Ah, to be laid back and totally #winning. World, meet Love Echo, MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week and the first Luxembourg (via Portugal via the US via Tokyo) artist to make its way on our digital shores. They just released their relaaaaxing debut album I Promise You Always the Sky, which is full of laid back reverb and stuttery beats, and it’s perfect for the days you feel like sinking into some furniture and never getting up.
We spoke to the winners Vic Miranda (producer) and Vicki Glass (singer) about their sudden splash, their multi-culti backgrounds, and the deal with Luxembourg.
Congrats on the win! How does it feel?
Thank you so much! It feels like when your dad offers you your first alcoholic beverage when you’re a teen, and you want it, even though you know you’re too green and clumsy to have it.
Great timing with your album release. Do you finally feel in some sense
that you can relax a bit?
We were actually thinking that maybe we’ve been a little too relaxed, as this whole project began on a whim anyway. Now with an album release we need to get more serious.
Can you clarify where you guys are from and based? Lots of different
versions of that. Vicki, how did you wind up in Tokyo?
Vic is Portuguese and is based in Luxembourg, and I’m an American based in Tokyo. I’ve always been fascinated with Asian culture—Chinese and Japanese in particular—and when I discovered Tokyo I just couldn’t leave. There is always something wildly off the hook happening there, but at the same time it retains an underlying sense of calm.
Who are some of your heroes, musically and otherwise?
Vic: I’ve always admired these four artists for their musical creativity: J. Dilla, Pete Rock, Stephan Bodzin and Robert Babicz. I really don’t have any heroes outside of the music world.
Vicki: I have so many heroes inside and outside the music world that it’s hard to narrow them down. I’d have to say love most 80s artists (The Cure, without a doubt) and more recently, bands like Aereogramme and Los Campesinos! In the otherwise category, my big heroes (from the distant past) are poet/writer Rainier Maria Rilke and painter Casper David Friedrich.
We search all day for good global music, but we’ve written so little
about Luxembourg. Is that because we’re bad at our jobs, or is there little
international attention on the music scene there? Or, is there not much to
report on?
Maybe it’s because it’s so tiny, it’s easy to miss. Luxembourg is so small that it takes about an hour to drive through it. We’ve met so many people that haven’t even heard of it. But there’s a burgeoning indie scene that is poised to explode. Stay tuned!
It’s such a beautiful country. Does your city inspire you musically?
It really is. We’re inspired most by feelings, words and sounds, but the city offers great support for the kind of music we do as it’s a wonderfully peaceful, secret hiding place.
I Promise You Always The Sky sounds like a love ode — what does it mean?
It sounds like a love ode but it’s actually more philosophical. In life we can’t promise anything really, because all is impermanent and fleeting, including love. We can’t even promise that everyone will like the album! But the one real and concrete promise we can make is the sky: it will always be there.
You are given the opportunity to be the soundtrack for any scene in any
movie, real or no. What is that scene?
Definitely we’d be the soundtrack to all the restrained, unrequited love scenes between Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day.
What’s next for you guys?
We’d love to tour, and in the meantime we’re working on more tracks. We’re still just stunned and very grateful and just taking it all in!
Check out their new single “Daybreak.”
