Swym – Up to You (Video Premiere)
Watch the new music video for Up to You by Aberdeen songwriter Swym
Swym is the recording project of Scottish writer and recording artist, Nassif Younes. Hailing from Aberdeen, Younes started playing guitar at the age of 17 and has done little else since – his debut EP, Your Distraction, is set for release on 13 Oct.
The Skinny are delighted to be premiering the video for Up to You, the first single from the EP, which you can watch in the player above. Of the track, Younes tells us: "The song itself came out pretty quickly. The bare-bones verse and chorus came out in about the time it takes to play through the song and then the rest just got pieced in over a few months. With the lyrics, I was going for an anti-capitalist thing but laid out like a collection of advertising slogans. I always try not to be too serious with political songs because it just ends up sounding more like an essay.
"The video came from an idea that me and my girlfriend, Holly Morton, had about people literally living behind masks and the disillusionment felt by people on the outside. She studies light art so she was also in charge of setting the atmosphere for the performance shots. In the end, the video ties up with people who are down on their luck realising that change has to come from the people who want it.
"I originally meant it as a protest song about the masses rising up and all that but someone told me it felt more like people making personal changes in their lives. I guess it could mean either. In any case, the masks and the messages in the sand were a lot of fun to do. I also didn't want to put extra pressure on my friends by getting them to be professional actors so at least this way, everyone had a good time while we did it. The wine spillage shot was a total accident too but since it was there, I thought we had to use it. My friend, Fraser Edwards, who filmed it insisted on using drone footage at the end to 'make it look more money' which I wasn't sure about but it looked pretty cool in the end."
Your Distraction is released via Swym Records on 13 Oct. Pre-order the EP here.