With their many hit song such as “So Close,” “I Miss Myself” and ” I Wanna Know,” NOTD have had many dance hits and it’s no wonder that their new single is another banger. Their new song “I Don’t Know Why,” with Astrid S, is another dance track that contains hose elements creating a positive mood. It’s a perfect transition from spring to summer, it can brighten anyones day in these dark times. ECHO chatted with the Tobias and Samuel of NOTD about their new song “I Don’t Know Why” and more!
How are you guys doing?
We’re great, all things considered. The world is going through such a crazy time, but we’re just so excited to have new music out for our fans to enjoy right now. The response so far has been amazing.
Let’s talk your new song “I Don’t Know Why,” what was the creative process like?
The process was fairly quick on this one. We heard the topline from one of our favorite writers/collaborators Jason Gill about a year ago and immediately connected to it. In less than 24 hours we had a demo version produced.
You worked with Astrid S on the song, what was it like working with her? How did you guys connect with her?
Astrid was the first vocalist that came to mind as a dream feature for the record. We’d been meaning to work on something with her for a long time, so we were thrilled that she loved the song as much as we did and wanted to be involved. We’ve been friends with her for some time now and also such big fans of her work.
You have a good amount of dance bops, talk about coming up with the ideas behind each song, what’s your secret to creating consistent bops?
It really comes down to the feeling we get when we hear the original topline. The songs we end up working on and releasing are all ones that we instantly connect with lyrically and emotionally. From there it’s a matter of finding the right production elements to complement that original feeling we had when we first heard the demo vocal.
Do you have a favorite one you’ve made so far?
Our next single takes the NOTD sound into a bit of a different, though recognizable, direction. We can’t wait for people to hear it and see how we are evolving.
How did you guys come up with the name NOTD?
NOTD is the last two letters of each of our last names, in reverse. Tobias DanielssON and Samuel BranDT. NO-TD.
What have you guys been doing to stay creative during this quarantine?
We were on tour in Europe when the virus got serious, and had to reschedule most of the shows on that run. The blessing in disguise here was that we’ve now had time to finish so much new music. We’ve been in the studio non-stop for the past couple of months putting together the next chapter of NOTD music. That creative consistency is something we’d been missing with how much we’d been on the road in 2018 doing promo and in 2019 playing our first shows, and we’ve made some of our favorite NOTD records ever in this time.
What are you excited to do once this is all over?
We can’t wait to show our fans this new music and to have the opportunity to play it for them live. Connecting with our fans in different cities around the world and hearing their stories is the most inspiring part of what we do.
If you could set up a fan in a setting for them to listen to your music, what setting would that be?
In headphones while at a skatepark with friends at night or driving with friends blasting it, while the sun is out
If you could ECHO out one quote you’ve heard in life, what quote would that be?
“You win some and you lose some, and tomorrow morning when the construction starts at 8am, we lose. But we’ll be alright.” Our manager Jon said this in London after a long day of promo and knowing the apartment we were at was going to have construction early the next day when we knew we’d want to sleep. It taught us it is OK to lose sometimes, but you have to keep going in life. Also we loved “Let’s Spend” by Tom March (the head of Polydor Records) when our song “I Wanna Know” was taking off. That was cool to hear haha.