When I listened to the song Forever & Ewig for the first time it filled me with a little nostalgic feeling but at the same time there is no mistaking about the freshness and radiation of youth it contains. Future Retro Pop, as they describe it themselves. In combination with the artistic visuals directed by Tanja Egen we already took the sound of CHILDREN, a German duo made up of the two girls Laura Daede & Steffi Frech, in our hearts. I had a chat to them about their approach to create new songs for their upcoming “Hype” album, the music industry and why “new” does not necessarily always mean “better”.
photography by Marco Lehmbeck
I just listened to your album and I am really pleasantly surprised by the freshness of it. Can you tell us about the working process on the songs especially as you needed to bring two people´s vibes together?
Thank you! We are in constant communication with each other about what kind of music and styles we like, what we think of recently released music and we also go to a lot of concerts together to get inspired. In the working process, we usually start with a draft or an idea (voice note or simple draft) and show it to each other to see how much the other one likes it or can relate to it, musically or emotionally. Then we take it to the studio and try to extract the essence of the song, work on the lyrics and try to put it all together. For this album, we then, also depending on the song, chose a producer, that we thought would fit musically and who helped us to get exactly what we want. We are always quite specific on how we want it to sound in the end.
Do you have a favorite single on the “HYPE” album?
Laura: I can’t really decide for a favorite song, as they all represent a different part of us. If I’d had to, it would change from day to day, and right now, it would be “No Sleep” as it has a really soft and melancholy vibe, that fits well to my current mood.
Steffi: It’s hard to decide for one song, cause it changes really over time and changed also a lot during the working process. Now the album is finished, I think “Die Zukunft” and “No Sleep” are the ones I digged and still dig the most. They both have a very different vibe, the first one being more powerful the other more chilled and mellow. As I speak, I realize they are probably the both dynamic ends of our album and all the other songs are somewhere in between.
How are your experiences within the music industry so far?
When we started, we had the luck of having some partners who supported us and made it possible for us to play a lot of concerts and release our first album. For this album it’s kind of similar with partners who gave us a lot of trust and freedom in what we did, but we also made the experience that people only start being interested as soon as there is a critical mass of other interested people. With this album we learned to just stick to our own taste and style and not try to please anyone. Doing so we found the trust in ourselves and our artistic work where we draw a lot of energy from these days.
“We also made the experience that people only start being interested as soon as there is a critical mass of other interested people.”
Your instagram channel features mostly analog images. How come that so many young people nowadays tend to like or use the stuff from the “good old times” like fashion, furniture, photography etc?
Steffi: I think this “trend” for old stuff in general has a lot to do with the digital revolution our generation experienced. We know a world without internet, smartphones etc. So it’s probably the desperate attempt to make something last in a digital world that moves so fast it gets harder and harder to hang in there. I personally am a total “memory” person, I like to collect little things and pictures that remind me of a special moment in my life, the same with clothes and furniture, I just like the warmth of real human stories that is in almost every piece I own. To love and fix “old” stuff is probably also something I learned from my parents that grew up in the GDR, where it was simply necessary to hold on to stuff because all the goods were limited.
Laura: An analog photo holds a different value as you had to put time into it for the process of development and it only captures this one moment, which makes it more special in a way. I grew up with a lot of photo albums, well organized by my mom, and got to learn about my parents youth and my very early years mostly from these pictures, which I found very interesting and enjoyed a lot. I guess I took some of this nostalgia to instagram. And also over the past years we’ve learned that “new” does not necessarily mean “better”, speaking of sustainability.
What is the best thing about being young?
Laura: I guess, experiencing most of the stuff for the first time and not yet knowing about all the challenges that adulthood holds for you.
Steffi: Being naive and not thinking too much about what you do and why you do it. But besides that I must say, I really like to grow up and becoming more aware of myself and solving some miracles that have been there for a long time.
“I think this “trend” for old stuff is probably the desperate attempt to make something last in a digital world that moves so fast it gets harder and harder to hang in there.”
Which song did you last listen to that is not by yourself?
Laura: Anderson .Paak feat. Smokey Robinson – Make It Better
Steffi: ROSALÍA – PIENSO EN TU MIRÁ
Biggest dream?
Laura: Encouraging girls in making music and producing a song with Mark Ronson.
Steffi: Being a role model for young people that I desperately looked for myself a long time and having a shared studio/creative space with Laura and other talented friends from all kind of different arts to collectively make music and art – every day until I die.
www.instagram.com/childrenchildren
www.facebook.com/childrenchildren
New Album “Hype” out on 31.01.2020
