Swedish newcomer Lucas Nord unveils new album, shares personal commentary on each track
by: Leah Steffensen
Jan 30, 2014
Known for his joyful, house-poppy vibe, Lucas Nord is the latest Swedish star to take the electronic world by storm. The young house talent has unleashed his new album Islands which features guests like Tove Lo, Urban Cone and Melo of Hoffmaestro and exemplifies a true electro pop Swedish feel. After the success of single “Let Us Stay Young” and collaboration with John Dahlback “Embrace Me,” Lucas is ready to take it to the next level with the following album. We asked Lucas to provide us a play-by-play track review in order to reach inside the mind of an upcoming talent. Here’s what he told us:
Prelude – “This track served as an intro that would set the mood and feature elements and sounds that are presented throughout the whole album. I also purposely made it the same key and two bpms slower than the track after to make the two blend nicely together.”
Run On Love – “I had this instrumental track for quite some time, then received a version with a topline that Tove Lo had written. I instantly thought it was just right for the track. We met up a couple of weeks after in my good friend Rasmus Faber’s studio and re-wrote some stuff and recorded it. I don’t think i had one single bad take by Tove. She absolutely killed it on this one.”
Let Us Stay Young – “This is the first track I ever released and the first collab I did with Urban Cone. Everything around the time I made it was just very fun. I was sort of unaware of how stuff worked in the business etc. I feel that the lyrics and the energy of it kind of reflects that playfulness I had at that time.”
Black & White – “I wrote this chorus sitting by the piano when I was like 17 living with my parents, and it was just stuck in my head for months. I made a demo and got Melo to sing it who I had met through Rasmus Faber. I worked on the production on this for like three years and it seemed like I was never going get it right. Eventually I had to move out of my comfort zone and do something a bit different, and something a bit less typical of my style to make it work.”
W – “I needed something a bit darker and something not so pop on the album. I had this basic melody in my head and just worked from there. I played around a bit more with arrangements and different variations of the same melody then I might normally do.”
Islands – “I had this title in my head for a long time. When I was in the studio with Emil & Rasmus from Urban Cone I just said I liked the title “Islands” and was thinking of naming my album that. We decided to write a song based on that title with a we against the world vibe to it. I remember we made a collage of pictures and words just to get a feel for how we wanted it to sound.”
We Lost Ourselves – “This is a track Emil and I had forgotten about and didn’t touch for like a year. We both remembered it was pretty cool and people really liked it when we played it for them, so we sat down re-wrote the vocal and re-arranged the whole thing. It is one of my personal favorites on the album and always works really well when we play it out.”
Follow You – “I made this downtempo pop track and thought it really suited the album. Even though the tempo was different from the rest of the album, it still had that energy to it and worked really well along with the other tracks. That was something that was important to me in making of this album. No matter what tempo or genre or whatever, I needed the album to feel like an album and sound like an album. Not just some random single tracks put together for release. Anyways, I sent it over to my friends in Colleagues and got them to write on it and it just worked out perfect straight away.”
Feelings for You – “The last track I made for the album. It was an instrumental I didn’t know what to do with but i just knew that it had to be on the album. With like a week left till the deadline, I sat down with Emil and wrote the topline and by accident. We cut the vocal in the chorus and suddenly we had this hook we didn’t even think of.”
Control – “A track with a bit more funky french vibe to it than some of the other tracks on the album. I wanted it to sound a bit sample based even though nothing actually is sampled. Also it’s the only track I sing by myself on the album.”
Embrace Me Part II – “It started out with me doing my own version of the track Emil, Rasmus and I wrote for John Dahlbäck which Dirty South later famously remixed. I started playing it out and it worked out really well and felt like it sounded like a Lucas Nord track. I’m happy i got to release it and have it on my album.”
The End Of – “My absolute favorite on the album, and a perfect calm ending. I actually started out making this as the intro to the album, but then I realized it was much more suited as an outro. I don’t know what it is but this track just makes me feel exhausted, in a good way.”
Purchase: iTunes
Stream: Spotify
Read more:
John Dahlback feat. Urban Cone & Lucas Nord – We Were Gods (Original Mix)
Lucas Nord – Run On Love feat. Tove Lo (Original Mix)
Categories: Music