Q: Welcome! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
A: Hello! My name is Luke. I am one half of the Indie Pop-Rock duo Retrofile (the other half being my twin brother Noah). I enjoy singing/writing music, long walks in the snow, and drinking copious amounts of coffee.
Q: What inspired the lyrics and musical style of the new single?
A: The lyrics relate to our passion for music in general and how putting on a pair of headphones has been our escape for our entire lives. Music has the same quality that films do in that sense. You can just close your eyes and disappear into a great song or album. That feeling of escape within music was the key inspiration. In terms of sonic inspiration, I’d say In Stereo is half inspired by 80’s Pop artists and half inspired by 00’s Indie Rock groups.
Q: How does “In Stereo” compare to your previous releases in terms of sound and themes?
A: The sound is fairly consistent with our previous releases; It’s groovy, has a big chorus, stacked harmonies, a super fun bassline, and a steady dance beat. We’re really proud of it. Of all the songs we’ve been recording, it probably has the most dynamic energy. It’s a solid indication of what’s to come from us in terms of themes and sound.
Q: What was the most challenging aspect of creating this song, and how did you overcome it?
A: Just getting the track to sound the way we wanted it to sound. It always seems like it’s going to be a breeze for us in the studio and the next thing we know, we’ve invested 50+ hours reworking a song. We used to joke around that our song “Heard It All Before” was impossible to get right. “In Stereo” is up there with “Heard It All Before” .. a huge pain to work on. Totally worth it of course. Noah worked incredibly hard on the mix here as well. I think he nailed it.
Q: Are there any particular artists or genres that influenced the sound of “In Stereo”?
A: So, so many. The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Talking Heads, Prince, Bowie, Daft Punk, Queen. We didn’t actively think about any of these artists while recording the song .. these are just some of the artists whose influence I can now pick out from “In Stereo” while listening back to it.
Q: How do you hope listeners will feel when they hear “In Stereo” for the first time?
A: David Byrne has a great quote about dance music. He says when you hear dance music your body knows you like it before your brain does. It gets you moving a bit. We hope it makes people want to groove along with the track.
Q: Can you tell us about any special techniques or production elements that you used in creating the new single?
A: All of the guitar tones on the track were captured by micing up our little 4W Vox tube amp and minimal adjustments were made to those tones in the mix. With amp sims and plugins becoming so readily available today, I think limiting your palette to what you have on hand, and forcing yourself to get the sounds right at the source, can
really help to define a unique sound for an artist. The rhythm section was also an interesting blend of drum machines and live percussion elements, placing the groove in a middle ground between dance music and rock music.
Q: Are there any themes or messages that you hope “In Stereo” will convey to your audience?
A: I suppose going back to my earlier comment about escapism, I hope that “In Stereo” gives our audience another place to go for 3 minutes and 23 seconds. I could list hundreds of songs that have had that effect on me. It’s not a preachy song. If there is a message there, it’s a simple one about appreciating what great music can do to improve your day.
Q: How do you balance the need to be creative and innovative with the desire to connect with your audience?
A: We genuinely just write what we want to write and hope for the best. We have the same enthusiasm and passion to create now that we did before anyone was listening. We trust that if we make the type of music we want to hear, there will be an audience for it.
Q: Finally, what can fans expect from Retrofile in the coming months?
A: More shows and more music. We will have lots of new music to share with everyone over the next year. We are in the process of shooting a music video for “In Stereo” that we can’t wait to share with everyone. We are also working on lining up shows outside of Canada! We always get messages asking us to play all over the world so we’re working on making that a reality.
Follow Retrofile on:
