“Tuff”: An Interview with Boy Willows
Photo by Maya Fuhr
Landon Fleischman, better known by his moniker Boy Willows, is a rising bedroom-pop artist whose music blends sounds of experimental folk-pop, jazz, indie, and psych-pop. Boy Willows is not only a vocalist, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, but has an array of passions that also include lighting, VJing, embroidery, and woodworking. As he continues to grow as an artist Fleishman plans to filter out all of his projects and passions through BoyWillows.
Last year, Boy Willows toured with the band Wallows doing lighting for their shows. He began a friendship with frontman Dylan Minnette and released a song with him in September of 2020 titled “Fila.” The track serves as an almost therapy session between two friends who are coping with feelings of self-doubt in two very different ways.
Boy Willows has returned with his new single “Tuff” accompanied by a hilarious and fun music video that has an 80s B-list movie look and feel to it. In the video, we are given a glimpse into the personality of Boy Willows which has never been showcased in this way before.
Unpublished had the opportunity to speak with Boy Willows about his new single and video, his new EP, the pandemic, lighting, and what’s next in the world for Boy Willows.
[UNPUBLISHED:] When did you first get into making your own music?
[BOY WILLOWS:] I started when I was about seven and a half. I was into classic soul and rock because of my dad. We would listen to music in the car. He's not a super animated guy, but he would be when we would listen to music. That stuck with me and made me super pumped to be around him; so, some of my seeds came from that. Then in 2003, School of Rock came out, and I saw it in the theatres and then went and bought a guitar the next day.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Did you teach yourself guitar?
[BOY WILLOWS:] No, I took lessons at Guitar Center and it was so horrible. Then a friend of a friend was teaching a bunch of kids in the neighborhood, his name was Mark Bowen, who taught me for the next handful of years. He taught me a lot of stuff. He was this cool rock climber dude.
[UNPUBLISHED:]So your new single “Tuff” is coming out on May 21, can you tell us a little bit about it?
[BOY WILLOWS:] I would say that this is my first "funny" song. It's supposed to be this joke that everyone's in on except for me. It's really about desperately wanting to move on from something and thinly veiling that with this super macho energy. There's this "try hard energy" where I ended up revealing that I'm the opposite of "tuff." Jim Carey had a good quote about this. The gist is like when a character sees themself a certain way, but nobody else sees them that way; there's something so beautiful about how pathetic it is. I love the idea of capturing this desperation of trying to move on from something. In the bridge, there's this line that goes, "If moving on is a muscle I can flex, then tuff." The whole point is this person compensating for their struggle to move on from something in a transparent way. For some reason, I find that really funny. Hopefully, people will see the humor in it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I saw the music video for the track and I thought it was really funny.
[BOY WILLOWS:] If you watch the music video you’ll get the tone pretty quick. This person isn’t fooling anyone but he’s pretty convinced that he is. I just think there’s something funny in how pathetic that is.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Can you tell us a little bit more about the process of making the music video? How did you come up with the idea for it?
[BOY WILLOWS:] There's a movie that came out in 2000 called Snatched, with Brad Pitt and Jason Statham. It's this intense movie about this fighter who's supposed to throw the fight. It's such a classic film trope. I had this idea of a freeze-frame of a super slow push of this guy being held over the side of a building; he's losing his mind with fear as the words "TUFF" appears on the screen. I was thinking of really compromising situations where someone would exhibit extreme fear. From there, it made me think of the movie Snatched, where they get involved with super dangerous people, and the stakes are high. The video feels like a classic B-list 80s film with terrible production quality and plot inconsistencies.
I'm super excited to release it. I'm someone who enjoys being funny and enjoys being seen as funny; it's a major part of who I am. I've never showcased this in my music before, so this will be the first time people will see this. It feels good to be seen this way.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I noticed you’ve been posting on your Instagram little cards with all the characters from the video. The origin stories you created for them are hilarious.
[BOY WILLOWS:] I still laugh at those whenever I read them.
[UNPUBLISHED:] You have an EP coming out later in the year, can you tell us a little about that?
[BOY WILLOWS:] I have an EP coming called 'BANGS.' I do lighting for different touring bands. While I was touring, I was feeling burnt out and vulnerable. I was feeling exposed, and I remember I was sitting in the backseat of a car, and my hair was covering my face, and it felt good to have some barrier between me and the outside world. It made me feel safe, and I thought it was an interesting way of summarizing that time in my life. So 'BANGS' is a collection of songs from that time. It's supposed to be way less ambiguous than my past work. The thing with "Tuff" is this person is trying so desperately to hold this facade, and these songs are going to feel a lot more revealing and a bit more indicative of who I am as a person.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What is your song-making process like?
[BOY WILLOWS:] It used to be super cut and dry, that I would just pick up a guitar and start playing around. Now I'm a bit busier, so my writing style has changed. Usually, I'll be out, and I'll disassociate a little bit, and a thought will pop up in my head about what I'm feeling at that moment. I usually write that down, and then that's the seed. The main difference between now and then is that I typically have a more focused starting point now. I feel like you can hear this in the music too. Starting with a sentiment or a thought that I don't even fully understand yet, but it feels good, can lead to ambiguity in my songwriting which I think is something I used to experience a lot of, and not so much anymore. I'm pretty pleased with that progression.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What have you been up to during the pandemic, besides music?
[BOY WILLOWS:] I got really into embroidery. I was back in Maryland, where my parents live, and a lot of my childhood clothes were collecting dust in my closet, so I had this idea to repurpose old clothes of mine into merch; I could even embroidery pictures or the BoyWillows logo on it. I'm not sure if I'm big enough for this yet, even though I have some super nice fans, but it's a possible idea. But I've realized hand stitching stuff is difficult when you're not good at it. I got decent and put some things on my Depop and sold a few things, but it's an idea for the future. I also got really into woodworking and general carpentry. It's been great. Whenever I have an idea for space, I build it. I've done that for a few single artworks and stuff. I also have an idea to sell BoyWillows furniture eventually. I would love to sell BoyWillows record shelves.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What are your plans after the pandemic is over?
[BOY WILLOWS:] Touring for myself probably, as well as touring with lighting. I tour and do lighting for the DJ Alan Walker and the band Wallows.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What was it like working with Dylan Minnette of Wallows on the “Fila” track?
[BOY WILLOWS:] Super easy. That was at the beginning of the pandemic. We pretty much sent voice memos back and forth, and I put it in the sesh. We finished touring in early March 2020, and I was showing him some songs on the bus. I showed him Fila, and he was really into it, so I was like, "hop on it if you want." The whole song is about navigating self-doubt while trying to be grateful. His version of that is very different from mine, but it's very cool that we both experienced versions of that.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How do you see yourself evolving as an artist?
[BOY WILLOWS:] Definitely would like to be dirtier, in the sense of less polished all around. I want to give no fucks. The goal is to eventually have half my fandom calling me BoyWillows and the other half calling me Landon, and for people to buy my furniture. I still want to do VJing and lighting for other people, but for people to be like, "Oh my god, that's BoyWillows doing lighting." I want everything I'm interested in to be filtered through the BoyWillows project.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What’s next for Boy Willows?
[BOY WILLOWS:] I'm sitting on a big pile of songs, and I love music videos, so I think I'm just going to work on those. I've never put out music with this high frequency before, so I'm stoked to see what happens. Hopefully, I continue to grow my fan base and can tour. Maybe even have some audio and visual installation pop-ups.
Photo by Maya Fuhr