Indie pop/rock band, Express Therapy consists of two best friends, Jules Bédat and Dimitri Schweizer and I had the honour of spending some time getting to know all about them and ‘I Knew’, the first single release of their upcoming EP.
Joining together at the age of just 15, the pair have been involved in many musical projects over their journey, including Siny, a 5-piece alternative rock band and an experimental lo-fi duo, Plexiglas Academy.. they had a break in which Jules released a solo project under the name Curtain Kob and Dimitri focused on making an audio-visual show called “Elpis”.. Finally coming together in their latest musical project that you hear today, Express Therapy.
The sound that this duo create is a dreamy blend of vintage 80’s sounds and modern influences, coming together in what they coin as ‘nostalgic pop’.
The creation of their latest track, ‘I Knew’ and the upcoming songs off the six track EP, ‘Prom Party Nostalgia Vol.I’ , began in their hometown of Brussels and was completed during a residency in a wooden cabin in Switzerland, distancing themselves from both distractions and the health risks of the pandemic.
“I Knew takes you back to an 80’s prom party. You’re on the dance floor, and the disco ball is the only thing lighting up the place. As you’re looking up, you meet eyes with your highschool crush and you’re about to muster up the courage to go talk to her.”
You can listen to ‘I Knew’ below:
Tell us a little about who Express Therapy are and how you came together..
Express Therapy is the story of two best friends who share their love for making music and are ready to do anything to achieve their dreams.
We’ve been playing together since the age of 15 in different bands and projects mainly because of an optional course in school.
Express Therapy was born in Bruxelles shortly after we moved in together in order to work on our projects.
We put ourselves to the challenge of writing and recording a whole EP in 2 weeks without any particular intent.
This ended up being our debut EP “Twenty Something” and it took way more than two weeks to polish but we were confident in the music we made so we formed the band with the dream of living from it.
How would you describe the feel of your music?
It is dreamy, a little catchy but mostly nostalgic.
The first EP was about our youth. Being reckless, in love, heartbroken and all the joy and struggle that comes from being a teenager.
The upcoming one still takes inspiration from this but has more of an “80’s movies” feel to it.
You have released your new single, ‘I knew’.. tell us a little about how this song came about.
It started from a demo that Jules recorded in his bedroom in Bruxelles shortly before going back to Switzerland during the lockdown.
We re-recorded everything during a residency in a wooden cabin and it ended up perfectly setting the tone for the whole EP with its 80’s type of sound.
Before we knew it we had a whole EP inspired by this kind of sound.
What does the song mean to you?
I think it is the beginning of something new.
The intro synth illustrates this perfectly.
It kinda introduces something unexpected and when the music starts you’re kinda like: Oh, so that’s where this is going and then you kinda know what’s coming next but there should still be some surprises.
This is the first song in your EP, ‘Prom Party Nostalgia Vol.I’.. What can we expect from the full EP?
You can expect a similar vibe but with all kinds of moods.
The EP is called “Prom Party Nostalgia” because that’s what it represents the most.
It’s a collection of songs inspired by “fake memories” that we created in order to escape reality and go to a happy place.
We wanted to represent the atmosphere of an 80’s prom party even if we never experienced one because it is something that is romanticised so much in pop culture and we wanted to have our own version of it.
What is your creative process like, when you are creating your music ?
It mostly starts with Jules just regularly pouring out his ideas in a DAW wether that be chords, bass lines, synths patches, etc.. and once we have a few “demos” that fit in a similar vibe, we take some time together to complete the songs, write the lyrics and record everything.
You finished the track while on a residency in a wooden cabin in Switzerland.. tell us a little about that experience.
During last winter’s lockdown, we decided that it would be best to isolate ourselves from everything that was happening in order to focus on our work and be as productive as possible.
That’s why we went in a wooden cabin near where we live in order to write and record most of the EP.
We only took our instruments and what we needed to record them so that there were no unnecessary distractions.
We had pretty intense days working from 9 in the morning until around 9 in the evening, stopping only to eat something or put some wood in the chimney but overall it was a fantastic experience and we couldn’t have done as much in a short amount of time any other way.
Has there been anything along the releasing process that you would do differently next time?
Not necessarily different but let’s hope we get better at this in order to have more time to prepare for the releases.
We always think that we’ll have time to shoot a music video, a live session, prepare for the live shows and suddenly it’s release day and half of the things aren’t done.
It’s always a struggle between releasing soon enough to stay relevant or release later and having enough time.
What would success in your music look like to you?
Success would probably be having a sustainable income from our music.
But other than that, we’d love to go on tour and play all around Europe and who knows someday maybe even the rest of the world.
Is there any message that you would like to share with your audience?
We love every single one of them very much and we will gladly keep making music for them forever 🙂
Where can people go to find your music?
They can listen to us on every major streaming platform (Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, etc..), they can also buy our merch on our website expresstherapy.ch.
We also post regularly on Instagram @expresstherapy and there’s also making of videos and other stuff on our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzrj6_R_sCEyHnsNr3VNajw
Karen Harding is a Melbourne, Australia based singer/songwriter, founder of Sounds On The Couch, and founder and operator of boutique music PR service for emerging and independent artists, Rise Indie.