For the video for their single, Midnight Sun, Niklas Willar Lidholm, half of Stockholm duo Dream Lake, found his inspiration in his family’s past. He came across a video of his father holidaying in the Skärgården in the 1960s, which inspired him to make the trip out there himself: “I felt that had to go to that Island after finishing the music video. It was a special feeling to stand there 50 years later […] I saw a romantic teenage dream filled with happiness and freedom. I felt that the video expressed what Midnight Sun is all about”. Footage from both visits was then spliced together to create the dreamy video.

And that video’s wistful dreaming matches the song’s mood perfectly. Midnight Sun is a soft, floating piece of pop music, vocalist Isabella Svärdstam’s voice cutting through swirling guitars to make an emotional, affecting track. Willar Lidholm says: “The music really brings out the feeling of those years at the seaside, with the sun and the water that blends in to one. The joy of being young and living life to its fullest. If I close my eyes I can still feel that seaside breeze. The music brings memories to life”. Midnight Sun is out now on NIWI Records.

Words: Austin Maloney