Q&A: Say Lou Lou On Viewing Heartache Through A Softened Lens In Their New Single “Wish I Could Hold You”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY LARA ZOE SCHMIDT ☆
“For this record, it's all been about right here, right now,” says Elektra Kilbey, reflecting on how her and Miranda’s songwriting has changed after not making music together for a few years. Twin sisters Miranda and Elektra Kilbey, AKA Say Lou Lou, released their comeback EP, Dust Pt. 1, earlier this year. It offered a mix of sexy, confidence-boosting songs, matched with music videos that are equally as sultry. After delving into the bitterness that breakups can bring, the sisters are tackling a different range of emotions on their upcoming Album Dust, leaning further into the self-reflective, gentler and melancholic aftermath of leaving a relationship.
“Wish I Could Hold You,” a dreamy lo-fi pop song, marks the first single from Dust. With its silky layered vocals and dreamy instrumental it encapsulates a feeling a lot of us know all too well. In the lyrics, the sisters tell a story of reflection on a past relationship, reliving the regret and thinking of all the things that could have been different. It’s one of those songs that tears at your heartstrings, but feels like a warm hug at the same time.
The vulnerability and straightforwardness of the lyrics really shine through the simple instrumentals, making for a gloomy sound that leaves you drifting off into your own thoughts and imagination. A nostalgic guitar solo, reminiscent of late 90s and early 2000s music, ties the song together perfectly and creates a dreamy, lingering soundscape.
LUNA sat down to chat with Say Lou Lou about “Wish I Could Hold You,” their upcoming album Dust, directing their own music videos, and must-watch erotic thrillers.
LUNA: “Wish I Could Hold You” takes a turn from the sensual and sexy vibe of some of the tracks on the Dust, Pt. 1 EP towards something more melancholic. What emotions and themes can we expect from your upcoming album Dust?
Elektra: I think “Wish I Could Hold You” is probably the most dramatic and melancholic song on Dust, and it's originally written from a man's perspective. When I was writing the lyrics for it, I was trying to explore what an avoidant and closed-up man might be feeling when he acts the way he does towards the girl who's begging for his love – hat maybe they want to show love, they want to embrace, they want to be there, but there's something in them stopping them from doing what they want to do. And the only moment where they can truly feel those feelings is when she's already dumped him. And then all of a sudden, he realizes all the things he couldn't see when they were together.
I think that, if you allow me to generalize for a moment, in our experience and in a lot of friends' experiences, when somebody is closed off or avoidant in a relationship it's often not because they love any less than the other partner. It’s because they have a blockage or some form of a complex restraining them from being who they really want to be in the relationship. Maybe it's fear, maybe it's childhood stuff, maybe it's some Freudian mix of lots of things. So I guess this song is trying to reckon with their perspective and understand them a little bit more.
LUNA: You once described the songs on your EP Dust, Pt. 1 as all the different stages of a breakup. From what I understand, it seems like Dust is gonna be all about self reflection.
Elektra: Pt. 1 was kind of mean and petty, and Dust is a bit more about self reflection. We’re asking ourselves questions like “how did we get here? How did I participate and what were you going through?” You're now over the immediate heartbreak, and you're being like “How can I be more self reflective? How can I be a bit more mature? How can I move on from this? What was the fun part of it?”
LUNA: The lyrics of “Wish I Could Hold You” are obviously very personal, but I’d like to know if you had any musical inspirations for it and for the rest of Dust?
Elektra: So many. It's always hard to be like “I was inspired by this person,” because then you're in some way trying to say that you sound like them or that you're on the same level as them. So I just want to clear up first, that we in no way think that we are anywhere close to these artists.
What we were listening to and inspired by were Madonna's Ray of Light record and Beck’s Sea Change and Texas, this band from the UK from the early 2000s, late 90s. We were listening to girl bands from that era as well, like Sugababes and All Saints and also The Cardigans and Radiohead.
Miranda: Yeah, a lot of things from the space where the acoustic guitar meets the digital counterpart.
LUNA: Do you have any unconventional sources of inspiration?
Miranda: We are doing a college course on creative writing, as in fiction writing, right now. I think it’s honestly been really inspiring, just to force ourselves and train ourselves to write in a completely different way and for a completely different purpose. And focusing on constructing a story or a narrative in very few words with very particular prompts.
Elektra: Another thing that we've been inspired by since we started Say Lou Lou has been that every single song is its own movie. Before we even make the song, we ask the producer, “what is this movie?” The song has to sound and feel like the movie that we're seeing in our heads.
So in “Wish I Could Hold You,” I was imagining the self lying in a bed for three days and not getting out of it while the sheets got all sticky, ordering lots of takeout food to the room, still in the same sweatpants. Having moments of thinking “it's for the best, it's for the best,” and then in the next moment you’re crying, laughing, watching rom coms, then watching something super sad, maybe smoking some weed, falling asleep, then waking up and being in this kind of dwelling for three days straight. Thinking “oh, my God, if they just came back, I could explain to them what happened. I can make it right!” but then realizing it's too late.
LUNA: You once said, that after your break from making music together, your lyrics got much more direct and personal. In what ways did this change your relationship with your music? Is it easier or harder to write lyrics now?
Elektra: I think stripping away any metaphors and just writing word-for-word what happened, how it felt and what you were thinking is quite teenager-y in a way, but it's something that we’ve never really done in our songwriting. We've been doing Say Lou Lou for 12 years, and in that time, both of us have had, like, three ginormous breakups that we never really wrote about. We were very interested in themes and stories that had to do with other people, other worlds and other dimensions. And I think for this record, it's all been about right here, right now.
LUNA: After seeing the cover picture with the tissue box for “Wish I Could Hold You,” I’m curious: How did you come up with the concept?
Elektra: The music video that we've made for this is a self help video. We wanted to encapsulate that in the idea of a tissue box, for the tears that you will shed – it’s pretty straightforward.
Miranda: I also think the visual should not only further accentuate the song, but also counteract it. The song is very sad and it’s about feeling sorry for yourself, so we wanted to counteract it with some humor. Within the breakup, there's so much ego – it's all about you, it’s all about self help and trying to be better. We wanted to make fun of ourselves, about how sorry we felt for ourselves and how much time and energy we spent on ourselves during breakups. So it's almost a way to distance yourself from your old self and to poke fun at oneself. Also, the industry of self-improvement, which we totally are into but…
Elektra: …we're into it and we see it for what it is at the same time.
LUNA: It seems like you two are very visual thinkers, which also reflects in your music videos. How would you describe the music video for “Wish I Could Hold You” to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet?
Elektra: It's Say Lou Lou offering self help to whoever out there is heartbroken, and needs to start trusting again.
LUNA: This is the first music video you both directed yourselves – what was that experience like?
Miranda: Since we started out we've been very involved in every video or visual that we've shot. We've been either creative directing it, producing it, or backseat driving. We've worked with a lot of amazing filmmakers, so we've also been able to get a firsthand lesson in how to do things. But we've somehow felt like we’ve always had a middle man between us and what we want to do, and now we just want to get straight to the source. We're like, why couldn't we just do it ourselves?
Directing is an extraordinarily hard thing to do and it takes so much experience, but we just want to start ripping off the band-aid and just see what happens when we do it ourselves. And I think the only way to really learn is by doing it, so we just thought we'd do it.
Elektra: We're so blessed to have a close community of creatives and artists that we can build our teams with – we're really lucky.
LUNA: How do you imagine your fans listening to your music? In your opinion, what’s the perfect set and setting for listening to “Wish I Could Hold You?”
Elektra: At home.
Miranda: This sounds really random, but when I was a teenager and living in Stockholm, I spent a lot of time on public transport. You have all those hours going to school, work or whatever that you're spending just sitting with your thoughts, while it's kind of gray outside. I feel like to me, music was a refuge back then. It was the only thing that got me through all these boring things. You can just close your eyes on the train and lean into a different world. I think that for anyone in Berlin, London or anywhere where there's public transport, it could be like a little comfort to your ears.
LUNA: In your list of “Yeses for 2024” you mentioned “erotic thrillers” – any recommendations?
Elektra: Of course there’s all the classics, like Eyes Wide Shut and Basic Instinct. Then there’s also the ones that go more into Erotic Horror, like Don’t Look Now. One of my favorites is Klute.
Miranda: Wong Kar-Wai’s Fallen Angels is also a good one! Short Cuts is also really great – it’s not really a thriller - it has this very horrific energy but it’s still sexy.
Elektra: Korea’s also been delivering a lot of good erotic thrillers lately, like The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave and Burning.
LUNA: How does being twins affect the way you work together? What's one challenge and one advantage you’ve found?
Elektra: The greatest advantage is how fast we can work together, because we are on the same page. We have the same frame of reference. The worst thing is just bickering and being too hard on each other.
Miranda: I also think that there's no line between work and family – so everything is work, basically, and everything's family at the same time.
LUNA: What’s the biggest (or most annoying) misconception people tend to have about twins?
Miranda: That we’re the same person and like the same things. I mean, we do like a lot of the same things, but there are also some things that you like that I don't like, you know what I mean?
Elektra: Yeah, the biggest misconception is that we're basically the same person and that we have the same temperament, which we do not. We are very different in love, friendship and in the world. I think that's the biggest misconception…and we also do not have the same taste in men.
LUNA: Of course, the release of “Wish I Could Hold You” and Dust are coming up, which is super exciting – what else are you looking forward to in the next few months?
Elektra: We're making a video right now for the lead track of the record. We're directing it, starring in it, producing it, writing it, doing all of it. We're sitting in the middle of our little production office right now.
LUNA: Do you have a little hint about what the video is going to be?
Elektra: Think early 2000s LA indie film.
LUNA: Sounds super exciting! Thank you guys so much for taking the time to talk to LUNA.
