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Ephemerals, Wolfgang Valbrun

You Made Us Change

The breakthrough song of the London soul band Ephemerals, written and produced by Hillman Mondegreen and sung by the New York-born, Paris-based Wolfgang Valbrun, from their 2014 debut Nothin Is Easy.

By korczis 2 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Ephemerals and their singer Wolfgang Valbrun made You Made Us Change as a soul record in the full sense: a band song carried by an R&B lead voice, soulful and a little nostalgic, because its album was made, in its singer’s biography’s words, as classic soul with a modern twist.

Song Summary

The song was the highlight of the band’s debut album, Nothin Is Easy, and the notes of its Bandcamp EP describe it as a soul record that blends Hillman Mondegreen’s production with Valbrun’s vocals. Mondegreen wrote it and leads the band; Valbrun, who was born and raised in New York State and built his career in Paris, was invited to be its lead singer. We do not quote the lyric here, and no source we found explains what, or who, made “us” change.

Musical Breakdown

Main Section

You Made Us Change was the album’s calling card. The album was recorded in seven days at a London studio and engineered by Joe Leach. No source we found walks through this song part by part, so this review does not invent its structure; listen for the voice first and for how the band frames it.

Overall Vibe

In a 2020 interview the band described their music as a fusion of funk, soul and psychedelia, with Mondegreen favouring polychords and ambiguous tonality over plain major and minor moods. The interview was about the band’s later work, so treat it as a lens for this song rather than a description of it.

Concepts in Focus

You Made Us Change shows how a remix can widen a song’s world. Jalapeno’s November 2014 EP put the original beside four reworks: the Dutch disco-house producer NSFW pitching the vocal down over a bass groove, AOTOA’s atmospheric double-time dub, and a mid-tempo electronica remix and a dub by Antenna Happy.

The music video, directed by Jan Hillman, is built around choreography by Natalie Adams.

Artistic Context

Nothin Is Easy first came out on Mondegreen Soho through Bandcamp’s pay-what-you-can service and was reissued by Jalapeno Records in autumn 2014. Before Ephemerals, Valbrun sang with the Parisian funk band Marvellous and toured with the French producer GUTS.

Impact and Reception

Valbrun’s biography calls the song the band’s breakthrough: the French producer Kungs reworked it into a worldwide airplay hit, which took Valbrun to the Victoires de la Musique. That track, I Feel So Bad, released in 2016 and credited to Kungs featuring Ephemerals, reached No. 3 in France. Start with this original.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Describe what it means for a modern record to be called classic soul with a modern twist.
  • Explain how remixes can carry one song into several scenes, from a soul album to house, dub and electronica.
  • Trace how a small band's song can become a worldwide hit through another producer's rework.

Listening guide

  1. the vocal Wolfgang Valbrun's lead, the voice the EP's notes pair with Hillman Mondegreen's production.
  2. the production Mondegreen's arrangement, which Valbrun's biography sums up, for the whole album, as classic soul with a modern twist.
  3. the video The official clip directed by Jan Hillman, built around choreography by Natalie Adams.

Concepts in this track

music video

144 tracks

A short film made to accompany a song. Since MTV it has shaped how songs are remembered, and on YouTube it is often the main way a song is heard.

remix

164 tracks

A new version of a recording made by reworking its parts: changing the beat, harmony, tempo or structure, often by another producer. A remix can turn a ballad into a club track.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. What makes a new recording sound like 'classic' soul: the voice, the arrangement, the production, or the way it is played?
  2. The remix EP pitched the vocal down, doubled the tempo and made a dub. Which version would you play first, and where?
  3. If a song becomes famous through someone else's rework, whose song is it in the listener's mind?

References

  1. Bandcamp. You Made Us Change (EP) (2014). Label
  2. Mondegreen Soho. ephemerals - Nothin Is Easy (2014). Label
  3. Greenbelt Festival. Wolfgang Valbrun. Artist
  4. EARMILK. There is nothing like change: Ephemerals on rebirth, self-discovery and transformation (2020). Interview
  5. Wikipedia. I Feel So Bad (Kungs song). Encyclopedia
  6. MusicBrainz. Ephemerals. Database
  7. Jalapeno Records. Ephemerals - You Made Us Change (Official Video) (2014). Video

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