Q&A: Attic Stories Confront Love’s Painful Duality in “Anti-Love Potion”
LOVE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND MOST PAINFUL FEELING AT THE SAME TIME – Do you ever wish you can take a potion to erase all the heartbreak and painful memories that comes from losing the one you love? There’s no escaping the duality of love, which often leaves us longing for a way to erase the heartbreak and painful memories that linger long after a relationship ends. German pop-punk band Attic Stories taps into this emotional conflict in their latest single, “Anti-Love Potion,” a raw and relatable exploration of heartache.
Known for their ability to turn deep-seated emotions into music, Attic Stories digs into the furthest corners of their hearts to unearth the feelings, memories and stories that we often try to bury. “Anti-Love Potion” is a testament to this process of confronting pain and finding solace through expression. While it hurts to relive those moments, there’s a catharsis in acknowledging them, a healing that only comes from facing the heartache head-on.
The inspiration behind “Anti-Love Potion” is rooted in the universal experience of broken relationships and the lingering wounds they leave behind. The song reflects the pervasive feeling of loss that follows a breakup, the sense that nothing will ever be as good as it once was.
“‘Anti-Love Potion’ is the mantra that gives you strength when you're heartbroken and the promise that even the worst pain will pass,” the band says. “It's bitter, before it gets better! Celebrate with us, whether in love or heartbroken, summer is too short for sadness. So take a big sip of ‘Anti-Love Potion.’”
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
ATTIC STORIES: Lots of early 2000s pop-punk bands like Blink-182, Paramore and Green Day that are legendary.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
ATTIC STORIES: It depends. In some songs, it depends on the lyrics and on the emotions we want to share with people. Sometimes very angry songs, but most of the time, feel good and nostalgic songs. It’s always connected to our emotions, feelings and experiences from our past.
LUNA: You just released your latest single “Anti-Love Potion” and huge congratulations! This is your first release since your Teenage Wasteland EP. What can listeners expect from this new era of music?
ATTIC STORIES: It's different. Teenage Wasteland, our latest EP, was typical pop-punk, and this new era which is coming is more experimental. We have a bunch of different vibes, a bunch of different sounds that we want to try on these next singles. We just want to try something new. We were really happy with Teenage Wasteland and how people found us because of that, but we want to explore new sounds and push ourselves more.
LUNA: What is the inspiration behind “Anti-Love Potion” and how did the title come to be?
ATTIC STORIES: The inspiration is where a lot of relationships that broke or went wrong, and there's also always a feeling of heartbreak, and you always have a feeling like it's never gonna be as good as it was. That feeling that a lot of people can relate to was the starting point to write “Anti-Love Potion,” because me, personally, I wish so many times that there was like an anti-love potion where I can just forget all those feelings and lost moments and lost times with people you never see again. We just wanted to share that with all the people out there who are feeling the same, and wanted to say, ‘hey, it's getting better, but it's bitter.’
LUNA: I would love to touch more on the creative process behind “Anti-Love Potion.” How did you approach the production process for this single, and were there any specific techniques or tools that played a key role?
ATTIC STORIES: It was the first time we sat together with a friend of ours just writing and being experimental with guitars and vocals, and then we ended up using almost nothing from that idea. We threw everything away, and we had a whole new idea when we were in the studio with our final producer – who is also the producer of Teenage Wasteland – we are so happy to work with him. We put it together with a good, catchy chorus and an anthem, but the chanting part in the chorus was definitely a new avenue for us. We did an AI choir to shout these letters, and then we stood in the studio and we shouted the letters and we created a whole choir out of us three.
LUNA: What do you love most about “Anti-Love Potion” and is there a certain lyric, message or element that you gravitate towards the most?
ATTIC STORIES: For me, it's live, playing it live because we just did that last week at a festival, and I really enjoyed it. I was a bit nervous. Like always, when you play that song live for the first time, you're like, okay, is it the same vibe as recorded. Is it the same energy? It was high energy. People were shouting ANTI. They were having a good time dancing, and that got me really hooked up. I want to play that song live for the next few shows for sure. My favorite lyric is the one pre-chorus, ‘I know you're done / Try to move on / You're dying from a thousand heartbroken songs,’ because that's this kind of low I felt before, but when you're already sad and heartbroken and you listen to heartbroken, sad songs, and you get more on this downward spiral. It's a bad feeling, but you overcome it, and then you come to the chorus again.
LUNA: Have you experimented more or taken any risks – either lyrically, sonically or emotionally – with your new projects since the Teenage Wasteland EP?
ATTIC STORIES: Yes, just a few weeks ago or months ago, we had this one weekend where we all went into this wood cabin and just wrote songs and recorded demos. There's one song which is completely new to us. It's pretty dark and a bit angry, and that's something completely different from all that we've ever done before. I think we're all really excited about it just because it's different. I can’t wait to record that one. There will be some surprises, more dark and more poetic surprises.
LUNA: What is the ideal environment to experience your music? Is there a particular setting, mood, or time of day that enhances the listening experience?
ATTIC STORIES: I'd say any environment where you can think and feel freely, not in a stressful atmosphere. Rainy days at home, maybe when there’s bad weather outside, and just sit on a couch and just scroll through YouTube for ages until you find something really cool.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
ATTIC STORIES: This year so far has been the craziest year we've experienced so far, because we played so many shows with a lot of really cool bands like Hot Mulligan and Simple Plan. This year is the biggest so far, and last year, we said the same thing about last year. We're just hooked, and we can't wait to play bigger shows and festivals. This year was our first proper festival summer and it was fun, and we're just looking forward to releasing new stuff.
