Con “Les Rêves d'Enfants“ i Some Sprouts tornano in scena a distanza di 3 anni dall’uscita dell’ultimo EP “IMMT” (2018) e l’esordio con “Florescer” (2017), raggiungendo l’ampio pubblico della scena indie internazionale grazie al singolo “Someone you love”, che conta ormai oltre 8 milioni di ascolti su Spotify.
La band, nata a Regensburg, che si compone di Joshua Benker (voce, synths), Jakob Riepl e David Gebhard (chitarre), Alexander Kalus (basso) e Miguel Esteves (batteria), vanta anche il supporto di Albert Hammond Jr. (The Strokes) sin dalla demo di esordio nel 2016.
Nei loro brani, le cosiddette chill vibes fanno da padrone: ben presenti gli echi di band come i Tame Impala, le chitarre di Mac DeMarco, il tocco ambient da "moody song" alla Alt-J e tanto altro, affini al genere del dream pop con cui hanno iniziato e continuano a sperimentare ed evolvere tutt’ora.
Abbiamo avuto modo di parlare con loro dell’ultimo EP (prodotto dalla Blickpunkt Pop, etichetta discografica di Monaco), dei loro viaggi in Italia, della loro crescita negli ultimi anni e del tour in programma, che vanta già numerose date sold-out.
When were you born as a band? And why did you choose “Some Sprouts” as a name?
Jakob: Well, we were actually born in 2017 when our first EP came out. Before that we played in the cellar of our parents just for jamming, but as soon as the EP came out we had a more professional approach to music.
The name was an idea of David’s sister; we didn’t have a name until our first gig and she just came up with the word “sprouts” and we kinda liked it because it was like a metaphor for us, ‘cause we were young musicians and none of us had had a band before and we were “sprouts” soon hopelly! (laughs) And it’s also a metaphor for the songs that should flourish in the heads of our listeners. We kinda like the name and we stuck with that.
I loved your music because it reminded me of bands that I listen to regularly, like Mac DeMarco, WizTheMc or KYTES, an indie German band too. Is there a particular genre in which you would classify yourself? Also, a guy on “genius.com” wrote that you “may not live the pop dream” but you’re “definitely living the dream pop”. Do you agree with him?
Jakob: I don’t know, do we agree with this guy? David: Yes, but we’re not just dream pop. We like the music of Mac DeMarco, his music inspired us; he makes dream pop so yeah, that music is kinda influential for us. Jakob: We actually came up with this sentence when we were in Liguria right before we released the first EP and we were aiming at that point for dream pop, but now we don't consider us as a dream pop band; we became something else!
You’re German, but you always sing in English: is there a reason for that?
Jakob: That’s a good question (laughs). I think most of the music we listen to is in English and English is a more “musical” language than German, which is really harsh. It’s not easy to write a pop song in German, that’s why we prefer English and also it's easier for people to sing a song in English.
You’re quite a new band, but you already have 8 mln of streams on “Someone you love”: did you expect that?
Jakob: No, not at all. Even though we didn't release that much in the past, especially during the covid period which was really tough for us, the people, our listeners stuck with us, and it's really nice to see that they continue to grow even though in the beginning we would have never thought of such a big constant growth. It's amazing to play concerts after this long break and to see that people know our music. I think this is one of the nicest compliments you can get from making music.
This is your third EP: why did you choose to put out your music in more EPs instead of releasing a first full-length album?
Jakob: We don’t really see the necessity of making a full-length album. The listeners have a smaller attention span because of streaming, hardly anyone listens to full albums.
David: Also we weren’t playing many gigs, and the years before covid we always wanted to release some new music before new shows and it just fit better for us to release songs we just created.
Jakob: Yeah, it fit better with us: to release a few songs that we really like instead of forcing us to do an album full of songs that we didn’t even like just to put them out.
David: Also it’s faster to release an EP: the music is fresh, we’re living in the moment.
Jakob: Maybe someday we’ll release an album but I don't know, maybe someday we’ll be ready.
What’s your favourite track of the EP and why?
Jakob: Of the new EP oh... Good question. I would say “Better off”, because it's a pretty honest track and it fits well with our situation when we wrote that.
David: I also really like “Better off”, I think it sounds live really well. But also “Lucid” is one of my favourite songs, it has a nice synthy vibe.
Is there a particular reason why you chose to leave "Better off" as the last single before the release of the EP?
Jakob: Not really, I think it's only a good last song (they both laugh). It’s nice for autumn, and maybe now it’s a good time to release such a song. We kinda rearranged the songs of this EP several times before Covid, more or less we released them all in the same period but some time passed between rearranging them again and having the final version of them all.
"Lucid (Giro di notte)" is the one that struck us the most. Is there a story behind this song and if so, can you tell us?
Jakob: It’s a moody song about the feeling and the idea of driving through Italy, maybe on summer nights. It’s linked to our memories of when we were children and we drove for holidays in Italy.
Is there any artist which you’d like to collaborate with in the future?
Jakob: There are some, maybe not realistic (laughs), but if I think of European artists which are realistic to collaborate with I think of Marko… Leya, but also other Austrian bands we have played with in the past... The unrealistic would be Tame Impala!
You already have some completely sold out tour dates. Are you excited for that? Will you play in Italy at some point?
Jakob: Yeah, we have already played in Italy at a festival in Alto Adige for two shows in 2019 and hopefully also the next year, in summer, would be very nice. This tour is also really important, we’ve been looking forward to it ‘cause we’ve had such a long break and now we're excited to play again on tour, with people having fun.
David: It's also the first time we play the new songs, with a lot of shows, all day, and we were waiting for this for a long time. We’ll start with two shows in Hamburg and maybe we will have the possibility to bring the show to an "art concept" level, maybe also in Italy.
Jakob: Also we’re going to play some old songs of ours at the shows, like “Clowns” and “Never leave” (I think we played this one at almost every concert we’ve made!)