The simplest emotions are often the most powerful. Danish artist YDEA knows it very well, using her nuanced artistry to initiate a heartfelt, introspective journey into human nature. A talented writer, she’s been penning poignant and relatable songs, enhanced by her warm, expressive vocals.
Following up on last year’s ‘Forest Fire’, YDEA now announces ‘Lovers Game’, a fierce and evocative pop anthem with a dynamic outlook. In it, the London-based songstress bravely confronts her own demons, initiating a journey of reckoning towards past relationships and romantic flings. Reflecting on the healing power of self-love, she crafts an honest and cathartic anthem drenched in personal experience and controlled fragility.
Lovers Game’ is out on Friday, the 19th of April. Pre-save it here. Intrigued by the project, we caught up with the London-based songstress to find out more about her artistry and future goals… Interview below!
Hey YDEA, we were lucky enough to get a preview listen of ‘Lovers Game’, and we are excited to see it finally releasing this Friday! It’s obviously a very personal song, perhaps a cathartic way to process past experiences.
Hi Mesmerized! Thank you so much, so am I! It has been underway for quite a while, so I literally cannot wait to finally share it with you all. Oh yes absolutely! I think most of my songs have elements of processing past (or current) experiences and that way they are always quite cathartic to me. But yes, Lovers Game does feel especially cathartic, I guess perhaps because of how much has happened and how much I have evolved since I wrote and recorded it. I feel like as time passes and I evolve I discover new aspects of myself in the song.
Can you guide us through the writing process behind ‘Lovers Game’? Was there a specific event or a specific period that inspired you to put thoughts to paper?
I actually wrote Lovers Game a few years ago, when we were starting to come out from Lockdown. Nothing particularly was happening at that time romantically (just a lot of time to think and reflect after the world closed down for a bit). I remember I sat down at my parent’s piano during an advert break on TV (you really never know when inspiration strikes!) and the words and melodies just came out very naturally.
I had at this point gone through various short-term relations and situationships, and had found myself in some unhealthy dynamics, and I think this was the first time I probably started reflecting on why that was. Lovers Game is therefore, in its essence, a reflection upon my own role in these relations, realizing and understanding why I was drawn to unavailable people for whatever reason, taking responsibility for my part in the relationships and then taking back all that love I had given.
I think it is a beautiful thing to love, and I certainly still have a place in my heart for a lot of the men who no longer are in my life, but I needed to start loving myself better than I did. The funny thing is I had to have my heart broken one more time after writing Lovers Game to actually get it and start taking myself and the message of my lyrics seriously, and I am still on that self-love healing journey.
We love the elegant, anthemic production on the track. Highly hypnotising and vibrant. Who’s responsible for it?
That would be the amazing Tom Marlow! He is an excellent producer, arranger and all-time great person, he is just so talented. I met him during my MA course at Tileyard where we both studied in 2022. We started working on Lovers Game as part of our dissertation and when I heard the first demo I just knew I was going to love the final product, which I of course do. I think he has really managed to translate the emotion of the song into the production and honoured it and me as an artist. Thank you, Tom!
We had the chance to see you live a while ago; the stripped-back, poignant and authentic performances you gift the audience are legendary, by now. How do you translate such emotional, raw energy onto a record?
Eeeh that is so sweet, thank you so much, that honestly means the world to me! Live performances are really when I feel the most “me”, if that makes sense. I always think recording in a studio is more difficult because you don’t have the same energy exchange as when you perform live and have that sort of unspoken communication with the audience. Personally, the way to access that energy is to bring myself back to the same emotion the song was written on, by thinking about an experience where that emotion was present.
When we recorded the vocals for Lovers Game I was going through the above-mentioned heartbreak and it was very fresh, which I think you can tell. I’ll save the full story for another time, but the core of it all was that despite being heartbroken, I knew I deserved better than what I was put through, and I also knew that this time I had to take myself and my own healing more seriously.
Do you have a message you’d like to leave for all the YDEA fans and Lovers Game listeners out there?
Well first, I really hope you’ll love ‘Lovers Game’. But more importantly, I hope it will inspire you to love and choose yourself more in those moments when you need to do something difficult to do what is best for you. I hope it will make you feel empowered and ready to take on this world and all the good things you deserve.
You are currently based in London, but your Danish roots are ever present. Does your Nordic aura influence your music at all?
Yes, I definitely think it does. I grew up close to the ocean and forests, and I think experiencing those long dark and cold winter days has influenced the overwhelmingly moody, melancholic and organic elements that are present in my music. I love bringing organic instrumentation into my recorded tracks. Lovers Game for example has an upright piano recorded, which I recorded at Tileyard Studios. I’d also love to use strings in future projects, especially the cello, which is perhaps one of my favourite string instruments.
Lastly, what are the next steps for you and your project?
I feel like the rest of 2024 is going to be quite thrilling. I am working on some other tracks that I am hoping and aiming to release this year too, and then I have a few writing sessions lined up, which is exciting as it is always interesting to write with other songwriters and producers. I love playing live as mentioned so I’ll definitely get some gigs added to the calendar, but for now I am performing with BreakingSound at Camden Canal, PowerHaus on 27/04, which I’m really looking forward to. Get your tickets here.
