Who doesn’t love a good lil treat before the weekend? Denzel caught up with new kids on the block, Laiika, ahead of their debut show on the 31st of July at Whammy Backroom (seriously come along and groove out). Get your preferred beverage ready and get yourself acquainted with Laiika
Hello Grace and Heidi, guess we’ll kick things off with the classic who are you guys and what do you do?
Grace: We are two best friends who are in a music duo together - we are LAIIKA
Heidi: We make indie pop songs. We really love pop music and want to incorporate our life stories into our songs with a new sound that’s inspired by older sounds.
G: We just want to write true, fun, real and honest songs that capture a feeling or an experience.
H: Pop songs can definitely be a bit robotic and emotionless with a specific agenda in mind and we want to change that.
G: All of the songs we’ve written are about experiences that we can both relate to which I think is such a powerful thing that keeps us going.
So you guys have been making music together for about 4 years now, how come we are only now hearing about Laiika?
H: We’ve just been focusing on growing as artists before we release anything.
G: We’ve definitely been restricted in what we were able to put out into the world, but in retrospect I’m glad that it has taken until now because we’ve never been happier with our sound and style.
I’m a huge fan of your sound (indie dream pop) is this what both of you really vibe with? Like who are your inspirations?
G: We both write songs inspired by what we are listening to at the time, so at the moment our biggest inspirations would probably have to be Grimes, Blondie and Lana Del Rey.
H: What we write will always be very pop-inspired just because that’s what we’ve consistently listened to whilst growing up.
With a debut show this week and the release of a single a few weeks later, shit is starting to ramp up for you guys, how exciting, is there a project in the works or will we have to suffice with just the show and the single for now?
G: There is a project in the works! There’s definitely an EP on the way, but there will probably be another single released before that too.
H: We have a lot of songs on the backburner that we really want to release as soon as we can.
Alright it’s time for Denny’s top 5, I always finish my interviews with a cheeky top 5 so Grace and Heidi I’ve heard you are both huge nostalgic fans, which is shown through your wardrobe so give me both your top 5 fav nostalgic icons.
Grace and Heidi’s combined:
Audrey Hepburn
Madonna
Joan Jett & Cherrie Currie (The Runaways)
Courtney Love
Debbie Harry
Come see Laiika this Friday the 31st of July at Whammy Backroom!
Laiika ~ The New Chicks on the Block by Denzel De Ruysscher
All Photos by Denzel De Ruysscher