By Rachel Toole
MØ and HOLYCHILD are out on tour together. We caught up with them both during their stop in New York City for a quick update on their recent collaborations, their music and videos, and recent life changes. Check out the interviews below, some pictures above, and check out tour dates here.
MØ
Karen Marie Ørsted has been making music as MØ since 2009, but the Danish singer started gaining steam in 2012, when she joined forces with producer Ronni Vindahl for the soul-baring “Maiden.” Her debut album, No Mythologies to Follow is an indie-pop manifesto that combines Ørsted’s past wanderings into a single youthful and vibrant journey. Live, she summons her punk upbringing for electrifying results, complete with dancing, air punches, and ponytail whips.
Let’s talk about the video for “One More” with Elliphant. How did that collaboration come about?
I met Elliphant for the first time about two years ago at a festival in Oslo. She was reaching out just like, “Hey man, I really love the stuff you do.” I just kind of fell in love with her persona and her music and everything about her. I felt like she was my Scandinavian sister. I felt so connected to her even though I didn’t know her.
Our careers started out at the same time and we were both kind of thrown into it dramatically in a way. There was this connection like we were partners in crime. We knew we were going to do something together some day.
It’s great that as two solo artists you decided to use that connection to create this awesome collaboration.
Yeah, one year after we met she wrote me and said she had done this song with Joel Little, Lordes’s producer, and when I heard the track I was just like, “Yes, this tune is so good!”
How was shooting the video? Where was it shot?
The video was shot in London. It took one night. We got drunk and had fun. It was so nice hanging out with her. Every time I hang out with her I think so much about life the day after. She gives me so much energy. I know this sounds a bit overreactive, but she opens my mind a bit.
What are some of your favorite tracks off of No Mythologies to Follow?
“Pilgrims,” “Slow Love,” “Glass”… I don’t know, it’s so hard because I’m very emotionally attached to all of the songs because I wrote all of them. They’re all like me letting out my soul. It’s so hard to point out. But I think “Never Wanna Know,” “Pilgrims,” “Slow Love”… it always changes.
There are so many incredible remixes of your music. Are there any remixes that have stood out to you?
The one that Lido did with “Walk This Way” is so good. I like the Goldroom remix of “Don’t Want to Dance” also. I love Goldroom.
Are there artists you have your eyes on for future collaborations?
Yes, I would really love to work with Cashmere Cat. He’s so out of this world, Scandavian fellow. That would be amazing.
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HOLYCHILD
Los Angeles-based duo HOLYCHILD, comprised of Liz Nistico and Louie Diller, first burst upon the scene last year with their debut single “Happy With Me.” Since then they have turned their tunes into attitude-filled, upbeat jams for the masses.
Is it nice being back on the East Coast?
Liz: Yea I missed it so much. I love the East Coast; it’s so nice to be back. This is a great time of year. I even like the rain right now.
So, we know you originally met at George Washington University in D.C., can you tell us how you eventually started creating music together?
Liz: We met in my dance class. Louie was playing music. We started collaborating right away. I had approached him because I needed a drummer for something. Then he found out that I painted and asked me to help him with a mural. And soon after we started jamming and wrote all these songs together.
Then I graduated and moved to New York. We had all these songs and we were really in touch about them. We were like what about the chorus here, what about this, what about that. But I was in New York and I was working and studying opera and actually planning on going to Cal Arts for singing.
I was getting ready for my audition and Louie was like, “You should just move down here and we should record these songs.” By that point, I had nothing really in New York besides my opera coach. I was waitressing and my landlord had just passed away like that week. He was 103. He was really old. We called him Uncle Danny. Rest in Peace, Uncle Danny.
So then you moved to DC?
Liz: Yep, that’s where we started recording and then we moved to LA from there.
How do you guys typically create your songs? Do you start with a guitar riff, a beat, lyrics, or just an idea/concept?
Louie: It’s very part-by-part, song-by-song. Sometimes Liz will use a loop station, which she uses live, she does a lot of writing on that just kind of layering vocals and creating a song from that. I usually take that and make a production, an instrumental, like a beat around that. That applies to some of our songs. For other songs, an idea will just kind of hit me and I’ll ask Liz to sing it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Liz has dreamed songs before.
Liz: Isn’t that crazy? A bunch of the songs on our album have come about like that. I’ll just dream, then wake up and just grab my phone as quickly as possible. Or I’ll have a melody and I’ll sing it and Louie will be like, “Oh cool, I have this great chord progression” or Louie will be like, “I have this cool chord progression, what do you think? I have this rhythm, what do you think?” It happens in so many different ways.
Louie: There’s no set process. It’s just whenever the inspiration hits we go and just see where it goes.
When it comes to your music videos, what inspired you to make a three-part series?
Liz: “Happy With Me,” “Every Time I Fall,” and “Pretend Believe” each have their own videos and together they make up a short film. I really like the idea of having a visual EP like every song having its own music video. “Playboy Girl” already had a video, so those were the remaining three.
The EP is kind of a concept EP, more or less. All of the songs really revolve around the role of the female in our culture from different angles. “Every Time I Fall” is a love song and it’s like, “I love my boyfriend and I love making dinner for him but I hate that and why do I like that? That’s so annoying, I don’t want to be domesticated.”
“Pretend Believe” is a hedonistic love song in which I’m like, “I want to be the only person that exists. I want to be the most beautiful person. I don’t want you to see anyone else.” But why would I want to feel like that? That’s such a weird feeling and totally unrealistic.
And then “Happy With Me” is kind of dealing with similar things as well.
I wanted all the videos to have a very distinct message. It was my first time directing and writing. Since then I feel like I’ve grown a lot. They’re all really centered on the role of the objectification of the female.
Speaking of the objectification of women, I saw an interview you did and you were talking about moving to LA and how it affected you. Are you happier there now?
It was crazy moving out to LA. I never realized how coveted the female was. I really saw it when I was in LA, especially going out in places like West Hollywood, seeing it on billboards, and all over the place. It scared me at first.
I kind of took to my diary or took to the EP and wrote all of the lyrics for the EP and fleshed out what I was thinking. After putting that out so many women have come to me and said, “This is really cool” or, “This really resonated with me.” That was so validating.
It was received in a way that was so unexpected and comforting to me. There are a bunch of us that feel this way. Now I’m inspired to go out and do something about it. We’re in a cool revolutionary place being female. A lot of women are talking about some of these concepts. We’re kind of fed up… and guys are fed up with it too.
