Track By Track: Palace Winter on 'Waiting for the World to Turn'

Following the singles "Positron" (a former Best Fit Song of the Day), "H.W. Running" and "Soft Machine", Copenhagen-based Palace Winter's debut had a lot to live up to, and it delivers on the early promise. A mix of R.E.M. jangle and motortik Krautrock precision, Waiting for the World to Turn is a fine debut from one of favourite bands from The Great Escape.

Listen to "Soft Machine" below, then read on for a track by track guide - and stream - of the album.

Dune Wind

Carl: Where the journey begins. There's a lot of space here like a "Dune Wind" blowing through a vast desert. We wanted something minimal but still kraut so it never peaks or dips. The story describes a loved one trapped in another dimension which is a common theme throughout the record.

Caspar: It’s supposed to lure you into our world and then lock you in there for a while. It also represents a change for us in sound, starting the album with an acoustic piano, something we haven’t featured a lot before. This one took a while to get just right, since we wanted to create a really driving feeling but without the acoustic guitar that is often useful for that purpose.

Hearts to Kill

Carl: An existential banger with a stingy guitar theme and some trademark descending synth lines. We knew we wanted track two to start with a bang! The album title (partially) grabbed from the chorus and represents waking up alone in a stagnant world.

Caspar: The first song we finished for the album. It’s one of my personal favorites, and has a lot of layering going on with noisy synths, acoustic and electric guitars as well as piano. We also wanted to experiment with some different beats than what we’d done so far on this one.

Positron

Carl: Positron is slang for someone that is overly postive or happy. This can be both a good and bad thing. The story deals with relationship tension in the middle of the night, hiding in bars and wandering the city. We wanted to take the song somewhere different as opposed to our trademark kraut-outro, so we invented a sort of 'Nightmare' second act which is hypnotic yet unnerving.

Caspar: Definitely the song with the strongest contrasts on the album. The first part is very upbeat and almost happy, and I get a sort of Inception-like vibe from the second part, where we’re slowing everything down and it gets almost violent.

Soft Machine

Carl: A slow and quite traditional pop ballad with some trademark epic synth lines and a cheeky piano/guitar theme. We wanted to let some air in with this one but liked how mysterious it became at the same time. It's the euphoria after the nightmare.

Caspar: It’s a slow and dragging song, but still monumental and grand. There was a lot of experimentation with the vocal sound on this, and I love the way the vocals almost spread out ‘into thin air’ in the choruses.

H.W. Running

Carl: An up-tempo banger where we sort of just turned it everything up to 10. We wanted to flip the record and then just take off again. H.W. is the young boy from There Will Be Blood. P.T Anderson's films sort of define what we want to achieve with our music; widescreen epics where every frame looks like a photo.

Caspar: This is definitely us filling the the entire canvas and having a lot of fun doing it. I did the epic synth-solo when Carl was away, and when I played it to him, I said ‘I’m not sure you’re gonna like this’! Luckily he did though, and then basically came up with the vocal part that comes after it on the spot. That turned out to be one of my favorite moments on the album.

What Happened?

Carl: A story about my old next door neighbour, a truck driver who took his own life. We feel it's sort of the dark horse of the album. We wanted a drum machine track because of the vibe it brings and had a lot of fun blending the guitar and piano so it would be difficult to seperate one from the other. John Cage's voice and pensive quote seemed appropriate.

Caspar: We had an iPhone-demo for a long time of just the two of us with a drum machine, me on a Yamaha CP70 piano and Carl on electric guitar. That really had a special vibe, and we sort of ‘swore’ to keep it just as minimal on the actual album version. The interplay between guitar and piano is much more playful and improvised than on any of the other tracks.

Proclamation Day

Carl: One of the most challenging songs we did and also the last song we recorded, it ended up one of my favourites. The title is a tribute to Elliott Smith and the lyrics are based on a sonnet I wrote for my mother. It's the album's 'New Ghost'. A mid-tempo tune with a playful drum rhythm and a classic Palace Winter outro.

Caspar: I like how it almost ‘breaks in two’ , and in general I’m a fan of songs that end somewhere totally different than the starting point. It starts in a very traditional way and instrumentation, and ends up almost in state of trance.

Dependence

Carl: A very direct and emotional synth ballad. This was probably the fastest vocal take of the session, as we immediately felt it had the right mood and liked how raw and honest the lyrics were. It's the first half of our 'final act' concept; desperation, yearning, insomnia.

Caspar:Another challenge we gave ourselves: having no guitar, only synth and voice. It’s a very moving song, I think. The most fragile and even ‘vulnerable’ moment that builds into an all-in, widescreen banger with Independence.

Independence

Carl: The second half of the 'final act' it's a liberating banger to bring it all home! Like driving out of a tunnel into a new life. Our goal was for it to seem like it had no end and we wanted to go out with an up-tempo blaster.

Caspar: This was supposed to be a worthy finale, and the moment where all insecurities and worries are left behind. Like surrendering to the beat, letting it carry you forever on an epic wave of synths and jangly guitars!

Palace Winter's Waiting for the World to Turn is out now via Tambourhinoceros