“Trying to cook and record is so hard! And you want to eat it, getting hangry, cooking and filming… you need a pre-dinner to record the dinner.”
Long-time followers of Passenger will know the name, Somewhere Wilder. A ragtag crew of Leo and Frida (people), Henry and Wally (dogs) and their ever (un)reliable Landrover Defender. Roaming wild across the UK and Europe, finding escapism in far-off peaks and troughs of the French Pyrenees, Scottish Highlands and Norwegian snowscapes.
After 7 years of them sharing stories, us sending fleeces and getting serious adventure FOMO—it’s a reel hardship… we’re stoked to now call them Passenger Ambassadors. Sticker on the back of the Landy, secret handshake, let’s make it official.
To mark the moment, Nell sat them down on the comfiest sofa we have at HQ and asked them a couple questions. We get the lowdown on how they record content, why you need a pre-dinner before filming the ‘real’ meal, standout trips and fave Passenger pieces.
A big thanks to Leo and Frida for dropping by, letting us nosey around the truck and getting stuck into our laser tag social… that’s not a story for now.
What does Escapism mean to you?
Frida: Backpacking and hiking, it’s the one time when you truly switch off (mostly because there’s no service), so you almost don’t have a choice. You’re so focused on the thing you’re doing in that moment.
Leo: It doesn’t have to be big trips either, it can be after spending all day working at a screen. 5pm comes around, you shut the laptop, pack your backpack and get out there… You’re back at work by 9am the next morning.
“I love editing (...), not just the filming in the moment but trying to tell a story.”
When did you start documenting your trips and creating content?
Leo: We always had cameras with us, we always took photos and videos.
Frida: I love editing as well, not just the filming in the moment but trying to tell a story. Even if we’re switching off from social media, I think we’re still always thinking about capturing it. Recently, it’s trying out different types of media… we got a little handycam.
You have your digital camera, your film camera, a digicam and an iPhone… If you could only have one forever, which would you pick?
Frida: Probably the film camera…
Leo: Yeah, probably the film camera. Once electronic cameras are all broken apart and microchips have stopped working and everything… the film camera, you can still go out and take photos.
Frida: Yeah, it’ll still be going strong.
How is it capturing ‘candid’ moments? Your content comes across so natural… in reality, how many times are you capturing those images?
Frida: I think… It’s difficult to answer. People see an 8-second clip on reels but it in reality, that’s just 8-seconds of us in 3-hours where we’re actually doing that ‘thing’. It really doesn’t take much away from the moment, because we’re just out there and capturing a brief moment.
Leo: It’s just a short bit of the day, really.
Has there been one moment that you just couldn’t get right and had to keep trying, over and over to get the perfect take?
Leo: If we’re cooking food, if we’re trying to get a nice shot of us cooking dinner…
Frida: Trying to cook and record is so hard! And you want to eat it, getting hangry, cooking and filming… you need a pre-dinner to record the dinner.
Your favourite Passenger pieces, anything that comes to mind?
Frida: Definitely. One thing we’ve found is that clothes must be multi-use. You (Leo) have a pair of the really nice Drift trousers, but I’ve actually started wearing them too… we share them now.
Leo: You can wear them all the time. You can wear them hiking, you can wear them around camp, you can go to a restaurant… they still look smart. Everything we bring has to have more than one use.
“We were so naive about what could go wrong, we just didn’t think about it. We didn’t stress out too much…”
Is there any one trip that stands out? If you had to say your favourite to date, which would it be?
Leo: So when we first got the Landrover, the first big trip we did was to Northern Norway. We had no mechanical experience, we didn’t have a second battery system… last minute, we got a diesel heater fitted as we saw the weather was going to get pretty cold. It was November / December time.
Frida: It was PRETTY cold…?! We checked the forecast and it was like -15°C…
Leo: It was so cold. On that trip we were so naive about what could go wrong, we just didn’t think about it. We didn’t stress out too much about it.
Any last remarks or final words?
Leo: Time spent outdoors is time well spent.
Frida: Good one… you’ve so been revising that!
Leo: Go outside. See a sunrise, see a sunset.
Frida: We always say when we’re setting an alarm ridiculously early, should we really get up? But you only regret the ones you don’t get up for… so basically, get up when the alarm goes off!
