ABOUT THE PROJECT

 

A Valentine's Day One-Off

At first, the name served as a romantic gesture. In 2026, on Valentine's Day, Sébastien Laloue—the composer and multi-instrumentalist who is behind the progressive rock project Brainsqueezed—abandoned his usual style to put out a special four-track EP under the name Purple Sway, entitled Songs for A.. Intended as a personal Valentine's Day present for his wife, the EP was written as an open letter depicting the gentle and tender early phases of intimacy and parenthood. Style-wise, it incorporated modern, dreamy pop-rock and warm electro-chill sounds, including appealing tracks such as "Again" and "In Our Life". It represented a genuine, one-off celebration in the real world and was never meant to become a large-scale narrative series.

 

A fully developed project with a first album

The creative freedom offered by the Purple Sway side project led Sébastien to pursue deeper, fully independent storytelling. He set the following three rules for himself: (i)  always remain the one who writes the songs (the music and the lyrics), (ii) be the one to decide on the production, and (iii) be transparent about his use of AI. 

Purple Sway serves as an unlimited canvas mostly powered by AI Tools for exploring different genres and a much darker, starker kind of world, thus turning Purple Sway from a one-off tribute into a fully developed standalone project. Sébastien moved towards the raw, acoustic and melancholy aspects of alternative country and blues. This resulted in the release of Purple Sway's first full-length concept album, How Promises Become a Chain.

​

How Promises Become a Chain

There is a delicate and fragile boundary between a sanctuary and a prison. How Promises Become a Chain is a fictional tragedy that tells the story of a devastating, decade-long decline affecting two people linked by passionate infatuation and an unbearable secret they share. What starts as a desperate, romantic agreement to cover up the truth gradually turns into a suffocating sense of isolation. In a misguided effort to protect his partner from the effects of their past, the main character constructs a beautiful "golden cage"—only for his protective promises to begin tightening like iron links. What then happens is a painful psychological descent into madness, confinement, and final silence, leaving a single survivor to go through the dust and sorrow ten years later. How Promises Become a Chain is an exploration of grief, control, and the long-lasting impact of a secret that cannot remain buried, and a reflection on how the actions we take to protect the people we love can end up destroying them.

The Standalone Album Story Arc

• Act I: The Secret (Tracks 1–3): a chance encounter ("A thing of beauty") leads to a passionate summer romance ("Follow Me"). However, the two lovers cross a dark, uncrossable threshold and make an unspeakable secret ("A twisted promise a heavy stone"), burying the truth deep inside themselves.

• Act II: The Cage (Tracks 4–6): Having kept the guilt to themselves in silence for three years, the protagonist constructs a haven to shield his partner from the rest of the world; however, the protective barriers he creates become a suffocating prison ('A world for you') and this causes her to scream out for freedom from the confinement ('Caged').

• In Act III, The Descent (Tracks 7 to 9), she, who has become severely estranged from him and is mentally broken, escapes from his presence by saying "Stop". A year later ("One year"), since she cannot escape the heavy burden of her own mind, she sadly commits suicide and leaves behind a final, moving apology ("Sorry").

• Act IV: The Aftermath (Tracks 10–11): After ten years of silent grief, the protagonist stares out at the sky, looking at the initials, which are fading and covered with moss and that were carved on an old tree—this being the final remaining evidence of the love they once had.

​

​