New York, NY (Top40 Charts) VRWRK (pronounced VR-WORK) are East London based producers Matt Sey and Jergan Callebaut (a psychiatrist and psychologist, respectively) and soulful graphic designer and vocalist
Salem Khazali. This poptronica trio has been consistently turning heads with their singles (Face It, Hearts Beating in Sync, You Feel Me & Different Crowd) since they joined forces last year.
After playing headline shows, major European festivals (Rock Werchter, Pukkelpop), Amsterdam Dance Event, Eurosonic, shows for Paris based fashion
Brand "Hermès", selling out Birthdays in Dalston and Café1001 in Brick Lane VRWRK is ready to release their 10 track debut album "
On The Outside" this summer, August 10th 2018.
On The Outside will be released on VRWRK's own London based Run Tell Secrecy (Kobalt), a label and collective that's hosted nights around London, featuring like minded musicians such Tony Njoku, Rondo Mo and Glows, amongst others. "Run Tell Secrecy is a creative platform driven by authenticity, human emotions, and the alternative truth," they said in an interview to NME. "It's everything around the music that isn't the music. It's our record label. It's our recording studio, it's the videos we make with friends, our visual thinking, and most recently the apparel we've designed."
VRWRK's 10 track debut album On The Outside will be released worldwide on 10th August 2018 on Run Tell Secrecy (Kobalt)
TRACK QUOTES
"Face It" is a song about finding yourself through others, the interplay of ego's, expectations and the projection of our own feeling on the people we relate to. It's about how the people we love show us our dark side. It's about the paradoxical sense of personal growth and development during the breakdown of a relationship," says Jergan who co-wrote the lyrics.
'You Feel Me (Utterly Amazing)', is an ode to Dalston, the area where their debut album was recorded, and where a majority of the influences were drawn. 'It's an exploration with the obsession with a famous person as an individual. How close to reality is the image of the icon?' says Khazali.
"Hearts Beating in Sync is a song about chasing your dreams after a meeting new people and rediscovering old friends. "While writing the album, the three of us had to process the end of a relationship", says Matt. It's about finding freedom and lust for life,
as a Psychiatrist for the NHS during the day.
'Wait It Out', is an ode to having to reunite with long lost lovers. "It's a feeling we can all relate to, we feel ourselves drifting through life but deep down we can't help but feel there's a force pushing us towards that one person. The person you keep running back to" says Khazali.
"Different Crowd" is about change - both musically and personally. 'At the time it was written, loads of things were shifting. It's a sort of introspective pep-talk where I had to be like, right — there's certain energies you can't take forward with you right now.' says Salem
ALBUM BACKGROUND
"On The Outside served as a catharsis for the three of us. It's about personal development through eye-opening moments inside and outside our passionate relationships. It is about how we tend to project an idea to others; how this turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy, about how people want to see us, who people want us to be, what they want from us".
"On The Outside tries to capture the feeling of being alone while being surrounded by people. The inner struggles from being in a relationship or outside relationships. Being on the outside refers to the negative space of our 'inner self'.
The album artwork by London based graphic designer, Lisbeth Antoine, decontexualises our most important sense of perception, our eyes. She says "It makes it very hard to perceive the true emotions of the people behind the mask. It creates mystery that allows us to project individual meaning onto it. And this plays into the overarching theme of the album.
