Sweet Music RecommendsHey guys, what’s good and bad in your world right now?
Leah:
The most exciting thing going on right now is that we’re releasing the first songs from our album “No Time to Explain”. A full length album is always a lot of work over a really extended period of time, and it’s both a buzz and a bit of a relief when all the work is over and the songs start flowing out into the world! Antidote is the first single, then there will be a new single package every month, complete with amazing remixes and a couple of music videos, then it all peaks with the release of the album in Spring next year.
Lars:
We’re lucky enough to have nothing bad happening in our immediate world, apart from feeling a little stressed with release prep at times, or a dj bag breaking due to overuse like yesterday 😛 – all of which is because of doing things we love, so absolutely nothing to complain about!.
Leah (Murmur Tooth) tell us about the scene in New Zealand and how you got into it?
Leah:
I was living in a town called Nelson studying music when a friend played me a recording of a drummer and bass player from my home city that blew my mind. So I decided to move back to Dunedin, finish my music degree there, and find these two musicians and make them be in a band with me (as one does). So I did this, and this band actually became my entry into many music scenes. We were a weirdo avant-metal band – we had bits of metal, bits of jazz, bits of quirky, bits of groove – we were really all over the place, and because of this we ended up playing with bands across a whole range of genres, which was such a cool way to meet lots of different musicians and experience different scenes. This band was very much a live band and we concentrated on touring rather than recording – we ended up moving to Wellington, then London, then Berlin, so I have been privileged enough to be part of more than just the New Zealand music scene – we got to experience so many amazing gigs and meet so many amazing people over the years.
When did you both first meet, why did you decide to work together?
Leah:
We met at a bar in the Friedrichshain area of Berlin and had such a laugh playing with each other about each other’s taste in music that it somehow felt like a stupidly fun challenge to have a go at making something together.
Lars:
Because a House DJ and a Heavy Metal guitarist / classical pianist… couldn’t possibly work, right?
And why collaborate, why does it work?
Lars:
Turns out it actually does because both of us just have massive love for music and for trying out new and crazy things. We both derive genuine happiness from just going with the flow and following musical tangents and letting the magic happen without holding back or paying too much attention to any stylistic rules. What’s come out of this is weird and wonderful, but in a very listenable way, almost pop music…? Someone called us electronic pop the other day, and I guess that loosely describes most of the songs from this album.
Who does what, did you each take care of certain parts of the music?
Lars:
Leah plays the instrument parts and sings on all of the tracks, and she is the mastermind of all the harmonic movement and melodic stuff that goes on. That’s where that classical training becomes very handy – it just opens up so much room for really strong melodies.
Leah:
Lars looks after the beat programming and production magic, and he’s also really good at telling me when to reign it in! Sometimes a section needs a certain simplicity and straightforwardness to hit home, and he is great at knowing when to pull things back and keep it simple.
Lars:
Another thing we really got into on this album was experimenting with interesting sound sources. These songs feature a broken ukulele, a walkie talkie solo, paper bags, pasta, an egg slicer, a puffer fish … the list goes on… and that bit is definitely a team effort.
Leah:
We have a rule that if one of us suggests something then we have to try it, no matter how silly it is, and we’ve found that following the more ridiculous tangents has often led us to the coolest sounds.
What are your respective backgrounds, what does each of you bring when you release together?
Lars:
Leah has a very deep understanding of songwriting and music theory, and is also multi-instrumentalist, so she can pretty much write and play anything we want! And her voice has a slightly “rough around the edges” and genuine character that people really seem to respond to.
Leah:
Lars has built a career on making people dance, so he has a real knack for timing, energy levels, arrangements, and building and releasing tension. And he knows all those little references to decades of club music that I have no idea about. I just know weird, obscure metal references, hahaha!
Tell us about your new EP for Motor Music “Antidote” – what inspired it and how did the production process go?
Lars:
I had initially started the track on my own, intending it to be a straightforward instrumental French House kind of track, but then Leah took it on a melodic journey.
Leah:
I heard the vocal in my head immediately, so we got that down first. Then I wrote the guitar part around that, adding some harmonic movement underneath to turn it into more of a club song rather than a pure club track.
Lars:
That’s not to say it doesn’t work on the dance floor – I recently tested it out in Ibiza and it went off, with people singing along by the third chorus. This EP has some really cool remixes as well. Dompe, who runs the Berlin based label Jack Fruit, stripped things down and emphasized the French House elements of the track. And Intaktogene gave us a remix tailor-made for Berlin’s underground club scene, which is her domain.
What is next for you both for the rest of the year?
Leah:
After the Antidote release we are going to reward ourselves with a holiday in Egypt! And this time it will actually be proper chill time – we went to Egypt at the end of last year to film a music video for our next single “Now is Love”, and it was really hard work. Running around in the desert wielding heavy camera gear and wearing a fake mustache and a full inflatable costume is tough…
Lars:
That’s coming out in November with remixes by Renato Cohen, C’mon and David Keno. We’ve just received them and all three are crazy good – super exciting! The video is kinda like a Sergio Leone spaghetti western but with inflatable horses and planes, so that’s clearly something to look forward to…
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