Trailer
School of Seven Bells tease ‘I Got Knocked Down (But I’ll Get Up)’ video
The track was recorded by the late Benjamin Curtis while receiving treatment in hospital.
While receiving treatment for T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma in a New York hospital last year, late School of Seven Bells guitarist Benjamin Curtis engineered a cover of Joey Ramone’s ‘I Got Knocked Down (But I’ll Get Up)’ - written about his own battle with the disease.
It was the final recording Curtis made before his death on 29th December 2013, aged 35.
As bandmate Alejandra Deheza explains, working on the track took Curtis’ mind off his illness.
“It was a very spontaneous decision to record this track. Benjamin had been talking about the song a lot, and then he just decided he was going to do it. We couldn’t record vocals in the hospital, so he actually face-timed with me and his brother while we recorded vocals in the studio. He spearheaded the whole thing on FaceTime, would even tell us which knobs to turn and listen to levels etc. We’d even see nurses in the background from time to time! It was really amazing. But that was Benjamin, and producing was what he did. It was therapeutic and took his mind off being really sick. This song was really important to him and I’m happy we were able to record it.”
The song has been given a video treatment courtesy of directors, and long-time friends of School of Seven Bells, Toby Halbrooks and Alan Del Rio Ortiz. Alejandra adds, “Benjamin always held the desert very close to his heart,” Alejandra comments. “It was a really important place to him. I’m glad we were able to shoot this video where we did, for him.”
A preview of the video - which will be shared next week - can be found below.
School of Seven Bells released three albums, ‘Alpinisms’, ‘Disconnect from Desire’ and 2012’s ‘Ghostory’. Read DIY’s interview with Alejandra about that final album.
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