Atmospheric moments with byelian

photography by Raw Souls Production

“Most of the time I’m a pretty positive person and in a good mood.” reveals German artist Julian Kleinert alias byelian. To show his melancholical and soft side initially took him a bit of effort, but through music he felt an outlet to emote this side of him. While sitting on the piano he easily reflects and deals with all kinds of issues that he is concerned with. His current release faded friends touches on the theme of evanesence and shows his incredible talent for great songwriting and composition, enchanting with rich layers of atmospheric sounds. And the beautiful accompanied video carries us off to the vast, haunting landscape of Island and expressive motions of dancer Una Björg. We talked to him about childhood memories, his new LP “Whenever it´s too quiet” and his advice on how to live more in the presence.

Hey dear Julian, so let´s start right at your beginning. You are born, grew up in and still live in Sprockhövel, what is one of your most beautiful childhood memories from there?

Actually it’s quite a normal one I guess – just being out in the woods building some tree houses with some friends from the kindergarten and imagine we would live in there forever.

In an interview you said that at first you felt it was difficult for you to show your melancholical and soft side. However we would like to know if there is also a big part of you the complete opposite of melancholical and in which moments do you show this side more?

There is one for sure – most of the time I’m a pretty positive person and in a good mood. The melancholic part of me takes over when I´m on the piano and it’s about reflecting, dealing with some issues that just came up. If you really wanna see the opposite you just need to hit me up on a festivals dance floor.

“The melancholic part of me takes over when I’m on the piano and it’s about reflecting, dealing with some issues that just came up.”

Your new single faded friends is about evanescence and reminds us about how important every moment is. In our times where it feels that everything becomes faster and faster and quite difficult to keep up with it, what is your advice to live more in the here and now?

My advice would be just not to take everything too seriously, because it makes everything more stressful and causes the pressure that you don’t need. And of course nature – just get out into nature and forget everything around you for a moment. That works for me quite well.

How did the video come into being – tell us a little bit about the production of it.

As you probably saw I shot almost every video in Iceland – which just feels right to my music. We came up with the idea of someone dancing to this melancholic and very quiet song right in the landscape of Iceland. So we checked on Instagram who would fit and found the super talented and kind Una Björg in Reykjavik. She immediately texted back and we filmed the video 2 days later – everything very spontaneous, without any big scheduling or whatever. I love the result and the way she transports the music with her motions!

Which song out of the LP “Whenever it´s too quiet” is the most personal one for you and the one that was the most difficult to write?

Definetly faded faces, as it´s about a few members from my family who passed away within the past two years. I came up with the song on Christmas Eve right after we watched some childhood videos with them on tape. It was such a weird feeling knowing that they stood right in this living room 10 years ago. It gave me goosebumps everywhere and I wrote the song in the night and cried my heart out.