Rikas – Up All Night

By starrymag | March 29, 2023

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) We were recently described as a “real indie” band in an interview. It made me smile cause our sound is much more diverse than just indie guitar music. The fun thing about our sound and band is that we take a lot from different styles and eras of music. Sometimes we sound like an indie band, sometimes it is more funky or souly and sometimes we’re like a boy bband. We all sing, and we work with a lot of harmonies. Overall, I like the phrase “Sunshine Pop.”

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) There are a lot of different influences we share together. I mean, some of them are pretty classic like The Beatles, Beach Boys or artists like Prince or Stevie Wonder. That is like the elite league of pop artists we really admire. Lately we have been listening to a lot of Italian music. We love the disco funk sound of Nu Genea or this guy called Marco Castello. There are also some great German or Austrian bands. For example Bilderbuch, in my opinion, is one of the best bands in the world.  Lately I have been also spinning a lot of Divino Nino. We played with them at SXSW and they were great.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Up All Night.”

 

A) It is funny because this song started out with an old Adele song called “Right as Rain.” We covered that song a while back and just loved the whole energy of it. We kind of tried to write something like that. In July 2021 we then made a demo with Benny Sings of that track and a couple months later we finished it up with Jonathan Rado. We recorded the track live on tape in one room and it’s kind of a bonus track of our last EP GoodbyeSunshine because it was made in the same session. A little fun fact – the plate reverb effect in the bridge on Sascha’s [Scherer] vocals was also used on “Thriller.” I really love the production on this song. We messed around a lot with the bridge part as well and I like to call it our little Daft Punk bridge as we have the filter on it.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) We’ve been performing “Up All Night” at festivals over the last year and we’ve been loving the way our fans have been grooving to it. I mean, it is hard to say how they connect to the song as it just came out, but the song deals with the feeling of falling in love and being kind of over and out. I think we captured that feeling quite well on the song musically. So., I hope it will be a soundtrack for a lot of lovers this spring season.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) To be honest the video idea was super spontaneous. When we were at SXSW in Austin we went grocery shopping at this American supermarket and found this shopping caddy car. We were like wouldn’t it be fun to shoot something out of that wagon. We filmed until we got kicked out of the store and for some reason it ended up being a great video.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) Sometimes I have lyrics written already. But most of the time we make a demo and then come up with lyrics or an idea or mood about what that song could be about. I like to think of songs as soundtracks to little movies and stories.

 

Q) How much of hand do you have in the production of your music?

 

A) Most of the time we already made a demo ourselves and then give it over to the producer at some point. We do have a clear vision of how we want to sound like, so we do have a lot of influence over our production. I think it’s fine to give songs away at some point and let the producer bring it to a new level. I think it would be different if I was a solo artist but as we are a band it’s nice to sometimes have someone else to kind of clean up our little chaos we create when it’s just the four of us. We’ve also self-produced some of our songs and I think that will be an option for the future as well.

 

Q) You were just in the states for SXSW. What does playing this festival mean to you?

 

A) We had a great time at SXSW. We heard a lot of different things about this festival from artists that signed a record deal after the show or bands that did not have anyone in the audience. We set the expectation low and it turned out to be great. The one show we did at the German House was sold out and we made a lot of good connections there. We played five shows that week and for us it was a great experience for us as a band.  It was also our first time performing in the US.

 

Q) With a number of recent singles out at the moment, which tracks were you most looking forward to performing live at SXSW?

 

A) My favorite is always “Never Leaving the House.” We made that one with Benny Sings and, in my opinion, it is our best song we’ve ever made. “Overthinking” is also a favorite as a lot of people know this track even if they do not know our band.

 

Q) Are there certain bands you’re looking forward to seeing perform while at the festival as well?

 

A) Our guitarist Chris [Ronge] is a big The 1975 fan and we are playing a festival with them this summer. So, yeah, I think he is very much looking forward to that.

 

Q) The band has recently collaborated with the likes of Benny Sings, Jonathan Rado and more. Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) Oh, that’s a tough question. I think I would love to work with Tyler The Creator. He seems like a great musician, and he has a clear vision of what he wants. Also, his music is very colorful and our music is as well. So, yeah, that’d be a great fit.

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All Questions Answered By Bassist Sam Baisch

 

Listen to “Up All Night”

https://rikasmusic.lnk.to/upallnight