La Lusid prepare for debut album with the lush indie pop of "Gran Canaria"

With their debut album due out at the end of September, their new single "Gran Canaria" is the latest sample to emerge from it, and it sees them use that sound for its maximum value. "Gran Canaria" is one of those songs that sounds like an old classic on first listen.

It's a beautifully arranged song, with every guitar touch and drum beat exactly where it needs to be. Combine that with Palmgren's vocal, that wrenches every bit of emotion possible out of the song, and possibly their best chorus to date, and you've got a track that doesn't just sound like a classic, but might well become one. Listen above, and check out a Q'n'A with the band below.

BEST FIT: Your debut full-length album is just around the corner, how does it feel to be on the brink of releasing it and what can you tell us about record?

LA LUSID: "We’ve been working with this album for nine months; it’s our baby coming out this September. It feels pretty good. In the beginning, when we released our debut-EP, we really tried hard to make the songs sound a specific way, with specific sounds, but on this album we tried to let the songs guide us and not the opposite. Each song gets to stand out a little more from the rest now. Every one of us has been very involved in the process of writing and arranging, so it feels really nice to really show our listeners what we’re like."

Can you tell us a little about "Gran Canaria", and how the song came together?

"At a really early point, when we started recording, we decided that we wanted to make a song that would make a proper grand finale. A song that you play while the curtains close and where you get to thank everyone involved in an improvised speech during the last chorus, while everyone puts their lit lighters in the air. Even though it’s pretty noisy and grand, we wanted to keep the vocals and lyrics vulnerable and sentimental. A gentle crescendo, that is."

You mentioned in an earlier interview that you all write using a Dropbox folder of mutual ideas, how does that process work?

"It’s THE BEST TOOL for us. All of us write songs and upload demos every week into our shared folder. We’re not sponsored or anything, but that way you don’t get to see everyone’s reaction to a demo or a song that is not very good. No one gets hurt. You get to be super honest and we don’t have to talk to each other in real life. Fabian decided that we should buy bigger online space, and bought the premium-VIP-version which cost us about 700€, even though we needed only one percent of the total space we got. Really great deal and a big tip for all digital songwriters."

"Gran Canaria" feels more grand, more epic than the earlier singles. Do you feel like this is the ‘big’ La Lusid song?

"Not really. We feel that it’s a suitable last single before the album drops, as we mentioned earlier. The end of our singles run. It’s not really like anything we’ve released before, you’re totally right, and that is of course exciting. It’s pretty epic, but more in the music than in the lyrics and it’s overall meaning. Like faux fur. We feel like we have another ten years ahead of us before we get to release the truly BIG La Lusid song."

When you began as La Lusid, you released tracks mostly in Swedish, but it seems that now you’re leaning towards that majority of your songs being in English. Any reason for the change?

"At first, when we were just 'Lusid' but had to add a 'La' not to get sued by an American trance DJ who trademarked the name many years ago, we just wrote songs for ourselves and our friends. But we realised that not too many people know Swedish except for us Swedes, so we wanted to be able to get to the greater masses. We’ve learnt a lot of English through free apps and online games and Paulina has watched the entire series of Friends without subs, so we feel like we’re ready for this. Sometimes with lyrics, your native tongue feels a bit too close to everyday speech, so we wanted to try something a little more special."

Finally, what’s happening after the album comes out?

"We are going to play a lot live. We’re actually doing a couple of shows in the UK!!! But mostly we’re going to play around in Sweden. We also want to continue writing more songs, even though these new ones haven’t even seen daylight, but we really like hanging out in our studio 'The Ghost House' (Spökhuset). We’re going to go on a well-earned vacation to the Canary Islands and spend our royalties.