Since the age of eight, multi-platinum and award-winning Denmark artist, Mads Langer has turned to music as an honest and cathartic outlet.
While quarantining during the pandemic, he processed the swirling storm of emotions in the best way he knew how. He dove deep into his own experiences to write and produce one of his most authentic albums yet, ‘Where Oceans Meet.’
Its lead single, “Lightning” is a powerful anthem about once-in-a-lifetime moments that bring two people together.
We chatted with Langer about the new album, what fans can expect next, and more!
Excerpt from the podcast:
What was the experience like writing the album?
I started writing the album before COVID, and it has been really interesting for the creative process to be in the same place for a long time.
I had a couple of songs before everything closed down, but then I was kind of forced to stay in my house and work on the music in the same place. And I’m kind of used to a nomad lifestyle, traveling a lot and touring and working on my music on the road.
So for me, it was really inspiring to be in the same place and get rituals around the creative process that were completely different from what I used to do in the past.
In many ways, I feel like this album is one of the most focused body of works that I have done in my career because it was mainly created in the same place.
And your lead single off the album is, “Lightning.” It’s such a fun anthem and such a beautiful song. What inspired the concept for that song?
I really liked working with images when I write lyrics. For some reason, I haven’t thought about this before, but you know ‘Where Oceans Meet,’ it’s also like a nature image. Yeah. It’s the same thing with “Lightning.” I really like going into nature and finding silence and finding my creative space in nature.
I had the first idea for “Lightning” when I was hiking in Yosemite in California where there was a thunderstorm coming in. You could see all these beautiful flashes in the sky. I just wrote down the title there for ”Lightning.”
Then when I came back to LA, to the studio, I had that as a working title. I wanted to use that image to describe that feeling of the metaphor of getting struck by lightning.
It’s just beautiful for me because It adds another level to those magic moments in life where you resonate with something else or someone else.
The music video has so many struck by lightning examples. Why did you choose to include so many different stories instead of just sticking with one?
On my album, I’ve tried to take out the egocentric perspective. So I’m not on the album myself. I’m not in the video until the very end of the video where I just sit on that bed performing the last couple of lines in the song.
A general idea for the album to focus on the beauty of the music and the fact that it is for everybody. It’s not about promoting myself as a person, it’s about hopefully tapping into something more universal.
The video for lightning is about love in the many different shapes and colors it comes in.
It’s a tribute to all the people who are not allowed to be who they are and allowed to love who they are.
I have close friends and family who don’t fit into the heteronormative box that we’re expected to fit into in many places all over the world. Not just in Denmark and in the US, but all over the world, people are struggling to be able to just be who they are.
That’s the video, it’s a tribute to them.
I think the more we can talk about diversity and inclusion and the fact that love is love, and everybody’s supposed to be able to be who they are and love who they love.