I was driving home from class today and smoking a joint. I decided I was going to start a playlist filled with songs from middle school. Then I thought of Lykke Li’s first album. So I put it on and started to get really feely. I realized this album was way more clever about heartbreak then I had ever bothered to realize. I just remebered 4 songs; I’m Good, I’m Gone, Let It Fall, Tonight, & Little Bit.
The beginning is very personal and I’m not sure if she’s using a little portable keyboard but it sounds simply badass. I have been trying to make music but I just sit and try and produce it out of myself randomly. To be honest I have no patience to write out a song or think out scales, I get restless. But there’s something so inspiring about her ability to make simplicity tasteful. As the second track comes in I wonder why the hell I never listened to the whole album. I admire how thought out everything is how she wants whoever hurt her to think she’s ok, but then she allows herself moments of vulnerability. The tracking is well thought out and fun. How Let It Fall leads into two love songs and then Little Bit. Little Bit is exactly how I feel whenever I find myself daydreaming about someone. While driving I asked myself, “what the fuck is this album called?” because I had forgot (I was high) YOUTH NOVELS! That sealed her genius for me. Because we all want to believe that only in youth you feel this hard or sad for people. I find things to be so fucken scattered, scary, and secular out in the available world of love currently. It’s cutthroat on the playing field, I guess it’s always been. But I also did wake up and start listening to Angel Olsen right away so maybe it’s just that typa day today.
proper volume: a hard 9
proper setting: high (or not) in your car cruisin’ , and hopefully you find a friend who also loved Lykke so you can belt the lyrics together
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Quick background: Twin Steps are a four piece band from Oakland,CA. Their music can be described as; difficult punk, r&b, romantic shred soul violence (according to their bandcamp tags) (it's a pretty spot on description though). They released one ep on a green 10" colored vinyl with Cola Bruin (SF,Ca) in April of 2012. One 7" record featuring two songs with 1-2-3-4 Go! Records( a kick-ass independent record store/label in Oakland) in August of 2013. There's also one demo on their bandcamp that will dig an earworm all up in your brain with it's unforgettable guitar riff. I was lucky enough to catch them at the smell on February 28th of 2014. I mustered up the courage to introduce myself and thank them for their performance after the set which resulted in this interview. Now see, this is a very important interview to me, I had been recently inspired and decided to start a collective music zine. Twin Steps was the first band that I had ever interviewed and being given this chance was new to me. If i remember correctly Devv's response was,"Yeah that sounds great! We'll be in LA a few days-we can all meet up, grab some tacos and chat with you."
So, here it is my first ever interview, enjoy!
Sasha:What/Who are your major influences?
Twin Steps: Campy horror/exploitation films, the apocalypse/post apocalypse, good candy, Charles Manson, Michael Jackson, and girls (love & heartbreak; everything before, after, and in-between).
S:What is the first record/CD/Tape you ever bought?
Jonathan: tape De La Soul - Three Feet High & Rising, which my older brother had shown me / cd Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary, which i bought with the first paycheck i ever got.
Drew: Queen's Greatest Hits, because it had the mighty ducks song on it.
Nick: Space Jam Soundtrack. I bought Willenium for a girl haha..
Devvin: Will Smith - Big Willie Style.
S:Any album that you can throw on during a terrible day and it just totally changes your mood immediately?
J: Whitney Houston - Whitney
DP: The Roots of Chicha
N: Andrew WK - I Get Wet
DT: Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
S:Who are some of your favorite bands/artists right now?
J: Each Other (from Montreal)
DP: Drake
N: Jamaican Queens
DT: Yvette, Nitzer Ebb. I've been digging the newest Ponytail album a lot recently too, the song "music tunes" is soooo good.
S:What are some of your goals as a band right now?
TS:To be the first band to transform completely into a mobile app.
Also, to get wet and make people happy, to dip.
S:When you're at your show up on stage and you look out into the crowd what's favorite thing to see?
DP: sweat.
N: swimming pools, candy kids lol.
DT: I like it when people climb on stuff, lots of movement.
S:(on Drew's dance moves during the set)Do you lose yourself in the moment or are u definitely inspired by flash dance?
DP: I definitely lose myself in the moment. I've never seen Flashdance, but sometimes I practice in the mirror.
S:I LOVE YOUR USE OF SAMPLES. One thing that instantly attracted me to your band was the sample of Etta James on the track, Pinkie Promise. What about a song makes you decide, "I want to sample this."? Is there a process?
J: There are so many lost and looked over sounds from the past that stand out to us as these hidden gems of sorts, long since forgotten.. The general idea is to take something old, cut it up, warp it, effect it, distort it, and then repurpose it similar to a musical collage to create something new. For instance, take that one amazing measure in the beginning of some obscure soul or girl group song from the 60's, maybe it's an intro or a bridge.. It's not the main theme of the song and probably doesn't even get repeated in the composition, but we will capture it and use that find as a background for us to build a new song around. The first step in us writing songs is always listening to/sharing records & old music. We are all avid music collectors/appreciators and i don't think there is really any one thing that stands out as a specific requirement for a song to be sampled by us. We just do what feels right...
3/15/14
"We just do what feels right...".
It was this authentic and courteous nature that made this interview and their band possible. They announced their decision to dismember in November 2014 on their facebook page;
"attention lovers and listeners: unfortunately, this is probably going to be our last show tonight. it has been an incredibly joyous and trying 3 years. we have made plans to record what we have created with in the next month or so but we have all come to a mutual agreement that this project has reached a stopping point for now. good things will come from this, but for now all we have are our tears. we'll keep you posted on new projects and other exciting news. we love you. see you tonight davis!"
luckily they continuously create new material so here's some important links:
Mark my words when I say this album will be on every "Best of 2015" list at the end of the year.
If I would have considered writing this when I first listened to it then I probably would've picked Mr.Noah. But little did I know how wrong I was in my choosing. It wasn't until a high and cold winter night that I decided to listen to the album throughout. I was having one of those, "you were supposed to find this one song at that certain time in your life" moments. That, "this was written for me" feeling. I don't suggest googling the lyrics, (and I know you might want to) but, just experience it first.
Why?
Because you know when you watch a movie over again and each time you catch something new? That's the equivalent to what this song does. At first your intrigued by it's melody. For me, it's the melancholy masked by the beautiful Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker harp sample underneath. It puts me in a trance and it's all I payed attention to at first. It wasn't until maybe the 4th time listening to it that I realized the powerful lyrics.
To me this is one of those songs whose importance/meaning is heavily reliant on the listener. After you experience that then I would suggest reading this
An interview in which PB explains the meaning: http://www.thefader.com/2015/01/07/panda-bear-tells-the-story-behind-the-songs-on-his-new-album
