“The beauty starts the moment you love yourself”: Firewoodisland Premiere “Looking for Love,” Their Inspiring Song & Mantra

Firewoodisland © Dave Newbould
Firewoodisland © Dave Newbould
A glistening, golden song with a beautiful message, Firewoodisland’s inspiring “Looking for Love” is an uplifting indie folk anthem of love, self-worth, and everyone’s inner beauty.
Stream: “Looking for Love” – Firewoodisland




The beauty starts the moment you love yourself…

At the core of Firewoodisland’s heartfelt new song is an important message they hope hits home: That love isn’t a form of external validation or value; that it’s not a form of social currency, or a prism through which our self-worth should be derived – but rather, that love is innate; that it’s born with us, that it comes from within us, and that it’s with us all along our life’s journey. “Redefine your boundary line,” the Bristol-based duo sing. “Don’t falsify, know your worth, reunite a time before mind.” A glistening, golden song with a beautiful message, “Looking for Love” is an inspiring, uplifting indie folk anthem of love and connection.

Looking for Love - Firewoodisland
Looking for Love – Firewoodisland
You’re looking for love now
Your value isn’t based on your mistakes
You’re looking for love now
The beauty starts the moment you love yourself
Don’t tantalise your own mind
Redefine your boundary line
Don’t falsify, know your worth
Reunite, a time before mind

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the music video for “Looking for Love,” a collaboration between Firewoodisland and a South Devon based creative community called Le Bon Unique.

The Bristol-based duo of Norwegian/Welsh multi-instrumentalists and songwriters Stian Vedøy and Abi Eleri, Firewoodisland have been actively enchanting our ears for the better part of the last ten years. “Inner and outer beauty flow throughout [their] spectacular brand of intimate indie folk music,” Atwood Magazine wrote in a 2020 feature on the duo’s self-titled sophomore record, going on to call it “an expansive, intimately beautiful surge of raw emotion and hauntingly delicate, breathtaking sound.”

Inside Firewoodisland's Hopeful & Hauntingly Beautiful Self-Titled Album

:: FEATURE ::



Vedøy and Eleri have kept plenty busy over the past three years; in addition to delivering a steady slew of strong singles, they released an Unplugged EP in 2021 and played a number of festivals in 2022. Earlier this year they began teasing songs from their forthcoming third album. Released right around Valentine’s Day, the first single they put out, “Who Knew,” is one of their first love songs.

“The song tells a story about meeting a person that completely captivates your whole being, takes you on a journey and changes your world views for the better. Love – a topic we don’t normally touch on. But what can go wrong?!” Vedøy said at the time.

“Who Knew” is a beautifully tender, achingly sweet outpouring of raw intimacy that captures everything there is to love about Firewoodisland’s ever-evolving music. Its follow-up, “Untamed,” is a radiant, hushed folktronic reverie continuing to dwell in the warmth and wonder of intimate connection.

Third in line, “Looking for Love” highlights a different kind of love than the one Firewoodisland sing about in their preceding singles – or perhaps, it’s better understood as an alternate outlook; a shift in perspective. The pair’s latest offering inspires us to look within ourselves, rather than to look externally, for that loving feeling.

You’re looking for love now
Your value isn’t based on your mistakes
You’re looking for love now
The beauty starts the moment you love yourself
Just know that I’ve got you now
Just know that I’ve got you
Just know that I’ve got you now
Just know that I’ve got you
Firewoodisland © Dave Newbould
Firewoodisland © Dave Newbould



For Firewoodisland, this very well may be one of the most important songs of their career.

And it has nothing to do with how catchy or radio-friendly it may be, and everything to do with its meaning.

“The chorus of ‘Looking For Love’ has been around since 2017,” Stian Vedøy tells Atwood Magazine. “It was first meant to be a response to social media and selfie addiction, but it never felt quite right. In 2019 we unintentionally lined up two Sofar Sounds shows with an artist called Mauvey, who had a beautiful mantra linked to his live set that ‘everyone is valuable and loved no matter who they are, and where they come from.‘ We absolutely loved the way he shared his message and the way we and the rest of the audience felt in that moment. We picked up ‘Looking For Love’ again and decided to become carriers of this important mantra.”

“When we came to producing the track we wanted it to be very dynamic – big, smacking choruses and intimate, close verses. The cinematic elements have sneakily been integrated into our music more and more, since I started composing bespoke music for TV and brands on a regular basis. Strings and brass just makes the music so much more hopeful and uplifting in the best kind of way. Since recording the track, we’ve played it live multiple times with a full band. We fell in love with the live sound that real bass and drums bring to the track, so we recorded a live full band version for the B-side.”

Looking for love…
Love will find you
Looking for love…
Love will find you
You’re looking for love now
Your value isn’t based on your mistakes
You’re looking for love now
The beauty starts the moment you love yourself
Firewoodisland © Dave Newbould
Firewoodisland © Dave Newbould



The “Looking For Love” music video brings that theoretical “search” into the real world through a string of compelling human narratives.

Working together with Le Bon Unique, Firewoodisland brought the message of their song to life in a tangible, easily accessible way. “The [Le Bon Unique] creative director, Ayla, is Abi’s first childhood friend,” Firewoodisland explain. “Together with her team, we wrote, storyboarded, filmed, and edited together this beautiful story of three different people’s daily struggles and their road to some kind of redemption. It touches on intimate and sore topics like eating disorder, self hatred, and domestic abuse, with a blanket of hope. There is always hope. We had such a precious three days filming in South Devon. Lovely people and stunning nature.”

Through “Looking for Love,” Firewoodisland have meaningfully supersized a special mantra we can all cherish and welcome into our lives. Stream the band’s heartfelt, hopeful, and inspiring new music video exclusively on Atwood Magazine!

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:: discover more Firewoodisland here ::
Stream: “Looking for Love” – Firewoodisland



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Looking for Love - Firewoodisland

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? © Dave Newbould
artwork © Abi Eleri

:: Firewoodisland ::



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