I have a lot of love for Pale Honey and we go way back. We first met at a party at my friend Ida’s place near Bastille in Paris, early in 2014. Back then, I had only known the group’s newest member, Swedish producer Anders Lagerfors, a few months but we had already cut a few demos for my EP (Conor – EP). It didn’t take long for us to form a strong bond, which was also the case between he and Pale Honey. I had the pleasure of touring with them in Germany last year and have been to several of their gigs, including at Spot Festival, Aarhus back in May. I caught up with Tuva and Nelly on the walk back to their hotel, after we bounced around to Madi Banja at Musikhuset. On the occasion of their releasing new single ‘Real Thing’, here is that conversation…

Interview, introduction and photos by Conor.

Tuva – ‘I love porn’

Nelly – ‘And Madi Banja’

Tuva – ‘I kinda fell in love: he was really good live. I was shocked ‘.

Nelly – I had never listened to him. He has such energy and then he jumped into the crowd! He goes all in.

Tuva – I actually got goosebumps.

Nelly – We can call it Madi-goosebumps.

Conor – Yeah, he performed as if there were 10,000 people there. How was your gig tonight?

Nelly – It was good.

Conor – I’ve seen you a lot of times and I thought tonight was spot-on.

Nelly – Our crowds feel kind of shy sometimes.

Tuva – Maybe I need to run out into the crowd like Madi Banja.

Nelly – We could have a guest appearance.

Conor – A remix of one of your tracks featuring Madi!

Nelly – Madi, if you’re listening, we love you.

Conor – What are the names of the new tracks that you played tonight?

Tuva – We played three new tracks. Two of them have names and the other currently only has a working title.

Nelly – ‘Someone’s devotion’.

Conor – Whose devotion? Madi Banja’s?

Nelly – Maybe after tonight, it can be. The other one is called ‘Real Thing’.

Tuva – That’s going to be the next single coming out.

Conor – You heard it here first! What’s that one about?

Nelly – It’s about lust.

Tuva – It’s about porn!

Nelly – It’s very sexy. It’s about wanting something really bad.

Conor – I’m looking forward to the video to that one then. I’ll be naked in it, if you like.

Nelly – NSFW.

Conor – How about the song with the working title?

Nelly – Right now, it’s called ‘guldklump’ – (a piece of gold in Svenska) a special thing that stands out. It’s about having enough of something, a bit like ‘Youth’.

Tuva – It’s also about being a bit lost: what am I going to do?

Nelly – Figuring out that you don’t want to continue on the path you’re on, but being unsure of which path to take.

Conor – Discomfort in comfort?

Nelly – That could be a good song maybe.

Conor – How has the writing process been on this album compared to the last one?

Nelly – It’s been different. Before we came up with a lot of songs in the rehearsal room, whereas for this one, we would send each other ideas and work on them together afterwards.

Conor – Can we expect any different themes compared to the last record?

Nelly – I think this one is a bit more mature, and we’ve put more thought into the lyrics.

Conor – Yesterday I interviewed Emil Will from M.I.L.K. (who incidentally Pale Honey will be playing with in London on October 27th as part of a JaJaJa showcase) who makes music videos with Jonas Bang who made your ‘Over your head’ video. Will you work with him again? It was a very nice video.

Tuva – We would love to!

Nelly – I was very shy meeting him because I look up to him. When I discovered him, I really thought ‘this is what I want to do with photography’.

Conor – Did he come up with the concept for the video?

Pale Honey – Yeah, he did.

Conor – I follow you on Spotify, Nelly, and you listen to a lot of Matt Karmil, who we’ve just been hanging out with, and who’s also a friend of mine. Is his a genre that you’re interested in?

Nelly – I get to pre-listen his stuff and I find it quite calming.

Conor – Calming? For me, it’s Berlin club music. Might Pale Honey go down a harder, electronic road later?

Nelly – Who knows? We already have some electronic drums on our songs.

Conor – Exclusive: the next album’s going to be a trance album!

Tuva – Probably not.

Conor – What are you listening to at the moment Tuva? What have you been inspired by during the making of the album?

Tuva – I feel more inspired when I don’t listen to too much while making a record, but I’ve always liked El Perro Del Mar.

Nelly – I don’t know who that is, I’ve been too busy reading the Game of Thrones books.

Conor – Alright. I’ll let you get back to doing that. Thanks for the walk and the chat, Pale Honey. Love you.

Pale Honey – We love you too.

‘Real Thing’ features Tuva’s classic, smoky and sultry vocals. She grabs our attention by declaring that the person in question is her ‘wet dream’ (maybe it is really about porn). Now that the wind is starting to bite outside, the track is the perfect accompaniment to a long night in with the person of your choice, or for getting it on with the help of the hot spring mentioned at the beginning of the song…

Follow Pale Honey on : Facebook | Soundcloud | Twitter | Instagram