That happens more and more these days – you think “Aren’t I supposed to know who these people are?” But the is near-infinite amount of stuff out there…
Chris: Exactly I gave up on the “supposed to know” – it is easier that way.
Channy: It is funny that they say “Auto tune modification makes it sound like I am singing behind a whirring fan” because the first record was recorded with fans blowing in because it was Summer.
Chris: There is an actual fan noise at the beginning of one of the tracks you can hear.
It sounded like maybe there was more voice modification on the first album?
Channy: It was definitely like my first time using make up.
Wait, like make up for your voice?
Channy: Hah – no, I mean like when when you say a girl starts using make up for the first time then it is way too much, so there is more on the first album. I hope that I will always be experimenting and that was experimenting and I listen to it and I still like it. You can still discern human qualities and voices but the first album wasn’t recorded in a studio and the second one was so that will always change the vocal quality, too. The first one is kind of mono, the second is stereo vocals.
Photo by Cameron Wittig
You guys have a sort of induced dream-like quality to your songs that suck your audience in. What sort of tinkering goes into that – of do you just find yourself inclined to write these songs that have such a weight to them? Do you try to impose a mood onto your work?
Channy: I think it is the natural inclination. Songs like I Need $ and Chain my Name that seem very jolly to me are light in comparison to most of our other songs. I think I am always writing and making music to feel something and I want other people to feel it, too. Whether it is to feel empowered or uplifted by a song. You want other people to feel things but it all starts with wanting to feel something myself and I think that mood is similar to a kind of release or a heaviness and so it so there is also a hopeful feeling to most songs but also the waste from what I am releasing – like the afterbirth of the songwriting process – it still has some of the blood and the tears in it a bit. People dance to them, so there’s a contradiction.
I haven’t seen you live so I am curious how the audience will react. I’ve hear several times people say that German audiences are particularly still but they really take it all in. You might experience some of that.
Channy: We have played Germany many times and I don’t mind that. I appreciate it when people are listening and paying attention and you see them really stare at Chris’ hands and that people are really thinking about the music and they’re not just like “YEAAAH! I’m having a great time!”
On your blog you write: “I’m not going to take myself too seriously, I’m just gonna sing my heart out” and that sort of relates to the last question: what does hope and passion mean to you?
Chris: I’d really say that passion is obsession to me, really. To me those words are kind of interchangeable. The thing that I am passionate about – the reason I do music – is because I can’t stop. Especially once I start an album. Hope is an every day thing. You have to build it up inside yourself.
Channy: Passion. Obsession. The thing that brings me life. The thing that wakes me up. The things that – when I am doing them – I am more awake and more alive than when I started them – the things that keep me going. Hope is the light at the end of the tunnel. The things to look forward to.
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