
Blue Foundation’s Tobias Wilner: “I was deep into Sonic Youth at the time, all that alternative tuning business.”
From draughty loft to global fame: A song of fire and ghosts that found its home in ‘The Twilight Saga’
Renowned for their bold marriage of electronic music, dream pop, and cinematic soundscapes, Blue Foundation were formed in 2000 by Danish singer and producer Tobias Wilner. Featuring a rotating cast of members and guests, acclaimed albums such Life Of A Ghost and Blood Moon include collaborations with artists like Jonas Bjerre (Mew) and Erika Spring (Au Revoir Simone). With Wilner and multi-instrumentalist Bo Rande at their core, the band’s hallmark of emotive vocals and intricate production lead them down an atmospheric and introspective path. It’s easy to see why their music has proved popular films and TV shows such as Miami Vice and The Vampire Diaries.
If one song sums up Blue Foundation’s sync allure it has to be Eyes On Fire. First heard on Life Of A Ghost, it famously featured on the soundtrack of the original Twilight movie in 2008, with its haunting melody helping to intensify the relationship between Bella and Edward. A song with a vampirical eternal life, a new live version recorded at the Royal Danish Theatre was released at the end of last year, and renewed interest has seen the track become a TikTok sensation. So, let’s head back to the mid-noughties to learn about the birth of this timeless classic…

Released: 24 September 2007
Artist: Blue Foundation
Label: EMI
Songwriters: Kirstine Stubbe Teglbjærg, Tobias Wilner
Producers: Bo Rande, Tobias Wilner
“In 2006, Copenhagen’s scene was a challenging landscape. The city was grey, cold, and quiet, with a stillness that settled in your bones. It wasn’t the trendy city it is now. The music scene? It wasn’t much to speak of. I felt like I had nothing in common with most artists around me, except for a few. I had friends in bands like Mew, Sara Savery with her project People Press Play, and Efterklang – we were all trying to carve out our own sound, chasing something that felt true. Mew were already doing it. Sara Savery was searching, releasing music on Morr Music. It was before she joined Blue Foundation for a few records – some of our best.
“We were all on our separate missions. There was no scene for us, no shared voice. We had to create our own. The rest of the musical landscape? It felt off, like a room full of mirrors with no reflection. A few unique voices, sure, but most of it was dull, uninspired, just spinning its wheels. It’s still like that – though a little better now, with record labels like Escho, 15 Love, and Posh Isolation around.
“Seeking inspiration beyond the local scene, I turned to experimental sounds from artists like Carsten Nicolai (also known as Alva Noto), Numb from Japan, and Ingram Marshall. I also delved into bands like Tenniscoats, Can, The Fall, Swirlies, and Broadcast – music that felt alive and unpredictable, like a storm you couldn’t see coming. I wanted that feeling. I wanted to write songs – not just make noise or chase the purely experimental – but songs that carried something real, something you could hold onto in the chaos.
“After our second album, we had a little buzz, but I was already looking ahead. With Life Of A Ghost, the time had come to find my voice again, to let the words flow. I was wading through personal storms – heartaches, self-sabotage, shadows creeping in. The pain was real. For a few years before that, I had stepped back from the front, didn’t care much for the attention that came with it. It felt phony and narcissistic; it made me feel smug. But with this album, I found a balance – a place where the music could breathe, and so could I. It wasn’t just about being the voice or the face; it was about saying something that mattered. Something that could stand out in all that grey.
“In 2006, the melody for Eyes On Fire came to life. It started as a little tune for strings, meant for my brother Boris Bertram’s film. But, like so many things, it didn’t quite find its way into the story. My old friend Mathias was in Copenhagen, trying to get his life back together after spending years on the streets in Spain. He brought his violin with him – that was all he had. I made room for him in my studio. He had nothing – no clothes, no cash, just a wild beard, ragged clothes, and his violin. But there was something about the way he played. He had this tone, like the strings were singing his story.
“I remember one night, we were recording. I had this idea of violins laying down a bed of suspense under the melody that would become Eyes On Fire. I grabbed an old Fender Jaguar from the ’60s, plugged it into a beat-up Vox AC30, and used an alternative tuning I’d been messing around with – D minor, capo on the B-flat string. I was deep into Sonic Youth at the time, all that alternative tuning business.
“I laid it down as an instrumental demo in a cold, draughty loft in Copenhagen – a place that still haunts me in my sleep. The place was colder than a tomb, falling apart at the seams, no insulation to speak of. The power would flicker and die, leaving me alone with the silence for hours, trying to make sense of it all. Those violins and guitars you hear in the final master? Those are the ones I recorded that night.

Blue Foundation’s Tobias Wilner: “Kirstine Stubbe Teglbjærg took the demo to a cabin in Sweden, where she wrapped it in beautiful words.” Photo: Thøgger Kappel
“That loft was where I pieced together the Life Of A Ghost album, which included Eyes On Fire, over two long years, scraping by with little to no money. I remember shivering in that room, hearing the strings and synths come to life alongside that jagged electric guitar. Kirstine Stubbe Teglbjærg took the demo to a cabin in Sweden, where she wrapped it in beautiful words. Later, we brought it all back to the studio – such as it was – to finish the song together.
“She came back with these amazing, beautiful lyrics. You know, Eyes On Fire feels like a letter someone never sent. It’s like standing on a tightrope, balancing between love and fury, freedom and despair. It’s a song about something that burns so bright it could scorch the earth. It’s got this heaviness, this weight, like chains that can’t quite be shaken loose. It’s about a lover. A ghost. Maybe yourself. Lines like, “I’ll seek you out, flay you alive,” aren’t just anger – they’re heartbreak, raw and exposed. It’s like trying to carve out the truth from the wreckage, but it cuts both ways. There’s a fire in the eyes, but it’s not all rage – it’s longing, it’s pain, it’s that kind of love that leaves a mark, you know?
“It’s not a straight-line kind of story. It’s more like one of those old trains that rolls through the dark, creaking and groaning, but it keeps moving forward. Maybe it’s about moving forward, even if you’re leaving pieces of yourself behind in the flames. It’s about the person who listens and feels the song. It’s about them. Because there is no art without an audience.

Blue Foundation’s Tobias Wilner: “I laid it down as an instrumental demo in a cold, draughty loft in Copenhagen – a place that still haunts me in my sleep.” Photo: Thøgger Kappel
“When the vocals were done, I started working on the drums, the bass, the synth – chiselling away until the sound took shape. Bo Rande came by, adding his touch and bringing something fresh to the mix. The last thing I recorded was my backing vocals. They became the final glue. Eventually, Bo and I took the track to Oslo to mix it, and then I flew to London for mastering. When I heard the final master, I knew it was something special.
“But like a train pulling out of the station, I knew it was the end of the line for us working together. She’d been dreaming of a solo project in Danish for years, and I knew Blue Foundation wasn’t the place for that. We had to move on, let the magic of that song be the thing that closed the door – for her journey with Blue Foundation.
“I needed a change in Blue Foundation to keep it real for me as an artist. The only one who’s stuck around, almost from the start, is Bo Rande. Somehow, his dynamic and mine work well together. He’s a free bird, always searching, always exploring, pushing things musically. It complements my personality and my visions perfectly. The rest? More than 20 members have come and gone. I need those changes to keep things burning for me. I don’t want to stop growing. That’s the nature of Blue Foundation – always searching, never satisfied.
“Over the years, I’ve heard hundreds of cover versions of that song, but none have sold me. None of them carry that same vibe of struggle and pain we poured into it. Maybe only the live version we recorded this year comes close. In my ears, that’s the only version that’s ever done the song justice, along with our re-recording, the Blue Foundation version from 2015. Eyes On Fire was something rare, born from the cold and the dark. And sometimes, you’ve just got to leave rare things where they stand.”
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