VIDEO PREMIERE: Souldier – I Wear Shades

VIDEO PREMIERE: Souldier - I Wear Shades

The Danish guitarist and songwriter Asger Tarpgaard is releasing the warm, thoughtful single “I Wear Shades” as he presents his brand new project Souldier. His music is inspired by older British and American songwriter traditions and the track tells the story about hiding yourself behind a pair of sunglasses. At some point, you should consider taking them off.

Asger Tarpgaard is known from his time as part of the pop trio Private and from being the guitarist in Superheroes, a successful millennium-band playing three Roskilde Festivals (including being the opening act on Orange Stage) and touring around the world. After taking a break from writing music he’s now back with the musical project Souldier, a play on the words soul and soldier. Asger explains this as the contradictions between something emotional, thoughtful, heartfelt and something emotionless, cold and impersonal. The music of Souldier is meant to be the former, expressing himself and putting his heart and soul into his music.

The new single “I Wear Shades” expresses a certain 70’s pop production-vibe with notes of The Beach Boys, Supertramp, The Lovin’ Spoonful and especially George Harrison/Paul McCartney. Still, the track seems to fit perfectly into the current of modern popular music, bringing something brand new to the table. As Asger puts it:

“I like that my music plays on something traditional, but still feels original and new. This feeling that you’re finding a unique corner within the great world of songwriting that hasn’t been taken yet”

“I Wear Shades” is written on the piano from Asger’s childhood home. It was recently brought to his apartment in Copenhagen, and as he found that the sound and tune of the piano was the same as 30 years ago, he decided to create a song based on that specific output – which helps to create the strong 70’s vibe on the track.

Check out the video for ‘I Wear Shades’ – BELOW:

A quote about the video from the directors, Anne Sofie Madsen & Anders Christiansen:

“We shot the video during the early stages of the COVID 19 lockdown. While the 3 of us were quarantined on the island Møn. It’s sort of a creative exploration of the strangeness we felt, being completely isolated. The feeling of having all the time in the world, coupled with a dystopic unease of not knowing where things were heading. It unfolds as a series of unhurried snapshots – a variety of uncanny juxtapositions. The video itself is a plotless portrait of a drifter. A dreamlike pastiche of the “young dude in search of enlightenment” genre. We think that these themes and imagery suit this beautiful song well.”

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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