Brian Walker: “Music is a Reflection of Reality.”
Today, we’re premiering the new video from A Day Without Love, the longtime project from Brian Walker and his crew. It’s the first single from their 2016 album, Solace.
Next month, they’ll set out for a tour with Izzy Heltai that will take them through the Midwest and down South.
We caught up with Brian to talk about the video, his music and life in a social media world.
Dude. What’s up with the video? It’s is dark.
The video is intentionally dark. It is the last of the three videos I wanted to do for Solace and with Bob Sweeney so I guess I wanted to go out with a bang.
Solace is a record about hope. I wrote it from a perspective of my own personal experiences with finding peace. The video is a social commentary and criticism on new age McCarthyism. Joseph McCarthy’s practices were to judge people as communists with whatever biased information we have. McCarthyism itself is about making accusations and judgement about people with minimal evidence or understanding.
Today, we judge people based on comments on the Internet, which may or may not be real, lacks substance and are used as a forms of witch-hunting isolation and denial. Instead of calling in to problems on a face-to-face basis to resolve issues in our community, people have resorted to calling out and and isolating problems, which I think is toxic and enabling to perpetrators of various incidents.
As a member of a music community and a human, I feel that we have lost the amount of empathy, discernment and open mindedness to make decisions. I wanted to create this scene to demonstrate events that people in my life have gone through based on poor discussion the internet and current events.
Is this based upon a true story?
The video is not based on a true story, but more of a scenario of experiences I have witnessed/observed.
I think if I were to make this video based on real life, the video maybe would have been darker.
I wanted the video to be a metaphor for biased behavior. Think about it, people won’t order food unless they read yelp reviews. People might not go to a neighborhood because of crimemapping.com. Fear is established based on biases and alternative facts written on the internet. That bias turns to discrimination and whether we like it or not we all become bigots of our own technological devices.
I have had family members suffer through this bias to the point it almost lead them to being shot to death. My 17-year old cousin was shot 25 times last year because of a misinterpreted tweet. Events like this are why I am so against call out witch hunt culture, I think its time we really start to call in and discuss things in person instead of pointing the finger and isolating. It could cost someones life and it almost cost my cousins life. I wanted to address that point in the video.
The video is not just about my cousin but more of a culmination of experiences where people give each other the short hand of the stick because of a lack of clear communication on the Internet.
The big message is I think we need to really determine our judgement of people with real life experiences and instead of holding our problems in and writing them on the Internet. Why don’t we confront the people we have problems with in person? Why don’t we bring back community by talking to people when something bad is done or said? Why can’t we show accountability for our problems instead of hiding behind a screen and asking for strangers support only to harm someone we don’t really know?
I hope more artists write songs about the problems they post, retweet and share on the Internet and call in to the problems instead of isolating and enabling those problems by calling them out and abandoning them only so that the problems continue to exist.
You’re an emotional guy, right? And you are pretty revealing on social media. Is that a form of therapy for you? Finding other lost souls and whatnot? Making connections virtually?
Yes, I am an emotional guy but I still think there is a lot I hold back and do not say on the Internet mostly because I am either afraid or feel that it is not time for me to write or share about.
I am vocal on the Internet because I think we should be as social as we would be in person, if that makes sense? Our Internet selves and our personal selves should be transparent. I don’t think they should play two different characters.
Granted, I can not afford therapy (despite Obamacare). I don’t consider what I share on the Internet as a form of therapy. I think it’s me telling the story of who I am as a musician.
I never wanted A Day Without Love to be about finding lost souls, but more about sharing my experiences of struggle, hope and strength and my depressive episodes are apart of it. One day I hope to stop A Day Without Love (we are still many albums far from that) but for the sake of being comfortable and happy with myself.
The connections I make virtually are usually transactional (shows, press,booking) and then lead to a face-to-face conversation, which then leads to a more personal experience which of course varies person to person.
Does it backfire sometimes?
Oh, yes. I definitely think I have had experienced backfire in the past. Sometimes I even think people don’t believe I am depressed or let alone have problems.
The reality is I have many problems, and I am not as vocal as one may think on the Internet about those problems. So, I share the problems through my music. I am 98 percent jokes on twitter and people have tweeted back that I am judgmental or really have no right to an opinion. Sometimes people get racy or try to dismiss my experiences on other platforms, but I ignore them.
I don’t intend to create controversy. I only intend to share it.
I think many artists are scared to write about their own controversy musically but I think it’s a dissservice to your music. Music is a reflection of reality and to write only about one topic (unless the project is themed around one topic) kinda dismisses the point of who you are as a person.
I know I can’t please everyone and I know there are people who don’t like me. But guess what? I don’t like them either and no one said that I had to be everyone’s best friend, especially if the people critiquing me are in fact bigots or people with their own problems.
Are you excited for the tour?
I am more excited for this tour than any other tour I have done. Izzy Heltai is my label mate and I am excited to have a tour manager.
Izzy is a super talented dude from Massachusetts who I think really will sooth and touch a lot of people. Many of my other tours have either been alone or with people I barely know. Others have been with great friends for short periods of time.
I think this will be the first tour where I don’t feel like an outsider and the people I am with will be on the same page.
Also, I am stoked to try different foods in America and share my story with other people with different backgrounds.
What’s up next for you and the band?
I am currently writing a lofi record that breaks all rules of recording. I am not using a metronome, the mixing is minimal and I am going ot master the record myself.
I know it is risky, but it is on purpose.
The record is called Diary. I wanted to use the elements of bedroom pop but write the record as an extension to Solace and create a commentary/critique on myself and things I experience in my life. I also wanted to write about the good in my life, because diaries are a reflection of good and bad experiences. The record has spoken word, audio samples from my experiences in Philadelphia, unused samples from my grandpa and delves further into discrimination in America.
I also recently got a manager named Josh Wolfberg who has been really cool and he’s been helping me get goals accomplished. I am also working on losing a lot of weight. I lost about 50 pounds so far and I want to lose another 40 and write a record about body positivity. I want to make a mixtape with various producers (big and small depending on my budget) from Philly. One day I hope to tour more often too, and it seems I am on that path.
To say the least, I am staying productive and I could not be more happier with or without roadblocks.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
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