Scandinavian indie-folk duo Lakely are about to release their debut album, ‘Cold War’, on May 21, 2021. The project is the brainchild of married couple Anna and Jonas Edström Rudolf.
And today, we are bringing you the premiere of the band’s third single, wildfire. The song was in part inspired by fire that took over an area in the duos home country of Sweden a few years ago. The band spoke a bit about the track by saying:
Wildfire is about the calm before the storm and praying that everything will work out for the better, or quite literally about a wildfire we had in Sweden a couple of years back.
Our album Cold War is an album of songs about the walls we put up between us and other people, and between conflicting parts of ourselves. Putting them up to feel safe from harm, tearing them down for love, reaching over them to help someone and what we can and can’t share between us as songwriters and partners.
The track itself is could also be described as a wildfire of sorts. Fueled by fast-paced acoustics and warm, pleasant vocals, a few parts of the songs extinguish with a soothing tone, only to be later reignited with a blazing set of harmonies.
The song is now available to pre-save and will be released on May 7 at the following link.
More on Lakely
“We both felt like something was missing. Our music careers were going well, but there was always something standing in the way of making the music we wanted to create. Being in Nashville changed all that. There was this magic night, we were laying under a magnolia tree, watching the fireflies and hearing the strangely musical trains whistle in the distance. We realized we had found another home.”
Studying audio engineering in the recording mecca, they dove into their passion for great sounds. Through luck and coincidence, they eventually met the people that created the records they loved. With their help and with the inspiration from Nashville’s music scene they learned how to make their artistic vision reality.
But, being away from friends and family was harder than they had thought. Heartbreaks and homesickness colored their everyday life and they probably ended up learning as much about themselves than they did about audio. However, feelings like those make for great music and it wasn’t long before they began writing songs together—songs that felt more real, more honest.
After a year of inspiration in Tennessee, they flew home with not only an education in music production, but also a half-finished EP recorded by Shani Gandhi behind the console (Sierra Hull, Sarah Jarosz, Parker Millsap). The sessions took place in Gary Paczosa’s home studio, specially built for Alison Krauss in her old garage. After some additional recordings with some of Sweden’s finest bluegrass musicians their debut EP Pockets Full of Sand was released on Sept. 8, 2017.
Lakely’s full-length follow-up album Cold War is scheduled to be released May 21st, 2021. The duo calls the project “an album of songs about the walls we put up between us and other people, and between conflicting parts of ourselves. It talks about why we put them up to feel safe from harm, tearing them down for love, reaching over them to help someone and what we can and can’t share between us as songwriters and partners.”
Their impressive new LP Cold War was self-recorded at Chromophone Studios in the south of Sweden, with additional recording done in their apartment while their one-year old daughter Eira Gillian (named after Gillian Welch) slept nearby. Since moving home to Sweden from Nashville, the couple are also recording and producing other artists in the Scandicana genre, and are both teachers in audio engineering.
“We write all our songs together, like literally sitting across from each other, lyrics and music and all,” Lakely says. “Our musical and lyrical tastes are almost freakishly identical, from always agreeing on what is best for the song down to both not liking ABBA.”
Their special creative bond brings a special sort of magic to every song, no matter how challenging or complicated the topic. From the pain of growing apart (“Compromise”), the fear and joy of falling in love again (“Feels Like I’ve Never Felt This Way Before”), or the long wait for wounds to heal (“Time”), Lakely bring out the beauty in life, even during its most complex moments.
