Op 12 juni komt ‘The Brightest Light (Deluxe Edition)’ uit. Deze akoestische versie van ‘Amsterdam Bender’ is een van de bonus tracks op de deluxe edition.
Thomas Oliver:
“I love the album version of Amsterdam Bender, but some songs speak in a different way when you expose more of the song in its barest form, and to me the acoustic version of Amsterdam Bender captures the magic of its story in slightly richer way. The first time I spent time with the girl who is now my girlfriend, I came to Amsterdam for the weekend to see her (she is Dutch). From the very first coffee at the very first café, the conversation flowed and we felt like we’d known each other our whole lives. There was no awkwardness or uncertainty or even “learning period”. It was just straight to the magic zone. Our night escalated into a three-day romantic “bender” involving plenty of bars, coffeeshops, cigarettes, parties, gigs, smiles, laughs, kisses, and a few bouts of sleep. We even went ice skating together, which was pretty romantic. She also taught me a few Dutch words and phrases along the way, which is why “je bent zo lekker” is one of the lyrics in the song. And all of this was with a girl I had really only just met. It was perfect, and it was magical.
I wrote the song as a birthday present for her a couple of months later. I sent her an iPhone recording of the song on her birthday, and that’s all I ever intended it to be, but as it turned out, I liked the song so much that I recorded it for The Brightest Light. And now it’s on it twice! And now there’s beautiful music video to accompany it too.
The video was created by Jake McBride of Animind Studios, the same illustrator who animated the music video for Bulgarian Mountains, which captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians. Jake perfectly captured the magic of that weekend, and the wonder of Amsterdam in winter. When I watch it, it takes me straight back to the feeling that existence itself can be incomprehensibly beautiful.”