“Never Enough” by German synth-wave duo Bel Epoq has an irresistible atmospheric pull with heavy-hitting drums, haunting synthesizers, and a wonderful 80s vibe sure to get you dancing. We had the pleasure of interviewing Bel Epoq, and here’s what they had to say:
Q: I love the retro vibes I got from “Never Enough”! What was the inspiration for this song?
BEL EPOQ: (TIMO) Thank you very much! One key element of the song (literally) is the main lead synthesizer sound. Ari was experimenting with different user patches for our trusty Micro Korg and from the moment we stumbled across that sound, we instantly fell in love with its organic feeling, the drastic detuning, and the whole emotional space that we got from it. We use it all the time now. It’s really our favorite synth sound!
Another important parameter is the tempo. We wanted the song to be fast, dancy, and to have an overall uplifting energy. I think, at the time we wrote the song, we both loved “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd. So we tried to capture a similar energy for “Never Enough”.
Q: How did you decide on the instruments? Did the tune come with the lyrics or was it something that came together in bits and pieces?
BEL EPOQ: (ARI) First of all there was this chord progression with an arpeggiated first minor chord, which came to me one day as I was playing on our upright piano in the kitchen. So you could say, that the song has its roots in quite a natural acoustic piano atmosphere. Then one day I found this cool detuned sound, which Timo has already mentioned and that gave me an instant retro synth vibe. The verse lyrics and melodies came very quickly and simultaneously to the chords to me. But I remember that we were struggling with the chorus. It took us a while until we decided to keep it simple with the words “We never get enough.“ Timo then designed and added the bass and drum track and together with our producer Jurik Maretzki we were focussing on the little details and made arrangement decisions.
Q: In your own words, how would you describe the German synth-wave music scene?
BEL EPOQ: (ARI) To be honest, we’re quite new in this genre so we’re just starting to get to know the German synth-wave scene. We’re both coming from different musical backgrounds and played a lot of different shows with bands, which were more into “real instruments“ – if you know what I mean.
What I can say is that there are a lot of fans of synthetic music and sounds in Germany! You’ll find a lot of Dark Wave and Gothic Festivals and there are a lot of concerts and parties for this kind of music – we understand ourselves somewhere between that dark and melancholic side as well as on the brighter neon retro wave side. 🙂
There are a bunch of synth-wave parties and concerts, p. e. in Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover & Cologne – we’re looking forward to exploring all of these venues, parties, and festivals.
Q: Who is one artist you both look up to and think has had a significant influence on your sound?
BEL EPOQ: (TIMO) That’s an interesting question! There is really not just one answer, because our influences are so widely spread. I’ve always been a punk rock lover. Fast drums, loud guitars, all that high-energy stuff. My love for synthesizers and drum machines is a fairly new one, to be honest. But once it clicked, I couldn’t stop thinking about them. Killing Joke’s “Love Like Blood,” “Editors,” “Papillon,” and “Joy Division”… all were bridges for my understanding of how to transfer punk rock energy and vibes into a poppier format. And then, that approach was meeting Ari’s musical vocabulary, which was totally different from mine at first…
(ARI) Yes, I would say that I’m coming more from a mainstream pop background. I’m a professional pop vocalist for over a decade now and I would say that there is almost no significant pop song of the last decades that I haven’t sung in whatsoever context. I feel that I have a huge vocabulary of pop melodies and phrasings. For Bel Epoq I see the main influences in modern retro productions like The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights“ or Miley Cyrus’ “Midnight Sky“ as well as in authentic 80s pop music, to name some: Kate Bush, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, yes and a little bit of ABBA as well! 🙂
Q: What do you enjoy most about being musicians? And what do you think is a downside of this career?
BEL EPOQ: (TIMO) Interestingly, Ari and I might have slightly different perspectives here, I guess. I personally love studio work. Writing songs, producing, and arranging new material…the whole creative process. And I also love rehearsing, as early in the morning as possible! That’s definitely not Ari’s favorite part of being in a band, is it? 😉
(ARI) Well, I love all of that, too! But I’m a passionate live performer, as well. I’m really looking forward to our first live shows with this band. Concerning the downside of this career… I think I don’t have to mention the financial struggles especially independent newcomers have to face. Needless to say, we don’t earn any money out of this as for the moment – but that’s ok. This project is our ‘baby‘ and our creative output channel. We will see, where it will lead us!
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve been given about the music industry?”
BEL EPOQ: (TIMO) One thing we learned pretty soon was that you can’t force anything to happen the way you want it to. Things always seem to go their own way and usually in ways that you don’t expect. One example would be the whole world of streaming and social media platforms. To be honest, I’ve always been really sceptic and even a little too negative towards the shift in how music is consumed and promoted nowadays. But slowly, I begin to understand the possibilities and chances that arise when you try to concentrate on the positive aspects of this, like total autonomy as an artist, having complete control over your content, and being able to reach your listeners and fans directly via playlist pitchings and other ways to promote your music all by yourself and totally DIY – and all that on an international level. Streaming and social media are not necessarily changing things to the bad, they are just changing the landscape and the possibilities. But I’m still learning to be open to that. Ari is definitely way ahead of me here, and I’m glad that she is taking care of all of these things for our band.
Interviewed by Zoey King
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