Shout Out Loud's New Single Needs Some Chilling To Be Heard

In this digital age when most music is consumed via streaming or downloads, even waiting for a vinyl record to begin playing, seems like an eternity. So you can only imagine how excruciating it must have been for the fans of Shout Out Loud, who had to wait for more than six hours to listen to the Swedish Band's latest single, because it had to be first, chilled to perfection!

The Stockholm based indie-rock group who have not released any new songs for more than three years, wanted to do something special to introduce their single, 'Blue Ice' from their upcoming album 'Optica'. They therefore hired local advertisement agency TBWA Stockholm, to help them come up with a dramatic stunt.

Stepping up to the challenge, the PR agency decided to emulate the name of the single by creating a record that had to be frozen, before it could be heard. As is often the case with unusual ideas, all the 'experts' said that it was impossible!. But, the creative souls at the company knew they could do it and began experimenting with various liquids and mold materials upon which to record the song.

After several trials and errors, they finally settled on silicon for the mold and distilled water, for the record. The former was picked because the silicon cast was the quickest way to extract the record from the mold, which was important given that the sound quality deteriorated if the ice melted even slightly. The distilled water helped the music sound better because normal water contains bubbles that result in tiny bumps when frozen and cause the turntable needle to jump.

Once these unusual records had been tested the members of the band assembled ten kits with the materials and sent them to a few avid fans and some members of the press. All the recipients had to do, was pour the distilled water into the mold and freeze it, for at least six hours. Once it was frozen, they were asked to rapidly remove the record, place it onto any ordinary turntable and 'play' it. Whether the song was worth all this effort may be debatable, but what is not, is the 'cool' or should we say 'freezing cold' release!

Resources: fastco-design.com, dailymail.co.uk,