Formed in Hamburg in 2009 by Valeska Steiner and Sonja Glass, Swiss-German duo BOY – who released their first new music for six years this spring – have released two albums to date, Mutual Friends (2011) and We Were Here (2015).

Notable for their distinctively bittersweet, sometimes deceptively upbeat style, their songs so far racking up 250 million-plus streams around the world, they’ve toured the globe, from Brazil to Belgium, winning particular praise in the US, where they debuted in 2013, including a series of shows at SxSW.

Today BOY shares their performance music video for “Fit Back In” (acoustic version) feat. Kaiser Quartet, and Big Takeover is pleased to host its premiere.

With their acoustic version of “Fit Back In,” BOY has successfully created another captivating and intimate acoustic interpretation for which their fans love them so much – live and on record.

Recorded with the Kaiser Quartet, the warmth and security of Steiner’s voice envelops the listener and is gently bedded in the fine instrumentation of Glass.

“Fit Back In” opens with the lines, “Feeling like a stranger in my city and my skin / Nothing around here reminds me of anything,” and while these may appear timely for a world overfamiliar with lockdowns, the song was written before Covid-19 arrived.

Instead, it was inspired by the death of Steiner’s father, with whom she was particularly close, and the lyrics were written over the course of more than a year. If, however, this sounds like the premise for a sad song, think again. It’s instead a masterclass in finding hope in despair.

“I feel so grateful for this song,” Steiner says, “because I really learned something for myself. I started writing it after my father passed, when I had this weird feeling that, in just one more week, a year would have gone by and somehow I’d have to be magically over it and not feel so sad or lost. It’s like there’s this official mourning period, and after that you’re meant to be fine. So I wrote it while I was ‘allowed’ to have this feeling, then sent the lyrics to Sonja, who wrote the music.

“Later we decided the end wasn’t working, and another few months passed, and then the line “Time doesn’t heal / It just goes by” came to me. It felt like such a relief! There are so many well-worn phrases we don’t really question, like ‘Time heals everything’, but some things are just sad forever. I found comfort in acknowledging that, and at the same time I was able to see more and more clearly how, as time passes, it brings new life and new beauty and new things to look forward to.”

The poignant track is given life in a cinematic music video that’s shot in gauzy black ‘n’ white and rife with behind-the-scenes footage from the studio while recording the song. Everyone gives a focused performance, with a vulnerable, but purposeful Steiner singing at the mic.

The duo states, “It was important to us that the acoustic version clearly differs from the original, which also sounds rather organic. So we came up with the idea of getting our friends from the Kaiser Quartet on board. They have often accompanied us live at acoustic shows; the last time was in 2017 at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and we are very happy with the arrangement that Ingmar Süberkrüb (the quartet’s violist) wrote for “Fit Back In.”“

Look For New Album In early 2022 via Groenland Records / SilverDoor Music.

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