◇ THE VIDEO - PICTURE OF MYSELF

A poignant and luminous video on depression.

> Video and single release : 10 october 2024
On the occasion of World Mental Health Day

More than 750 million people worldwide, or 1 in 10, suffer from depression or anxiety disorders*. Everyone knows someone who is affected. And yet, we hear so little about it. Social taboos, secrecy and shame isolate victims, often trapping them in silence.

The band SWELL FACTORY breaks this silence through music and imagery. From the very start of the Picture of Myself video, we are drawn in by Eddy's testimony, diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorders. On screen, a gallery of people follows. Faces tell their stories, reveal their scars. Swell Factory’s electronic and orchestral music brings these emotions, these unspoken truths, to the surface. The gazes tighten, flinch, confront, soften, and brighten.

*According to the World Health Organization (WHO).

◇ THE BAND - SWELL FACTORY

Swell Factory blends electronic and orchestral music with audio testimonies to explore mental health in an immersive and emotional journey. 

Led by multi-instrumentalists Matt Bekkers and Dan De Ridder, Swell Factory invites us into a sensory, empathetic, and unsettling multimedia musical experience.

Like a soundtrack to emotions, Swell Factory's music moves between the intimate and the exalted, bringing to life the complexities of the mind and heart. The duo combines real and virtual instruments, beatmaking, orchestration, sound textures, and integrates audio testimonies and video creations around specific mental health themes.

Swell Factory’s sound draws from a rich tapestry of influences, merging cinematic atmospheres with the emotional depth of post-rock giants like GYBE!, Mogwai, or 65daysofstatic. Their music also carries traces of the ‘90s alternative rock scene and the pulse of electronic music from that era, weaving together a sound that feels both familiar and refreshingly new.

From delicate strings to fierce beats, from soft pianos to bold brass, Swell Factory unfolds a contrasting palette, filled with stimuli, breaks and surprises. An immersion that is both raw and winding, often luminous, into the depths of the human soul.

◇ THE ALBUM - REAL

> Album release REAL - 1 november 2024

The album, REAL, takes listeners on a powerful journey into the depths of mental health.

It opens with Confidence. A woman’s voice shares her personal experience with depression. Gradually, the music pulls us from the raw reality of her testimony into a space of imagination, allowing us to feel what is left unsaid, to explore the emotions surrounding her story.

No lead singer in Swell Factory, but the audio testimonies of real people sharing their experiences on specific mental health themes. In Picture of Myself and Confidence, the focus is on depression and anxiety. Sweet illustrates the violence of schizophrenia, from the cold diagnosis of a doctor to the disarming testimony of a mother. With Dislocated, we dive into the dissociative fugue: imagine waking up in a field, with no memory of how you got there. Sequence takes us through the emotional rollercoaster characteristic of bipolar disorder.

Throughout the album, the approach remains musical and artistically genuine. Each track delivers it's emotional truth letting the music and testimonies speak for themselves. The use of real people’s testimonies also reflects the desire to stay connected to reality. In one way or another, we recognize a piece of our own lives or that of someone close to us.

REAL is an instrumental and emotional release of our vulnerabilities, an orchestrated attempt to bring them out of the shadows and into the light.

◇ AUDIO TESTIMONIAL EXCERPTS :

"When I think about those around me, it gets even worse because I feel like I’m hurting them... by hurting myself. And since I’m hurting them, I feel guilty for doing that, and it eats away at me even more. Because, ever since I was little, well, I’ve been trying to please people—like everyone, I guess."

Claudine in "Confidence"

"Getting an overall picture of myself everytime when i feel off helps me to make sense of what is happening in my life at that moment. I also revived a passion I had as a young boy which is art and now, I'm positively consumed by it. I feel like I'm fulfilling part of my purpose here and continuing every day to be the best version of myself."

Eddy Kimani in "Picture of Myself"

"If one should say the word hell because you don't know what it's really like. I know I haven't made the remark and thought about it a lot of times. I wouldn't have to die to go to it, but then I guess I have to keep telling myself nothing hasn't gotten so bad that it couldn’t get worse. [...] And if I didn't have that to think about, I think I would have done enough on the deep end myself."

Anonymous mother of a schizophrenic in “Sweet”