In the Dark

Album: Amo (2019)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In 2016 Oli Sykes split from his first wife, tattoo artist Hannah Snowdon, after he discovered she was having an affair with someone else. The breakup was painful to get over, but writing about it served as therapy for the Bring Me the Horizon singer. This song is from the perspective of someone who's found out their lover's been cheating. Sykes told NME:

    "I needed to get it out of my system. It wasn't the fact that I was still miserable or anything like that - I was fine - but at the same time, when you go through something traumatic, you carry a lot of stuff with you after it - a lot of mental baggage, a lot of things."

    Sykes added that he is lucky, as "writing lyrics and making music is the most therapeutic thing." As a singer to be able to write about his painful issues and then sing about on stage is "the best way to get stuff out."
  • This is one of the more poppy songs on Amo. Keyboardist Jordan Fish told Kerrang that while the band don't want to alienate their existing fans, they felt it was important to keep evolving their sound. "While it's poppy, it's still quite dark," he said. "We don't worry about what people might think of that. It's not a healthy mindset to be in when you're trying to write music. We try not to let what people might expect from us affect us creatively, but at the same time we do still like heavy music. So it's a consideration."
  • The song's music video was co-directed by Oli Sykes with videographer Brian Cox. The clip stars The Last King Of Scotland and Black Panther actor Forest Whitaker in a dystopian sci-fi world.

    Sykes explained to NME that the visual is "meant to be a representation of the grieving process. It's a visual metaphor for what the song is talking about."

    Sykes added: "Forest is the protagonist and a lot of people are counting on him to be able to recall these memories and process them. The spectrum of his emotions is impacting on all of these different experiments. I wanted it to have a message for what's going on in the world right now."
  • The band first met Whitaker back in 2017. The actor's daughter is a fan of Bring Me the Horizon and he accompanied her to a show in Atlanta. Said Sykes:

    "'In the Dark' is my first 'official' directing effort. We were in the midst of planning to shoot the video with a director in LA. Three days before the shoot, I got a call from Forest saying he was in London and available, so ignoring everyone who said it was impossible to make it happen in time, I called our videographer Brian and asked him if he wanted to help me direct a video. Two days later, we were shooting in London!"
  • Oli Sykes' concepts for the video cost around five times more than the budget, so they had to be clever. Some of the ways he and Brian Cox cut costs include:

    1. The human incubator is a fish tank with a base built by Sykes' father.

    2. They used an air conditioner, a dynamo label printer and a vacuum cleaner for the tree scene.

    3. The monster is a cheap Halloween mask and hands with a bit of CGI.

    4. Much of what you see was made from trash lying around the warehouse, where the clip was filmed.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Chris Tomlin

Chris TomlinSongwriter Interviews

The king of Christian worship music explains talks about writing songs for troubled times.

Jon Anderson of Yes

Jon Anderson of YesSongwriter Interviews

From the lake in "Roundabout" to Sister Bluebird in "Starship Trooper," Jon Anderson talks about how nature and spirituality play into his lyrics for Yes.

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Van Dyke Parks

Van Dyke ParksSongwriter Interviews

U2, Carly Simon, Joanna Newsom, Brian Wilson and Fiona Apple have all gone to Van Dyke Parks to make their songs exceptional.

Spooner Oldham

Spooner OldhamSongwriter Interviews

His keyboard work helped define the Muscle Shoals sound and make him an integral part of many Neil Young recordings. Spooner is also an accomplished songwriter, whose hits include "I'm Your Puppet" and "Cry Like A Baby."

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot

Jon Foreman of SwitchfootSongwriter Interviews

Switchfoot's frontman and main songwriter on what inspires the songs and how he got the freedom to say exactly what he means.