Video premiere: Possible Oceans, ‘Falling Backwards’

Kevin Bronson on June 20th, 2019

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Possible Oceans debuted last year with the “Phase Change” EP, a short but powerful collection of indie-rock soundscapes that showed that the principals — Trevor O’Neill and Daniel Berkman — have moved on from their project Sympathetic Frequencies. And dug a little deeper.

Their brooding, propulsive music takes the next step with the new single “Falling Backwards,” a song about the perils of being inside your own head. “I was trying not to slide off the edge of the earth,” O’Neill confesses in the song, which materialized when he was on a trip with plenty of alone time. O’Neill, in Mexico City on a promotional trip with only his makeshift mobile recording studio, conjured up the song while in an Uber on the way to a radio performance.

“After six days alone in a city where everyone speaks a different language and you don’t know anyone, you can really get in your head,” he says. “Mexico City is one of the most inspiring places I’ve ever been and I love it, but these solo trips are challenging for me. It’s a powerful experience to be cut off from your routines like that. Having so much time alone with my thoughts really made me reflect on my patterns and habits, especially my tendency to let circumstances dictate my mood, which has often led me to depression. This song is about recognizing your demons, calling them (and yourself) out, and being kind of reborn in the process.”

The tune was made with producer/drummer Jules de Gasperis (Low Hum, James Supercave, Bleached) in his Highland Park studio. And for the video, Possible Oceans collaborated with photographer/videographer James Juarez on the visuals. Directed by O’Neill and filmed by Juarez, it finds a man mired in his humdrum daily routine. Somewhere on his commute, he makes a wrong turn that turns out to be a right turn.

||| Watch: The video for “Falling Backwards”