Norwegian duo Lemaitre have named their forthcoming five-song EP 1749, but don’t expect any 18th-century sounds on this electropop gem. Ulrik Denizou Lund and Ketil Jansen live entirely in the present, crafting tunes that layer synths on top of horns on top of metronomic beats on top of — well, whatever else crosses their frantic imaginations.
If you’re wondering what 1749 actually means, there’s actually a pretty simple explanation. It’s the address of the band’s home and studio in Los Angeles, a place that represents just how far they’ve come from their Norwegian roots. “It represents the journey we’ve made and the process of creating music in our home away from home,” the duo explains. “We live with our video director, manager and our friend Sebastian ‘Coucheron,’ who also makes music. We all moved together from Norway to chase the dream of making music and living in L.A.”
And how’s that all going? “It’s kind of like the TV show Entourage except without all the money, ladies, and fancy parties.” Funny, that’s how I describe my life, too.
The 1749 EP is due out January 29th via Astralwerks/Virgin EMI. Check out the full stream below, and look for Lemaitre at Coachella this April.
The duo has also put together a track-by-track breakdown of the EP, which you can check out below.
“Not Too Late”
“We actually made this track while we were on tour with Porter Robinson in the fall of 2014. We made a little ‘studio’ in our charming little tour RV, and the lyrics were developed on the road as well. To me it’s about the general feeling of social anxiety.” – Ketil
“Stepping Stone” feat. Mark Johns
“One of the great things about living in L.A. is that there’s a huge artist community, and one of the artists we got to know and work with was the amazing Mark Johns. She has a real gift for melodies and making conceptual songs. We sat with the instrumental for a while and from the beginning felt like the beat needed a female touch; she came through and I think we almost wrapped it up in one day.” – Ketil
“Closer” feat. Jennie A
“Another instrumental that was floating around for a while. After a very intoxicated night, Ketil, who usually feels like shit and wants to die the day after from anxiety, used that feeling to write most of the lyrics that day. We spent some time finding the right vocals for the track, but luckily our manager came across the amazing Jennie A which turned out to be a perfect fit.” – Ulrik
“Day Two”
“It started with the piano part and we built the instrumental around it, one of the songs we made at the end of the EP sessions — thus also having the most uplifting lyrics! We spent so much time working on music last year, it was a test of patience and it was important to keep look forward and that it all would be worth it in the end. I think the song reflects that.” – Ulrik
“Nishio 2” feat. Giraffage
“We actually made this sample six years ago and it was featured in our very first live video, which also was our very first gig. Parts of it also ended up in a snowboard video with the title ‘Nishio 2’, so our fans has been demanding that song for a while. We never really got happy with it, so we reached out to the homie Giraffage to collaborate on it and we are really happy with the way it turned out.” – Ulrik
