Vocalist Vicki Glass and producer Vic Miranda have only been making music together for nine months, but in that short amount of time the two have managed to create some impressively sensual, emotive dream pop (if you want to put a label on it) and recently released their debut album, I Promise You Always The Sky, under the moniker Love Echo.

Last month, I had the privilege to premiere the album’s first single, “Control,” and I recently had the opportunity to talk with Glass and Miranda about the new album, their unique writing process, and how they feel about categorize music in specific genres.

Katrina Nattress: How long have you two been making music together?

Vic Miranda: We started doing music together 9 months ago. I discovered Vicki’s talent when she recorded her voice on a track I was working on, which is now “Hush” on the album. Her vocal track blew me away, so I wanted to do more tracks together.

KN: Your music is a wonderful, sensual brand of dream pop. What are your largest influences?

VM: I’m influenced mostly by feelings—they become layers of melodies in my head that I end up expressing with broken beats.

Vicki Glass: Thank you! Feelings derived from words, art, sounds and isolation influence me particularly if I read, see or hear something that moves me profoundly.

KN: On Facebook you describe your sound as “post-dreampop, post-chillwave, post-electroindiepop, post-post-twee, posttraumatic stress disorder,” is this self-description meant to poke fun of genres or is it serious?

VG: It’s both, really, but maybe more of my bad, tongue-in-cheeky humor. Except posttraumatic stress disorder—now that’s serious! I don’t feel like we really fit into any genre, which is subjective anyway, and I don’t even clearly know what many of them are. Sometimes I feel like we belong in some ‘70s soundtrack compilation…I have no idea what genre that would be now… So I guess it’s safe to say we are post-whatever-people-think-we-are to stay on the safe side in a broader sense.

KN: You just released your debut album, I Promise You Always the Sky, via LebensStrasse Records. How does it feel to share these songs with the world?

VM + VG: It feels like we’ve opened the gates to our own little private amusement park to the public and we’re keeping an anxious watchful eye, hoping they’ll enjoy the rides.

KN: What was the inspiration for this album?

VM + VG: We both had a one-month period of a sort of break from life, so we isolated ourselves and created tracks. Out of this complete isolation the tracks came about rather quickly and beautifully.

KN: Your songs are so complex. How does the writing process usually begin?

VM: I usually start depending on how motivated I am by creating a basic melody with a few beats, and then send it to Vicki, and she writes the words, records her vocal, and sends it back.

VG: That’s usually the process, except with “Lovecats” it was turned around because it was a track that I really wanted to do. So I first sent the vocal track to Vic and he created an incredibly beautiful, original melody for it based on the vocal.

KN: Talk to me about the writing/recording process.

VM: After I receive the vocal track from Vicki, I start the arrangement process following my own musical intuition and tweaking it to where my ear likes it. Most of the time the music in the finished track is a combination of experiments with the mix levels and sounds. I try to add something different to every track, and many are done by an entirely different process depending on my mood that day. Then we both go over it, throw things into the mix and continue to tweak it here and there until we’re both happy with it.

KN: Are you planning on touring this year? If so, any U.S. dates planned?

VM + VG: We just got word of a possible U.S./Canada tour in the summer and fall, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.  Failing that, we’re not averse to busking if we have to.

KN: What is on Love Echo’s agenda for 2013?

VM + VG: To build a lemonade stand on the side of the road and promote the record. There are a lot of thirsty people out there, so I think we’ll do well.

 

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