The Bollands—"Lose You": Memories and Fireworks
Will Eland | They/Them
4.5/5 STARS
We open on our protagonist duct-taping pieces of cardboard to her legs, a towel to a helmet, and putting on an oversized coat. The song opens to a short, sweet, slightly hopeful piano riff that repeats for the entirety of the song. A man sings, melancholic, about dying, fading as he waits for someone he doesn’t believe is real.
The Bollands are a New Zealand indie-folk band who I had never heard of before I went onto the NZ Music Month website last week. They are a husband and wife duo who started out in Hong Kong and now tour all over Asia, the US, and NZ. They are also exactly the type of music I listen to, so I’m a little disappointed they hadn’t popped up in my recommendations.
“Lose You” is their most recent single, dropped on the 6th of May in the midst of a pandemic. The video is, currently, unlisted. As far as I can tell, you can only access it through the news piece about it on the NZ Music Month website, which might explain why so few have seen it. I would highly recommend you go through the effort to find it though. It’s a hidden gem.
Probably because of the timing, the lyrics—originally about struggling in a deep pit of depression—have taken on a different meaning for me. They feel at home in the uncertainty and fear of life right now, sitting at home, safe, knowing that people I love across the world are in much more dangerous times.
I thought I was gonna lose you
The music video, dropped at the same time, follows our protagonist preparing for the Yanshuei Fireworks Festival in Taiwan. She will, after donning her homemade protective gear, run amongst a crowd into the path of fireworks. The spectacle is beautiful, awe-inspiring as the fireworks dance across the mass of people. It is even more poignant considering what the festival is remembering.
Cholera broke out in Taiwan in 1875, and the plague lasted for over twenty years. Survivors in Yanshuei attempted to drive off evil spirits with fireworks, and soon after the plague ended. The festival commemorates this, taking place on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. The music video was shot this year, February 8th, as our current pandemic rose.
The visuals are, of course, stunning. And set to the mournful vocals of a man lamenting loss, they are humbling. We watch our protagonist leaving the festival, helmet under arm and tired determination on her face, a mirror to how many feel attempting to survive and work and plan a way out of our current world.
I thought I was gonna lose you
The song itself, its instrumentals and vocals and the harmonies between those, is quietly beautiful. Haunting. The piano carries the melody, repeating its almost optimistic riff throughout. Guitars and drums come in to bolster it as fireworks are set off, but once everything fades and we are left with the aftermath, the memories, the piano can barely be heard in the background. The vocals sing of fear, loss, of something being wrong but being unable to find the cause. They meld with synth as these feelings increase and fade back to pure, human voice as a second voice joins and mixes for the chorus. It is bittersweet, scared of what has been missed, what realities they nearly had to face.
I thought I was gonna lose you
Hold on
I thought I was gonna lose you.