Fresh off the tour bus from a stint of European dates; close friends Passenger and Stu Larsen joined us on Primrose Hill for a Wonderland Session.
Passenger’s bewitching break-up ballad ‘Let Her Go‘ took its time to win over the world – it became a hit in mainland Europe in the autumn of 2012 and reached the Top 5 of the Billboard chart in February 2014. This allowed Passenger to process his success, get used to the size of crowds coming to see him and, crucially, continue to write and record heartbreakingly beautiful music.
‘Whispers’ is Passenger’s sixth studio album. Its oldest songs date back to before the mayhem began. Although he didn’t know it when he wrote it, the title track captures the chaos in his head when ‘Let Her Go’ started to snowball. Even the songs most recently written have evolved by being played live dozens of times, at shows and on streets everywhere from Amsterdam to Australia.
Stu Larsen was born in the town of Dalby, in Australia, a close-knit, religious community of less than 10,000 people. Nothing much happened in Dalby and that was pretty much how folks liked it. Predictability was what made people feel comfortable and Stu’s career in a local Bank meant that by the age of 23, his life was pretty well mapped out for him.
However, the call of the wild and the lure of the unknown led Stu to leave his job, his family and the familiarity of his small town in Queensland to follow a path of exploration and wandering – sharing his love of music with everyone he encountered along the way.
Stu’s natural inspiration comes from an acute perception for the detail and beauty in everyday things and experiences and his need to keep moving on helps to maintain the freshness and sharpness of these observations that then manifest in his music and the continuous photographic account that comprises his enigmatic ‘instagram’ — a unique pictorial portrait of his eclectic journeys and experiences.
Connect with Passenger and Stu Larsen.
VIDEO BY – @clingfilms Greg Barnes
STILLS BY –@roo_lewis Roo Lewis