Hello, honeybees! We have another exclusive interview with a band we can’t stop buzzing about: Letters Sent Home. Trust us when we say that this German dark pop band is going to be your new favorite band, if they aren’t already! We got the chance to chat with vocalist, Emily We talk about touring and their debut album. Let’s get right into it!
Hello and welcome to The Honey POP, we’re so happy to have you! For our readers who might not know who you are, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Hi, thank you so much for having us! We are Letters Sent Home, a band from a small town in Northern Germany. Robin (guitar), Lara (bass) and me (Emily, vocals) know each other from school and started making music together in the form of covers in 2015. Lara and I left for an exchange year in the US a year later and when we got back we started writing our own music. Shortly after, Louis (drums) joined. As for the type of music we make, we cannot for the life of us find a genre that actually describes our music. We used to say it’s dark pop but that wouldn’t do the rock/metal side of our music justice.
Who are your musical influences?
I think listening to our music you can tell that there are so many different musical influences to be found. We all listen to different kinds of music. Louis listens to a lot of techno, Robin loves emo, indie rock and I am in love with dark pop. All these influences can be found in our music. We all come together in our safe space metalcore though, so that’s probably the biggest influence. Some of the artists that inspire us the most are rock bands like PVRIS, Bring Me The Horizon, Holding Absence and Rivals but also pop artists like Holly Humberstone or Billie Eilish.
You played quite a few shows last year. What’s one of your favorite tour memories?
We had the absolute honor to play support for the Japanese metal band Hanabie in Berlin last year. It was the biggest sold out club show for us to date and it was so crowded, nobody was able to move, really. After the show, people actually emptied our merch stock that we had on hand. We have never had so many people buying our stuff and we were so overwhelmed by the love and support. Hanabie fans are just the loveliest people ever. We will never forget that show.
What’s your dream tour lineup?
We would love to play with so many bands. For now, I think it would be Holding Absence, Boston Manor and Letters Sent Home.
Let’s talk about your new music! Your music video for your new song, “I hope I die first.” is full of little details like black rose petals and a coffin ring case. What was the creative process for that music video like?
We knew we wanted the music video to be a wedding before we even finished the whole song and because of the dark theme of the song, we knew it would need to have a dark, emo vibe. It was also clear from the beginning that the story needed to be short but meaningful and portray the two sides of the song, love and toxicity. We wanted to use as many little details as possible to foreshadow the ending of the story. The ring chatule being a coffin or the black rose petals, being a symbol of death and mourning, were supposed to steer the viewer into the right direction. It was also important for us to show the poison and the necklace before being used, so the ending is not out of the blue. Before the release of the music video, with the song name being “I hope I die first.,” we really thought the storyline would be a little predictable but surprisingly enough, so many people reacted shocked to me taking the poison. We love that.
Your debut album, Forever Undone, comes out soon, which we’re so excited for! What was the inspiration behind the album?
We cannot wait for this album to be released, we have been sitting on those songs for almost two years now. The album is deeply personal. We were sick of writing about mental health in a metaphorical manner. Talking about mental health is very important but we have just talked about it so much already, we wanted to give other topics a stage now. With this album, we wanted to be as transparent as possible. So, this album tells different stories of my life that I’ve never told before. It also portrays the hopelessness and helplessness of the younger generations. Musically we knew we needed to add more energy and attitude than we have before. We think this album perfectly portrays us with all our musical influences and personalities.
What do you hope listeners take away from it?
We always hope that listeners can relate to our music and feel less alone. We also hope, withsome of these songs, that it gets people thinking about how to be better. Writing these songs certainly got us questioning if there isn’t so much more we could do for the earth and humanity.
What’s your favorite lyric from the album and why?
This changes daily, depending on the mood. I think the lyric that gets me thinking the most is from the song ‘Sadists:’ “I don’t think that I believe in God but if there was one I think he would be done with our selfish motivations, with our constant craving to be told that we’re the bravest, with our perception of the greatest, with all the lies that we been told and tell as we are sadists“ It portrays the whole theme of the album so well with it mentioning religion but also how we as humans are massively screwing up right now.
As a band, what’s been your greatest accomplishment, so far?
We were able to support so many great bands in the past years, like As Everything Unfolds, Flash Forward, Blackout Problems, and as already mentioned Hanabie. And the SharpTone Records signing, of course, is an absolute dream come true.
Lastly, if you could speak one thing into existence for this year, what would it be?
It would definitely be a support tour through Europe. We have only once played outside of Germany and touring through Europe is very very high on our bucket list.
We want to thank Emily from Letters Sent Home for taking the time to talk with us! Is Letters Sent Home your new favorite band? And how excited are you for Forever Undone? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, Instagram, or by tweeting us @thehoneypop!
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