"How Long", also released as "How Long (Will It Take)", is a song recorded by the Canadian singer Paula Toledo around 2003, known for being considered a piece of
lost media for sixteen years. Initially, it was not released commercially, being only licensed to appear in the film ''Secret Lives'' and the TV series ''
15/Love
''15/Love'' is a Canadian television series that revolved around the lives of aspiring young tennis players at the Cascadia Tennis Academy. The show was created by Karen Troubetzkoy and Derek Schreyer. ''15/Love'' premiered on the television cha ...
'' in 2005. Two years later, a user posted online about a bootleg DVD that contained a snippet of "How Long", prompting a search for its origin that attracted the attention of the
lostwave
Lostwave is a term for music with little to no information available about their origins, including song titles, names of associated musicians, and recording and release dates. Lostwave songs have been the subject of online crowdsourced efforts t ...
community. In December 2023, the origin of "How Long" was discovered, and Toledo released it as a single that same month in response. Musically, "How Long" has been compared to
the Cranberries.
Background and composition
Paula Toledo is an artist, songwriter, and motivational speaker.
She grew up in
Montreal before relocating to
Vancouver for college.
Toledo recorded "How Long" in
Langley, British Columbia, around 2003.
It was co-produced by Jonathan Anderson of the Canadian band Jonathan Inc., and guitarist
David Odlum of the Irish band
the Frames mixed it in France.
While it was initially written for her debut studio album, it was not included there. Despite this, it was well-liked in her setlists.
After a show at a neighborhood restaurant, an employee from
Lionsgate Entertainment inquired about licensing it.
In 2005,
"How Long" was licensed for ''Secret Lives'', a made-for-TV film, and ''
15/Love
''15/Love'' is a Canadian television series that revolved around the lives of aspiring young tennis players at the Cascadia Tennis Academy. The show was created by Karen Troubetzkoy and Derek Schreyer. ''15/Love'' premiered on the television cha ...
'', a youth sitcom.
Because of this, and for "artistic reasons", Toledo also did not include it in her
extended play.
Toledo left the music field, after the death of her husband left her as a single mother.
Toledo wrote "How Long" from her personal perspective, and believes it resonates with modern audiences because it conveys the importance of living authentically.
A four-minute song,
it was musically compared to the Irish band
the Cranberries.
Miles Klee of ''
Rolling Stone'' and V. S. Wells of ''
The Georgia Straight'' described it as a "yearning" track.
Klee described it as
jangle rock,
while Wells perceived inspiration from 1980s
rock and early 2000s "guitar-driven
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
".
Jon Azpiri of
CBC News felt that "How Long" would fit well with modern adult contemporary radio and film soundtracks, due to the "wistful" vocals of Toledo and the guitar usage.
Toledo tagged its
Bandcamp release under
folk rock,
indie folk
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation.
The genre has its ...
, and
indie pop.
Search and discovery
"How Long" was first mentioned online in August 2007, when a user on a Ukrainian forum mentioned that a snippet was featured on the menu of a bootleg Russian DVD.
A small group of fans formed to uncover its origin.
Only a low-quality, 45-second snippet of its chorus was available.
The search became popular in the
lostwave
Lostwave is a term for music with little to no information available about their origins, including song titles, names of associated musicians, and recording and release dates. Lostwave songs have been the subject of online crowdsourced efforts t ...
community, which is dedicated to trying to identify the provenance of songs considered unknown or
lost.
Because it was never released commercially, it was not possible to find it through
Google or apps like
Shazam
Shazam () may refer to:
Comic book franchise
* Captain Marvel (DC Comics), also known as Shazam, a superhero character published by Fawcett Comics and DC Comics
** Shazam (wizard), a character from the ''Shazam!/Captain Marvel'' comics, who give ...
.
Fans initially named it "How Long Will It Take", based on a line from the chorus.
Some people made tribute videos for "How Long" featuring images of
teddy bears,
while others created remixes and covers of it.
Additionally, video essays were made about the mystery.
In October 2023, a
subreddit, r/HLWIT, was created, named after the initials of the unofficial title, and had one thousand members by December.
On December 8, 2023, sixteen years after "How Long" was first mentioned on the Internet, Reddit user "the-arabara" posted that he had found its origin.
Initially, he tried to find the creators of the DVDs, "track
ddown a movie mentioned on a job application", and found another obscure song in its credits.
Ultimately, he found "How Long" when searching for songs titled "How Long" on the
Society of Composer, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada's database.
This led him to another Reddit post and ultimately to a podcast containing the full song.
Reddit users commemorated the discovery on r/HLWIT.
That same day, Toledo got multiple emails about the discovery, which surprised her; she initially believed the messages to be scams.
In response, she released the full version of "How Long" on
Bandcamp on December 13.
All proceeds from its sales in 2023 went to the Music Heals Charitable Foundation, which supports and raises awareness of music therapy.
Later, Toledo released "How Long" on streaming services, including
Spotify and
Apple Music. However, as a result of a duplicate, unofficial version of it appearing on streaming platforms, the official version was taken down, which she suspected to be because of streaming fraud.
In May 2024, it was officially reuploaded to streaming services under the title "How Long (Will It Take)".
Personnel
Adapted from the 2023 release on
Bandcamp.
*Paula Toledo — lead and background vocals, guitar, writing, production
*Jonathan Anderson — guitar, keyboard, percussion, background vocals, production, mastering
*
David Odlum — mixing
*Trevor Grant — drums
*John Bews — bass
*Lonely Girl Productions — photography
See also
*
Lostwave
Lostwave is a term for music with little to no information available about their origins, including song titles, names of associated musicians, and recording and release dates. Lostwave songs have been the subject of online crowdsourced efforts t ...
* "
The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet"
*
Panchiko
Panchiko is a British indie rock band originating from Nottingham, England. Formed sometime between 1997 and 1998, it originally consisted of lead vocalist and guitarist Owain Davies, guitarist and keyboardist Andrew "Andy" Wright, bassist Sh ...
*
Rare groove
* "
Ready 'n' Steady"
* "
Trumpet Cornet"
*
"Ulterior Motives" (song)
References
{{Reflist, refs=
[{{Cite web , last=Wells , first=V. S. , date=2023-12-19 , title=Internet sleuths spent a decade trying to find a mystery song—and turns out it's from a Vancouver musician , url=https://www.straight.com/city-culture/internet-sleuths-spent-a-decade-trying-to-find-a-mystery-song-and-turns-out-its-from-a , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114204524/https://www.straight.com/city-culture/internet-sleuths-spent-a-decade-trying-to-find-a-mystery-song-and-turns-out-its-from-a , archive-date=January 14, 2024 , access-date=2024-05-05 , website= The Georgia Straight , language=en]
[{{Cite web , last=Azpiri , first=Jon , date=December 19, 2023 , title=Internet sleuths looked for the singer of a mystery song for 16 years. They found her in Vancouver , url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mystery-singer-discovered-vancouver-1.7061677 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240407200220/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mystery-singer-discovered-vancouver-1.7061677 , archive-date=April 7, 2024 , access-date=2024-05-05 , publisher= CBC News]
[{{Cite web , last=Derdeyn , first=Stuart , date=December 20, 2023 , title=Global online search for the author of a 16-year-old song comes to a close in Vancouver , url=https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/global-online-search-for-the-author-of-a-16-year-old-song-comes-to-a-close-in-vancouver , url-status=live , archive-url=https://archive.today/20231220201531/https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/global-online-search-for-the-author-of-a-16-year-old-song-comes-to-a-close-in-vancouver , archive-date=December 20, 2023 , access-date=2024-05-05 , website= Vancouver Sun]
[{{Cite magazine , last=Klee , first=Miles , date=2023-11-12 , title=Internet Sleuths Want to Track Down This Mystery Pop Song. They Only Have 17 Seconds of It , url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/everyone-knows-that-lost-mystery-song-1234875326/ , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501195610/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/everyone-knows-that-lost-mystery-song-1234875326/ , archive-date=May 1, 2024 , access-date=2024-05-05 , magazine= Rolling Stone , language=en-US]
[{{Cite web , last=Kopiloff , first=Victoria , date=2023-12-23 , title=Une chanson tirée de l'oubli 20 ans après son écriture , trans-title=A song taken from oblivion 20 years after it was written , url=https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2036704/paula-toledo-musique-internet , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107041159/https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2036704/paula-toledo-musique-internet , archive-date=January 7, 2024 , access-date=2024-05-05 , publisher= ICI Radio-Canada , language=fr-ca]
[{{Cite web , last=Azpiri , first=Jon , date=February 8, 2024 , title=Fate of Vancouver musician's long-lost song highlights growing problem of streaming fraud , url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/paula-toledo-how-long-streaming-fraud-1.7105867 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240428173952/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/paula-toledo-how-long-streaming-fraud-1.7105867 , archive-date=April 28, 2024 , access-date=2024-05-05 , publisher= CBC News]
[{{Cite web , title=How Long, by Paula Toledo , url=https://paulatoledo.bandcamp.com/track/how-long , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240430143833/https://paulatoledo.bandcamp.com/track/how-long , archive-date=April 30, 2024 , access-date=2024-05-05 , publisher= Bandcamp]
[{{Cite web , date=May 9, 2024 , title=How Long (Will It Take) , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Ol-XXLnPo , access-date=2024-05-10 , publisher=Paula Toledo – Topic , via= YouTube]
[{{Cite AV media , url=https://globalnews.ca/video/10196455/internet-sleuths-solve-music-mystery-involving-b-c-woman/ , title=Internet sleuths solve music mystery involving B.C. woman , date=December 29, 2023 , last=Charles , first=Troy , language=en-US , publisher= Global News , access-date=2024-05-21]
2003 songs
2023 singles
Canadian rock songs
Charity singles
Jangle pop songs
Lostwave
Music therapy
Rediscovered musical works