KLLO sind ein Electronic-Pop-Duo aus Melbourne, bestehend aus Chloe Kaul und Simon Lam. 2017 veröffentlichte die Band ihr Debütalbum Backwater. Seitdem sind wir auch große Fans der beiden und ihren harmonischen Beats, zarten Tönen und dem unwiderstehlichen Gefühl in ihren Texten. Nach einer ausgedehnten Tour, Soloprojekten kommen KLLO jetzt wieder zurück – am heutigen 17. Juli erscheint ihr neues Album Maybe We Could, welches sie hier in einen ausführlichen Track by Track vorstellen.
Somehow:
“Somehow” is one of the dancier tracks on the album and one of the more difficult ones to finish. This song is probably the closest to Virtue both musically and the way in which it unfolded. It went through many different incarnations before arriving at its final state. Although gruelling at times, we consider this process to be a positive thing. The harder songs to finish are usually the ones people connect with most. It’s just a matter of simplifying the ideas once we’ve over worked them. We went back to an older side of Kllo for this one, UKG drums, higher energy and a bit rough n’ ready. It’s always fun to keep reaching back as you push forward, developing our sound rather than moving on altogether.
Ironhand:
Ironhand is the most intimate song off the record and one of the first tracks we’d written for the album. It’s about keeping count in a relationship and expecting more than what you’re giving in return. We pushed it a bit further than usual lyrically and vocally.
Still here:
Still Here explores an emotionally suffocating relationship. Sticking around when it’s time to let go. It’s a sad song, but there’s a comfort to it. Knowing that when there’s courage to leave, it’ll be left on a positive note. It was originally a piano ballad, but we decided to add garage drums as an experiment. It was really hard to decide whether we wanted it to be an upbeat song or stay true to a traditional ballad.
Insomnia:
Insomnia was one of the first songs we wrote apart, both of us contributing our respective parts on our separate trips to LA. It is heavily influenced by our time in North America. It’s about the moment in the night where you can’t switch off and differentiate the truth from your imagination.
Just Checking In:
We have a soft spot for this track because we pretty much stuck to the initial demo. The vocals were the first take, the elements were barely changed throughout the process. There’s something so refreshing about a song that comes easy and that you don’t feel you need to tweak too much. The less refined it is, the more connected we are to the track.
1 Up:
1 Up is the last song we finished off the album. We needed something a bit more upbeat and were sifting through our demos for a song to fill the gap. We wanted to write a straightforward pop track that didn’t shift it’s mood half way. There is usually a vulnerability in our songs and we had to stay disciplined to not steer the track in that direction.
A Mirror:
We wrote this one during the summer in Auckland, NZ. Auckland has such a vibrant scene over there and we were really feeding off the energy. The track is rough and choppy, keeping it unrefined sounds more exciting to us. We listen to a lot of instrumental dance stuff and play lots of it in our DJ sets, we wanted a track that could fit in that genre.
Gemini:
Gemini is an ode to some of our favourite producers. We didn’t grow up with a rave scene around us, but the sounds always appealed to us, especially the ones from the UK. This track kind of sounds like an imaginary memory of a rave we never went to.
Cursed:
Cursed is probably our favourite track off the album. It was written after talking to someone I hadn’t spoken to in a long time. We’d cut ties and reconnected for a day. We both discussed where we were at very openly. We were in a very similar space. It felt like we were cursed, making life changing decisions, but not feeling any better in the next steps.
Maybe We Could :
‘Maybe We Could’ is the most ‘throwback’ Kllo track on the album. It was inspired by ‘Little Dragon’. We were listening to alot of them when we first started the band. It was nice to revisit a more organic sound. There is a simplicity about this song that makes us want to listen to it over and over again.
