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Orchee Sorker | March 19, 2022
English alternative pop duo Arctic Lake share the creative process behind the intimate new EP, side by side we lie awake along with sharing a glimpse of their daily life as an artist. The duo consists of Emma Foster and Paul Holliman.
"How does a typical day look like for you?"
Paul: "If we’re talking about a typical day then it’s not gonna be an early start I’ll be honest with you, they don’t really agree with us so we’ve taken the executive decision to just say no to them altogether (one that I’m very happy with). I like to do a bit of exercise in what’s left of the morning to make myself feel better about the 12 and a half donuts I had the previous evening, and then it’s work time! It really depends where we’re at in terms of release or tour plans, so it could be writing every day or driving between cities on tour - right now we’re trying to finish up the next batch of songs to release after this EP, so it’s a lot of listening to the same section of a song a hundred times, changing a tiny thing and then listening another hundred times, deleting it, put something else in, repeat… you get the idea. Of course there’s also a big break for lunch, the most important part of the day."
"What is your favorite song to perform live?"
Emma: "Oh my gosh that’s such a tough question! There’s a bunch we’ve not released yet but have performed called “Hold Me” and “Figure Me Out” that just make me lose it, I love performing them, I literally cannot wait to release them. “Lonely” is like insanely fun, I just headbang my way through it in a really uncool way. “Hesitate” is for sure my favorite from the EP but we’ve not performed it live yet because I always cry so that’s going to be wild/interesting/utterly terrifying!"
"What was the creative process behind “Love You Like That”? When did you start writing the song?"
Paul: "This song actually started years ago, it was just a song that never got released because it wasn’t really good enough as a whole, but I had always really liked the verse melodies so in the first lockdown in 2020 I had a mess around with taking that section of the song and putting it under a really different style of production with loads of synths and big drums. Then we wrote a different chorus and it was pretty much done! Lyrically it’s quite interesting because the verse and chorus were written years apart, so they reflect different parts of Emma’s life - one is quite sad and the other is more fun and laid back which I think gives a nice contrast and dynamic to the song."
"Congratulations on your new side by side we lie awake EP! When creating the EP, was there a theme you were hoping listeners would interpret?"
Emma: "We always said we wanted to write about human emotions, thoughts, universal experiences - songs that people can relate and connect with and ‘side by side we lie awake’ is no different, in fact I hope it goes further. “Breathe” and “Hesitate” touch on really difficult topics and I hope anyone going through those situations finds comfort in knowing they’re not on their own and they will grow from this."
"Anything else you’d like to add?"
Paul: "Just that my mum makes the best sticky toffee pudding in the world and I would like to be buried in a bath of it, thanks. I’m not sure if it’s even a thing in the US but if it’s not I can send some over for you don’t worry."