5. Interlude I: Signals
6. Fading On My Own
7. Time Slips Away
8. Interlude II: Overture
9. Overloaded
10. Always In My Head
11. Interlude III: People and Machines and the Space That’s In Between
12. It’s Been A While Since I Went Outside