With Their Music Video “Awake” Fyke Continues To Bring Their Message – Check out our interview with the band here!

There seems to be a rhyme and reason to most everything a band plans out when releasing music. Fyke had chosen the song “Awake” to come in at number nine off your album Nightmares Deluxe. Any reason why?

ENIK: “Awake” was one of the first tracks we wrote. It just felt more natural for us to put it in towards the end in terms of the bigger picture.

Do you find that your own songs that you write apply to yourself as well?

ENIK: Yeah, all the music we write comes from personal experience whether the issues are things that we are dealing with ourselves or situations involving close friends or family members.

MIKEE: I definitely can relate to a lot of the songs that we write.

STEVEN: Definitely relate

How did the song “Awake” find its way into being something you felt needed to be said?

MIKEE: I think I can speak for a lot of musicians and say that it really is a tough road to be on. This song talks about the internal and external struggles that we face trying to pursue this “dream”. Sometimes it’s really tough because this career path that we chose came with a lot of sleepless nights, friends lost, stress, and the hardest thing for me: no one really supporting you and telling you that it’s not a “practical” thing to pursue. But one thing outweighs all of those things, and it’s just the simple fact that we love playing music. And that’s a really difficult thing for a lot of people to grasp.So the lyrics “Don’t wake me up, I don’t want these dreams to stop” really resonates in my life. Because through all those trials we face there’s nothing that will ever stop me from doing what I love.

How much control and influence does each band member have over the writing on all levels, mixing, engineering, production, etc… would you say Fyke is a collective process?

ENIK: I produce, record, & mix all of our music so naturally we write our stuff from a production standpoint. The way we typically work is I will write a basic skeleton of a track with rough elements and vocals done then I’ll bring in each band member to contribute their parts. I’ll guide the process through even with each member because I feel like it keeps the focus better targeted. Once each member has contributed their parts, I’ll go back in and adjust everything to make sure it flows as a whole. That may require subtraction or addition.

When “Awake” became the next song to be made into a music video how did you go about developing it into a story? Do you storyboard when creating?

ENIK: The minute it was time to create an MV for “Awake” we knew that we needed to get Brad on board to communicate the visuals. We sent the song over to him and gave him a brief explanation of the songs meaning from our standpoint. One thing I love about Brad, is that I can always trust him to come at the song from a completely different angle that always amplifies the meaning of our music.

Who is the young lady in the music video and how did she come to being apart of this music video?

ENIK: Her name is Joy Sohn. Brad’s music video treatment called for a girl to play the part of a female K-pop artist. Joy just has that look so I reached out to her and got her on board.

Talk if you would a bit about the video. Noticing a tall building in the background with an airplane landing towards the beginning of the film. What were some of the locations you used?

MIKEE: We filmed a lot of the video in downtown Los Angeles.

The color choices in the video- are they representative of something in particular?

BRAD:  You’ll notice two specific color motifs in the video. The first, and most obvious are the vibrant, glitch-like colors and distortions seen throughout the video. These represent the colors you’d see on an old CRT TV especially during a test of the emergency broadcast system. When these EBS tests occur they usually interrupt your program. So in a sense, we’re trying to get you to stop and think about what goes into all of the media that you’re consuming. Underneath the perfect portrayals and idealized scenarios, how many of those who got into entertainment to pursue their dreams end up hurting because of that dream? It’s a double-sided blade and we wanted to show that at the end of the day even idols and those at the top are lonely and hurting just like everyone else.

The second color motif is the one drenched in shadow with silhouettes. This represents a darker and pretty much-unseen aspect of the entertainment industry. Those of us who enjoy media only see the outline (i.e silhouettes) of what is put in front of us. Shadows can be manipulated into anything. Once you go deeper and start to peel away the noise you begin to see the actual people and their struggles, you see that the top is a very lonely place.

The two beings with pigs heads. Representing what in particular?

BRAD: They represent the greed and lustful nature of the men in power. A lot of exploitation occurs in the industry. Whether these men in power take advantage of others financially, physically, mentally or emotionally, we wanted to literally show them for what they are– pigs.

Bottomline with this video and all its depictions what is the crux we can take from “Awake” and apply?

ENIK: Success does not equate to happiness.

How much is “Awake” about western civilization and can you talk about it deeper?

ENIK: The music video for “Awake” is about the K-pop industry. The song is about the pursuit of your dreams and the sacrifices that come along with its pursuit. All of us (in the band) have had our share of hardships in our decision to pursue a career in music. It’s a career that has caused us to lose relationships, struggle financially, and suffer mentally and emotionally. But it is also a career that has allowed us to serve our community and bless other people with our music and message.

What is it music video director Brad Wong brings to the sound that had you asked him to be on “Awake?”

MIKEE: Brad Wong is awesome! He’s a great director and he’s helped pushed our creativity to another level that exceeded everything we had in mind. He really understands our music well and I’m forever grateful that we got the opportunity to work with him again!

GERARD: I love the visual effects he brings to all his music videos.  We thought it a perfect fit because I believe that his strong suit is working with colors.

Do you see Nightmares Deluxe as an album then being a complete story that you are looking to tell by music?

ENIK: Nightmares is a collection of social issues translated through music so I guess it’s a complete story if i’m understanding your question correctly.

Ultimately music is about saying something… but it is also about saying and gaining an income and notoriety for your work. How do you all personally help keep the balance between the mixed messages of the world?

MIKEE: For me, being in a band with 4 guys who are really about this positive message we’re trying to spread has kept me level headed.There’s a lot of things in this world that can lead you down a dark path so its really nice having these guys to help me out whenever im going through.