Fallulah unveils "Perfect Tense" single, talks new album and not listening to Bob Dylan

This is the third album from Fallulah (and the first released outside of Scandinavia) following 2010's The Black Cat Neighbourhood and 2013's Escapism, this time recorded in London with producer Liam Howe. Having already given us the "punchy pop" of "Social Club" (a former Best Fit Song of the Day) and the slow-jam sensuality of "Ghostfriend" and "Sorrow Is A Shadow" our fourth taster comes in the shape of the album's title track, "Perfect Tense".

It's the opening track on Perfect Tense and just like her first single it's packed with hooks, has a massive sing-along chorus that asks us to live in the moment, even if things don't always make sense. Best Fit spoke to Maria Apetri, the woman behind Fallulah, to find our more about the album, hair decisions and her plans for the rest of the year. You can listen to "Perfect Tense" after the interview, below.

How are you Maria?

“I'm great! The whole press thing is starting again; it’s so funny, it’s been three years between my albums so I kinda forget what all this is like! To talk about yourself and your music all the time…”

So what’s been happening between Escapism in 2013 and the forthcoming present tense, have you been constantly writing?

“Yeah, no breaks! I’ve been writing pretty much constantly. The songs were ready a while ago, I went to London to record and then I continued to write songs after that which I wanted on the album too. It’s an ongoing process, you have to decide when it’s done. I’ve been travelling a lot and writing, just keeping busy. I like travel because it really inspires me.”

Do your songs get influenced by place?

“I’m not sure if you can tell in the music; my songs definitely have different themes in them and whenever I do an album I want the songs to be quite different. I don’t want it to ever be boring or predictable for the listener…when you hear the songs unified I want it to describe me as an artist but I want each of them [on their own] to be quite different. I think when I was in Los Angeles, though, that created a sound which was more dreamy and chilled. When you go to LA it’s all sunshine and you feel like you’re in a movie!”

Perfect Tense is a very eclectic record...

“That’s important to me, I always want it to feel natural and never force a sound. I just let myself go where the music wants me to go. I feel like I’m being led by the inspiration.”

The two singles before this one, “Social Club” and “Ghostfriend” show two very different sides to you – one is extremely fun and poppy, the other shows a more sensual Fallulah…

“They are quite different songs, that’s for sure! I think that’s a good preview of what to expect from the album. The songs are different and that’s a good thing to communicate from the beginning, so it’s interesting to see what kind of fans I get from that as well. It’s something I’ve always done, making sure each track is different to the next. Although I am told I’m very recognisable in my sound!”

You have your hair dyed two different colours right now, does that match the various sides on show in Perfect Tense?

“It’s funny, the vision for the hair came a long time before I actually did it! I’m normally so safe with my hairstyle I never had the courage [to dye it] but I finally did it, just to have a fun graphic element to my look, something to play with and something new. It’s part of being an artist, to experiment, and it definitely shows two different sides to me – it’s cool to play with the visual side.”

The visual side seems very important to you, from your own look to the videos to your interest in fashion; do you think it inspires the music or vice versa?

“I don’t think you can completely separate those things; I always have pictures in my mind when I’m writing, so the visual side and the music goes hand in hand. Music videos are so important; some people don’t seem to be into making them anymore but I love the visual side. To me, it makes a lot of sense to incorporate my personal style…but I don’t want to be known mainly for my appearance or image. The music is the most important thing and everything else can come afterwards.”

What’s your writing process, do you write alone or with anyone?

“My first album I wrote completely by myself but I started experiencing co-writing when I started working out of London. It was really intimidating for me at the beginning because I never wanted to invite anybody else into my creative process – I was scared it wouldn’t be me [at the end] or something. I learned to let go of the control a little bit and it turned out it ends up as still completely me, I’m still the one who writes the lyrics! But it’s invigorating to have someone to bounce ideas off and discuss things with, and that’s really interesting. So now I go between writing by myself at home in Copenhagen and travelling and writing with different people.”

Would you like to write for anyone?

“Oh yeah, absolutely! Back when I started writing I was so shy and I had a lot of stage fright, so I never thought I would be the one singing my songs. I just imagined I would be a song writer; but the songs came out so personal that I couldn’t give them away and I said to myself “well, I just have to get over my fear”. But now I do think it’s really fun to write for other people – I guess it’s like playing dress-up or something, you imagine yourself as someone else…and I do have a broad taste in music so that would be fun to explore!”

That broad taste in music shows in the song title “Bob Dylan” – are you a fan?

“I’m not against Bob Dylan at all but I actually don’t know any of his music! I didn’t grow up with parents who listened to music so everything I do listen to I had to discover for myself. It’s just a commentary on how everyone can be a brand and try to sell themselves all the time. You can’t really recognise who’s a brand and who isn’t on, for example, Instagram. It’s one of those things where you don’t know if you’re looking at a commercial or not, it’s really problematic. I mean, I’m part of the music industry so it’s not a song where I’m pointing fingers, I’m raising some questions.”

What are your plans for the rest of 2016?

“Right now we’re working on some tour dates outside of Denmark. We have some Danish tour dates for the Spring so I’m trying to find out where I should go and play. I’m really hoping to tour a lot, I enjoy it so much. I’m so eager!”

Perfect Tense is available for pre-order now, and out 26 February on Instant Records.