Letters Sent Home: Feeding The Fire
LETTERS SENT HOME combine alternative sensibilities with a dark pop edge to create catchy, infectious and heartfelt music. The German band’s latest EP, Fire In Me, the follow-up to last year’s Misery Loves Company, sees the band reach new sonic highs while dealing with some serious issues. We caught up with vocalist Emily Paschke and guitarist/keyboardist Robin Werner from to talk all about Fire In Me and it’s creation.
Fire In Me contains three new songs alongside the previously released Misery Loves Company (which features Joel Quartuccio from BEING AS AN OCEAN) in its original form as well as two alternative versions of the song. The EP was originally slated to be released at the start of December but as Emily tells us, it had to be pushed back but the band could not wait to get it out. “We had to push back the release date because the vinyl didn’t finish on time.” She also describes the feedback the new music has had so far. “The feedback has been really, really good on those three songs. We were a bit nervous about it, because those three songs are really different. We were nervous about how people would react react about those songs being so different, but it has only been positive, so we’re really happy about that.”
The creation of Fire In Me was quite a smooth process with LETTERS SENT HOME bringing together a collection of tracks that have been with them for a long time, as Emily told us. “The EP is actually more like a collection of songs that we had wanted to put out as a start with Hassle Records. We started working together and had the songs already finished, but not released yet, except for Misery Loves Company that we released last year. We sat together and said that we wanted to release them and try to put them out to see what the feedback is about the songs and these different styles. I just wanted to figure out where we’re going in the future.”
It also turns out that a song from Fire In Me goes way back to the beginnings of LETTERS SENT HOME as Robin explains. “The song Phoenix was the first song we ever wrote at band, we took that and we recorded it some time ago, and we had it lying around.”
The songs on Fire In Me deal with several mental health issues and LETTERS SENT HOME definitely feel it was important to discuss those issues on the songs themselves, which Emily passionately explains. “It’s just a really personal topic. I feel people can really relate to those kinds of things when it comes to mental health. You tend to feel alone with your thoughts and with your struggles. I feel like when you listen to music that has those topics then you can relate to that. You don’t feel alone as much as you used to and you can just fall into the music and just really feel it. We’ve gotten feedback on songs like Anxiety, which is on our last EP and people really relate to that song, and that’s exactly what we were going for.”
With the new EP focusing on mental health issues, LETTERS SENT HOME also discussed their Helpless Bit Hopeful Festival and related podcast which discuss similar issues. “That’s a project that we did, mainly last year, because concerts were not happening as much so we started the podcast because we had some things to say regarding the topic about mental health,” Robin says. “We basically always asked two questions. What makes it helpless? And what gives you hope? It has been helpful to see those two kind of ties. It was very exciting to meet new people and talk openly with them and put it outside.”
As well as releasing the new EP and preparing their new material, LETTERS SENT HOME also recently played live shows in London (their first show outside of their home country) and Hamburg go and Emily enthused about the shows and the new material that they performed. “The shows were amazing. London was our first show outside of Germany and the feedback was amazing. The show went perfectly and we did play a lot of new songs, including songs that we haven’t released yet. Hamburg was our first headline show outside of our hometown and there were also more people than we expected and a lot of really positive feedback. We are really grateful!”
With 2022, being a big year for LETTERS SENT HOME, Emily told us about some of the best moments of the year have been for the band including a story about how it could easily have been one of the lowlights. “I think the highlights have definitely been the festivals that we played which were really a great opportunity for us. Campus Open Air in Lubeck had a big crowd, and a lot of people who are following us now is because of that festival. I was really, really sick with bronchitis and I didn’t speak for days before that festival, because I just really wanted to play. I was so mad to be sick so I didn’t speak until actually a minute before we went on but then I just started singing, and it was okay!”
Robin finishes off our chat with LETTERS SENT HOME by looking at next year and the band’s plans which, aside from the new album, will hopefully include a lot more live dates and festival appearances. “We are hoping to play as much live as we can. We are hoping to get on the road with some other bands and play as many festivals as possible in the summer. Finishing the album, that’s our main focus at the moment, we’ve got a lot of material laying around, already recorded and the exciting part is to see how it all comes together, We’re very excited for that process!”
Fire In Me is out now via Hassle Records.
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