Bittersweet memories and nostalgia – these are feelings most of us know very well. We all have those memories that are deeply emotional, and therefore sweet to remember, but also scary at the same time. How We Are The Way For The Cosmos To Know Itself (WATWFTCTKI) think about these feelings evolves their new single “Flashbacks“. The melodic, but dreamy track is the first single from their upcoming EP that will be launched in autumn this year. Want to know more about them and their new track? Then enjoy our interview with them, where they told us more about the story of their song, but also about themselves and their upcoming plans.
Good because Danish: You just launched your new Single “Flashbacks” – tell us a bit more about the story of your new song!
Julie: Flashbacks was created in our studio in the countryside of Denmark with our friend and songwriter Joachim Ersgaard. Joachim is the kind of person that really gets you talking so we talked about former relationships and the bittersweet feeling of thinking back at a person you were once very close to but you don’t see anymore. Flashbacks grew out of this conversation.
Nostalgia is a big topic for you and within your songs, also on the upcoming EP. How come the topic is so important to you?
Julie: We have always been inspired by 80s and 90s synth pop music and on this EP we decided to explore the feelings connected to nostalgia even more conceptually in both sound and lyrics. Als,o I think the need for us to think back is something that comes with being in our mid and late twenties. Now we find it important to take a break from time to time to process the experiences we get. This is something that you forget in these times where every moment is filled with to-dos and impressions from so-mes.
What else can we expect from your new EP?
Julie: Just like the complex feelings of nostalgia and longing which for us borderlines happiness and anxiety, the songs of the EP are quite diverse and complex. The listener will both be presented with huge synthpop explosions and more introvert ballads.
You are playing with very special instruments, you make most of them on your own. How did you come up with that idea?
Mads: When playing electronic music you have to figure out a way to perform it live. It is not like a guitar-based band that often rehearse a lot and then make a recorded version in a studio. We make the recorded version first and then we find a way to recreate the different sounds at concerts afterwards. Instead of buying midi controllers which does not have a lot of visual appeals, we decided to build our own instruments. In order to make them as visually interesting as possible, we settled on some buttons and knobs originally designed for arcade game controllers. They are huge and look really cool on a dark stage.
How do you see the connection between your custom-made instruments and your songs – what does usually come first – the song or the instrument?
Mads: Playing our music live is very different from the way we write and produce our songs. In the studio, we don’t really use our live instruments. Instead, we use lots of different instruments such as vintage analogue synthesizers, modular synthesizers and lots of sample mangling. These instruments and techniques would be rather impractical and sometimes even impossible to use live. So instead we sample our own songs and play them through our custom instruments. You could say that we condense our studio work into these live instruments and make our music playable for real-time performance.
Talking about inspirations – where do you get your strength from and what influences you most?
Mads: Lately a huge source of inspiration has been the 80’s and 90’s Hollywood blockbusters starring some of the usual suspects such as Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford. Movies such as Days Of Thunder or Heat really set a very nostalgic mood for us. They remind us of our childhood and our rather faint memory of the 90s. Also, we have recently been digging building songs from small sounds that we find inspiring (e.g. a sample we recorded from one of our synths that we pitch shift, distort, filter or process in another way).
As your band name makes us guess, also the cosmos itself plays a big role for you and your music. Where does this interesting combination of cosmos, physics and music come from?
Mads: When starting the band we realized we had all discovered Carl Sagan and his retro documentary series “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” sometime during physics classes in high school and that we shared a fascination for the epic and ‘over the top’ mood that Carl created in the series. So we decided to name our band after a quote from the series. The quote “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself” describes perfectly the epic and lush sound that we strive to create.
With your new song out now, the new EP coming out in autumn, a tour around the corner – what are you most excited about this year?
Julie: We are very excited to finally be able to release a coherent collection of songs. This is huge for us! And we really look forward to be touring Germany. We played one show in Berlin last year and we loved the atmosphere in the audience so we can’t wait to be back.
Talking about touring – we are very happy to announce that the next tour of WATWFTCTKI will be presented by Good because Danish! So, be quick and secure your ticket as soon as possible for one of the following dates and enjoy them with us:
25.04.2018 – Berlin (DE), Auster Club
26.04.2018 – Karlsruhe (DE), KOHI-Kulturraum
27.04.2018 – Hamburg (DE), kukuun
28.04.2018 – Leipzig (DE), Noch Besser Leben
Our small team of music lovers runs Good because Danish with one goal: to share songs and stories that spark emotions. We believe that music is the great equalizer: it’s for everyone. Therefore, we keep our content free. There’s no ads, no clickbait, no sponsored posts. Every article was written out of pure love. If you like what we do, please support us via a PayPal or Patreon.
You will help us cover website maintenance, software, equipment, and travelling to events. In return, we will continue to set an example of unbiased music journalism. More info HERE
