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| Photo by Oskar Omne |
Swedish artist Augustine has had a breakthrough year — along with dominating streaming with 'Luzon' and 'A Scent of Lily', both singles were truly remarkable. Today marks the release of his highly anticipated debut EP Wishful Thinking, which features five stunning tracks, including previous singles 'Luzon' and 'A Scent of Lily'. To celebrate the release of the EP, he has shared the influences that inspired him when creating the EP.
My Home in Stockholm
This is the view from my apartment window. I moved here about a year ago and it’s been the biggest change in my life! By coincidence, I got the chance to move in together with Rassmus Björnson (main producer and co-writer of all the songs) and we started writing songs mostly for fun. Rassmus helped me find both courage and a home for all these ideas to grow and improve. He gets things done and wants to help others. I remember when we saw a photograph of the Italian village Riomaggiore, and I said something about how that city matched the sound of the songs that we were creating. A few minutes later he had booked us tickets and called up a friend who works in photography, and without much knowledge at all of how to make music videos all three of us went there to shoot the video for 'Luzon'.
The National
Matt Berninger from The National is definitely my biggest influence when it comes to writing lyrics for this EP. His style is so intimate and often tragic but still kind of funny. The lyrics have a certain kind of attitude. 'Slow Show' on the Boxer record is one of the best lyrics I know and it’s just so easy and straight-forward, but still describes a very common feeling in a unique way. I spent a summer repainting my uncle’s house when I discovered The National a few years back and I played all their songs over-and-over while painting, trying to figure how to write lyrics in a similar way.
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| Photo by Alex de Brabant |
Blood Orange
Blood Orange has been a huge inspiration for this EP, both musically and aesthetically, especially the beat-driven tracks, the warm synths and the gorgeous music videos. 'Losing You’ by Solange (produced/co-written by Dev Hynes) is that kind of a song I’ve always aimed for when writing music. It’s just a beat (a fantastic beat) and a pad basically throughout the song, and it feels so timeless and warm. It has that minimalistic feeling to it which inspired ‘Luzon’ and most of the songs on the EP.
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| Dev Hynes photo by Sydney Botie; used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. |
Stranger in The Alps
This is one of the best records I’ve heard in years. The lyrics are once again what got to me and the songs got me through a long writing block. Phoebe Bridgers’ lyrics and melodies are so brilliant and it reminds me of The National in the way she expresses these feelings in her own unique way. I found this record last year at a time when I was thinking of moving from Stockholm to study something else that wasn’t music related, so it has a little place in my heart forever now that everything ended up this way instead.
The Talented Mr Ripley
Luckily the plot in this movie hasn’t been that much of an influence haha, but I totally fell in love with the setting and environments. It’s set in Italy and was an inspiration for the video to ‘Luzon’ and also for the upcoming video for 'Wishful Thinking'. The pastel buildings and 60’s clothing! The Big Blue and The Rum Diary are other movies with a similar setting and they’ve been on repeat at home.
