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| Foto: Herup Mørck |
Danska kvintetten Lowly släpper idag albumet Softy i världen. Det är ett vackert och drömskt album där kärlek och mod blir två slags sköldar mot världen och allt det destruktiva som pågår i den. För mig handlar det också om nyfikenhet. Att våga vara nyfiken på livet och på andra människor är kanske ett sätt att värja sig mot det som gör oss mindre mänskliga.
Allra bäst låter bandet i vackra Fighter och den mer experimentella At all, som verkligen väcker min nyfikenhet. Tilted måste också nämnas, där intensiteten rusar sig svettig ju längre låten pågår.
Idag pratar jag med Soffie Viemose från bandet om det nya albumet och om känslor som musiken kan uttrycka bättre än ord.
- My band knows that I need a warm jacket and hot tea before we play a concert. I always start freezing.
Has becoming a parent changed the way you listen to music, not just the way you make it?
- Yes I either listen to music I like alone or I listen to the kid’s music with my kids. I have a hard time having good music, or music that I am trying to comprehend in the background while someone screams in my face.
What part of yourself did you discover while making Softy?
- My sentimental part. I’ve cried a lot during writing and recording it.
Is there a feeling you can express through music that you still struggle to put into words?
- The beauty of sadness.
You chose to produce the album yourselves. What did you have to unlearn to trust each other more?
- The need for the perfect circumstances to make a record.
When was the last time a bandmate surprised you with something they brought to a song?
- Nanna always surprises me. She makes noises with her sampler that are out of this world.
How do you protect your friendship when life outside the band pulls you in different directions?
- We have periods where we don’t see each other in person for quite some time as we are living in separate parts of the country, in those periods we try to call or facetime and remember each other’s birthdays. Except for Kasper’s birthday, we miss that every time.
Did making Softy change the way you understand any of your fellow band members?
- Every time we make an album, I understand them a little better, and I feel very privileged to have this very exclusive partnership built on our common creative curiosity and long-term commitment. It's a relationship unlike the one I have with my husband or my non-musical friends. It's something of a different species altogether.
The album explores love and loss. Is there a song on it that feels almost too personal to share with the world?
- I don’t think it explores loss so much as it explores the sadness of the state of the world and our own shortcomings. And no, the too personal ones are still hidden.
What does being brave mean to you when the world feels increasingly unstable?
- I know that I am very afraid when I think of the world and where it’s going. So I try to focus on smaller things. Being brave in front of my children. Asking for help when I need it. Singing in front of people.
Do you think becoming more comfortable with yourselves has made you more adventurous as musicians?
- Yes. I think as you get older you care a little (a little) less about what people think.
Is there a part of your younger selves that you have had to let go of to keep Lowly alive?
- The romantic illusion of long periods of touring.
When you write music together, do you feel more understood by each other than by the people closest to you outside the band?
- Yes.
If Softy had been made five years earlier, what do you think would have sounded different?
- Probably more effects and layers, and maybe a bit more abstract lyrics.
After four albums, what is something about Lowly that you still haven't figured out?
- Kasper’s Birthday.
Lyssna på Softy här nedan!
