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Loulwa Soweid

Into the Wild: Behind the Scenes of Postcards’ “Where the Wild Ones”

The Lebanese folk-rock band Postcards’ latest single, “Where the Wild Ones” goes a step further from the band’s previous music by pairing lulling lyrics evocative of travel and the wilderness with gorgeous natural scenes in their first-ever music video.

“We’d been wanting to do a music video ever since the release of our EP one year ago,” the band tells Beirut.com, “but we decided to wait until we’d evolved musically- and we wanted the video to accompany a song that we related to more.”

The band – Julia Sabra, Marwan Tohme, Rany Bechara and Pascal Semerdjian – say they genuinely enjoyed the process and were kept motivated by enthusiastic director Farid Salame and a small but dedicated film crew. “When Postcards came to me with a song and an idea for a music video, I had [already] been following them for a while,” says Salame, “I always thought they were one of the bands in Lebanon with great potential and I found ‘Where the Wild Ones’ in particular to appeal to my visual sense, so I immediately jumped on board.”


(Photo via Jad Beshara)

The video features shots from both Shayleh and Bakish in Lebanon and from Richmond Park in London. The latter was filmed by a photographer friend of the band, Nessim Stevenson. The bandmates are shown trekking over snow-capped mountains and through green forests. The video is dotted with shots of wild deer prancing through fields of tall grass. According to the band, the snow was actually an unanticipated part of the video, making for a mess of slush and mud. At one point during the making of the video they had to buy a hair dryer just to warm their feet.

Postcards cite vocalist Sabra as the sole lyricist for “Where the Wild Ones” after she was inspired by a conversation in a literature class. All four bandmates collaborated in the creation of the melody. While they firmly believe in the idiosyncrasies of each person’s interpretation of their music, it is difficult to imagine “Where the Wild Ones” stirring up anything other than tranquility. “Listening to the song lyrics is like walking through the wilderness,” says Hassan Karaman, who describes himself as a long-time fan of the Lebanese band. “It reminds me that I should occasionally go camping with my best friends.”

The response to “Where the Wild Ones” has been immensely positive. As of publishing time, the YouTube video has garnered over 5,000 views. Numerous enthusiastic fans and encouraging words decorate the comment section on the band’s Facebook page. One such fan is Nasri Atallah, the managing director of media and publishing at Keeward, a local company that is developing a music partnership with the band’s general manager, Beirut Jam Sessions. He has been following Postcards from the beginning, saying “it’s amazing how their music is evolving in a short space of time. They’re carving out their own sound, and it’s impressive for such a young band- I think that this is the year they get big.”

“Where the Wild Ones” is available for purchase on iTunes , Amazon and Soundcloud.