For Montreal-based quintet Le Trouble, making music is all about having a good time together and creating something they can be proud of. Made up of serendipitous friends Michael, Max, Garrett, Bao-Kahn and Jesse, Le Trouble are creating honest, charismatic pop rock perfect for dancing away the blues and saying, “fuck you.” But it’s clear their music also has the ability to dive much deeper, striking chords across the spectrum of emotion. Their latest track and accompanying video, “How Was I to Know?” is a perfect example of combining seemingly lighthearted tunes with an abundance of meaningful layers.
Watch: “How Was I to Know?” – Le Trouble
[youtube=https://youtu.be/koMG9GGgoac?t=0s]
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering Le Trouble’s “How Was I to Know?“, the third release off the band’s upcoming sophomore album Making Matters Worse (exp. February 3, 2017 via Indica Records – pre-order here!). Opening on a hazy, fire-colored light the video pans out slowly, revealing thin plastic sheets waving in a slight draft and five white, plaster statues within them. Each statue holds the vague position of a different musician, with one sitting like he’s at a drum set and another standing as if he were holding a bass guitar. The action then comes not from a typical scene of the band members performing, but instead with low quality projections of them cast onto each of their respective statues.
As Michael sings along, a pair of masked intruders enter the scene, clearly there to wreak some havoc. In an unmistakable climax to the video, they survey the statues and promptly start smashing. As the dust settles, we’re left with only the vague projections in which the moving band members now look somewhat like the Aurora Borealis.
Director Epher Heilland went above and beyond in crafting the “How Was I to Know?” music video. Of the visual, he explains, “After having worked on a few live takeaway videos throughout the years and a loose narrative more recently, we aimed to do something different this time around while attempting to bring out another dimension of the song.” While it’s easy to assume the demolishers are the villain in this story, they very well may be the heroes. They destroyed the statues, but in doing so they freed the colorfully animated projections from their frozen canvases and allowed them to move on their own accord.
The song itself is an extremely catchy and quick paced track with anthemic vocals and a symphony of supporting instruments. But beneath the surface of the music, the lyrics delve into a love gone awry and parallel the video in an unexpected, beautiful way. Le Trouble have tapped into a deep-rooted and relatable feeling that lives within each of us when it comes to relationships, love and loss.
I’d have bet I honestly believed
We’d make it
Oh yeah we’d make it
Nobody starts a relationship hoping it’s going to end. We all build aspirations and expectations for our lives on the foundation of love, and in doing so we assume it will come with a happy ending. And more often than we’d like, the opposite is true, and we end up picking up the pieces of everything we built.
Let me bury you in my bones
Send it out to sea
But how was I to know
That love would take its toll
Though it may come across as a sad, unrequited break-up song, “How Was I to Know?” is a song about moving on. It’s true that the people we project ourselves onto with such confidence may not always be there. Even though this ending couldn’t have been foreseen and often isn’t wanted, we’ve all got to take life as it comes and try to make the most of it.
Through a truly metaphorical visual, Le Trouble help us understand that once we accept the fact that it’s time to move on, it’s easy to see that we’re just fine, if not better, without the statues. We gain the clarity to understand that maybe they were holding us back, and though we may never be perfect, we all deserve to be happy.
Enjoy “How Was I to Know?” and look out for more from Le Trouble in the coming months!
Click here to pre-order Le Trouble’s sophomore album Making Matters Worse, our 2/3/2017!
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photo credit: Le Trouble © Le Petit Russe
:: Watch: “How Was I to Know?” – Le Trouble ::
[youtube=https://youtu.be/koMG9GGgoac?t=0s]
