William Maybelline and Larissa Iceglass are here to make 2021 better. The Swiss-British band recently released their newest album ‘Sci-Fi Sky‘, and with that occasion, we managed to correspond with William about their album, nostalgia, and the vision on music.

In a previous review, I wrote that ‘Lebanon Hanover is all about coldness, sharp edges, and jagged duality. The band had set the bar very high with their previous ‘Let Them Be Alien‘. The new album is hard to forget. The songs are suitably twisted and difficult, and Larissa’s vocals always leave you craving more. This is coldwave/darkwave at its best.‘

Your music seems engaged in a constant tug-of-war between futurism and nostalgia. Can you pinpoint a particular moment that made you dive into producing these sounds?

William Maybelline: Nostalgia has always been a big thing with the both of us, that gets drawn in naturally, the futurism was really a push to open a new / turning point with the band I believe and it felt time to open some extra doors and tap into a more psyched out vision..it came around 5-6 months before Covid.

How do you feel the band has grown in the time since your first album, both personally and musically?

Well, as it usually goes when starting out you have this huge nativity this ultimate ease of play and freshness. Somehow, luckily I feel like we kept a lot of that, adding more of a technical depth to it all. We constantly learn and progress. Personally with both grew our own families and started to see life in a bigger brighter sense and in many ways, it of course has influenced us. So there really is a constant flux of development.

  • Photo by (c) Caroline Bonarde
  • Photo by (c) Jonas Fransson

It’s interesting to see how your thoughts and feelings are shown in the lyrics, just how cathartic is the process of making such statements via your work?

It is important to reach deep and pull out what’s lurking below us, we always manage to fathom our inner core, it is an instinct the band bares daily and when making music/lyrics.

Do you think that by integrating these nostalgic, sometimes dark themes into your work, your art gives you and your audience an opportunity to deal with, or better understand them?

Absolutely there is many a time we were blessed by such messages where we somehow had a profound effect on a fan, we are very happy for this and hope it will persist.

If you were, to sum up, the whole ‘Sci-Fi Sky’ album to a single word, which would that word be?

EPIC

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? What supports this ideal state of mind and what are distractions? Are there strategies to enter into this state more easily?

Wow, good question! Honestly, you must, first of all, feel enthusiastic, then you must be in a surrounding where you can not be interrupted. Eating first and having a drink nearby, its such a simple thing but the goal is to reduce distractions and go through this blast of creating, these are just some of the things I prefer to prepare. And it helps to not have any other tasks at hand other than creating. So your pure self is absolutely in it. I can understand why Kraftwerk had no door buzzer at their studio; you had to call at a particular time only. That’s how it’s done.

  • Photo via the band’s archive
  • Photo via the band’s archive

It is remarkable, in a way, that we have arrived in the 21st century with the basic concept of music still intact. Do you have a vision of music, an idea of what music could be beyond its current form?

Perhaps music could become a fully physical thing through some AI projector where the listener is absolutely integrated into the world of that music, I’ve heard there is like a google development for that but I am talking serious integration like it was the absolute solid tailored world to fit the music.

Do you ever consciously think about the music you leave behind after you have died?

Nope, but I’d be glad in the next zone, knowing I was part of that!

Follow Lebanon Hanover on: Facebook | Spotify | Bandcamp | Instagram

Cover photo: (c) Isolde Woudstra

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Miruna Vitriol

Enthusiast writer at CVLTARTES
I am trying to become a better person by embracing my own weirdness.