Wir hatten die Gelegenheit, mit Normandie über ihr neues Album „Dopamine“ zu sprechen. Die Band teilt ihre Gedanken darüber, wie sie die Idee für das Album entwickelten, wie sich diese Konzepte in ihrer Musik widerspiegeln und welche Herausforderungen und aufregenden Aspekte es gab, das Album zum Leben zu erwecken. Normandie erzählt uns auch von ihrem einzigartigen Ansatz, neue Songs monatlich mit der „Dopamine Clinic“ zu veröffentlichen und welche Songs sie besonders darauf freuen, live zu präsentieren. Lest weiter um nichts zu verpassen.
Frontstage Magazine: How did you come up with the idea to explore futuristic and dystopian themes for the new album „Dopamine,“ and how does this direction reflect in your music?
Normandie: With our last album I felt like I poured every emotion and honesty into the lyrics, it was so personal that I felt like I had said everything I had to say about myself and my own journey. So we said “let’s do the oposite!”, and came up with the idea of a fictional album based on a possible future where happiness was a pill you could take. I’ve always been interrested in our tollerance of things like caffein and how we can stretch the limits of how much we can take, and one of the things we’ve build up the most tollerence to is dopamine and I don’t know how we will be able to keep ourselves happy.
Frontstage Magazine: With the „Dopamine Clinic,“ you showcase new songs monthly until the album release. How does this approach influence your perception of the overall work, and which song do you personally consider particularly representative of the album?
Normandie: When we finished the album and looked at possible singles, we couldn’t decide on what to pick and what would represent the album correctly. It’s such a broad album with lots of different genres!
So instead of releasing 3-4 singles on a set of random dates, I came up with the idea to release a song on the first of every month. That way people wouldn’t have to remember every release date and we could stay top of mind of our fans throughout the campaign. New month = new normandie single.
The first song had to be a mix of old normandie and new exciting sounds, but also be a good song to play live at Reading & Leeds festival, so we picked Blood In The Water. I can’t pick a song to represent the album musically, but I think Serotonin is close lyrically.
Frontstage Magazine: The upcoming tour will undoubtedly be an intense experience for your fans. Which songs from the new album are you looking forward to presenting live, and why?
Normandie: A lot of the song off the album are very headphones friendly, mixed for the fans to enjoy at home with their eyes closed. To bring them to life in a live setting can be challenging but so exciting! So I’m looking forward to playing songs like Sorry and Butterflies, but of course also rip out heavy breakdowns in Colorblind and Hourglass!
Frontstage Magazine: „Dopamine“ addresses the urge for various peaks and natural chemicals. How did you attempt to capture this emotional diversity in your music, and which emotion is at the heart of the album for you?
Normandie: It’s very important for me that the music speaks as much as the lyrics. Writing an album about this topic, I knew I wanted to touch every emotion, so having a very joyful song like ‘Glue’ sit next to a dark and anxious track like ‘All in my head’ was perfect, cause that’s how steep a rollercoster of emotions can be.
Frontstage Magazine: What non-musical influences or experiences have significantly influenced you in the creation of “Dopamine“?
Normandie: I think dystopian movies like Blade Runner, Matrix and Black Mirror have been something that we’ve pictured when writing this album. You can feel that it’s cool and intriguing, but horrifying at the same time!
Frontstage Magazine: If you had to choose a song from „Dopamine“ that represents the essence of your musical evolution as a band, which would it be, and why?
Normandie: That’s close to impossible, but if I had to pick it would be Blood In The Water. It has the most electronically interresting verses, big chungy guitar driven choruses and a half-breakdown part with dissonant choirs. Made for both arenas and dirty basement gigs in Berlin!
Fotocredit: Lucas Englund
