Light By The Sea

With already a few video’s released and a first album on the way (release October 22th) it’s time to find out more about Light By The Sea.

So I asked Anna and Davy to tell us more about the band and the upcoming album “Only Death Makes Icons”.

Please introduce yourself. Who are you, musical backgrounds etc.       

• We are Light By The Sea from The Netherlands. We are lovers of sound and each other. We create music and perform music with a full band behind us. We recorded our first debut album ‘Only Death Makes Icons’ this year which will be released October 22. This is our first baby, and we are really proud of it.

You call yourself “Light By The Sea”. Is there a story behind this name?

• Our favorite place on Earth is by the sea. Especially in Croatia, where this name came across our minds, firstly. On the beautiful island of Hvar, we knew that By The Sea will be our name, we just waited for the perfect word as a preface. The word ‘Light’ came to us, when we had our camping weekend on Texel, next to the lighthouse

Is “Light By the Sea” a project you did just for fun during the Covid pandemic or is something we can hear more about in future?

• It gives us so much happiness and adventure in life. For sure, there will be more albums coming up, also, we want to tour as much as possible across the planet.

I know that Anna and you are playing in other bands also. Will you both continuing playing in those bands also?

• Anna: Ann my Guard is my personal musical self-realization which I’ve been doing for 14 years. I have a metal set up with a complete band, also, I was able to tour in a Solitary Session acoustic set during the pandemic with restrictions. Like myself, Ann my Guard is always transforming itself into different style within the metal and dark atmospheric music genre. I have many new ideas regarding the future, but right now, I don’t push myself to record a fifth album in a year. I want to create something special in calmness, never-commercial, just pure art. Ann my Guard is my feminine sanctuary.

Also, with the metal set we are currently busy with some new shows both in Hungary and in The Netherlands. So yes, I am doing two productions at the same time, but I am enjoying it so much as they are both 100% me.

Davy: I’ll still be playing in other bands as well (Cloudmen). But the complete focus will be on Light By The Sea since this is our lovechild.

Davy you’re a guitar player and I know Anna plays the bass. Are there other instruments you’re playing also?

• Davy: We both do, since we wrote all the instruments for the songs. My core instrument is the guitar, but as a child I dove into drums. On an early stage I started with drum lessons, so I still have the basic skills as a drummer. This knowledge is ideal for writing a solid rhythm. I also play keys and percussion.
  • Anna: I play flute and keys on the album. I am trained classical flutist graduated in a conservatorium.

The album which will be released October 22th is called “Only Death Makes Icons”. What’s the story behind the title?

• Anna: We wanted to play a tribute to the philosophers, writers, poets, actors and musicians who we look up to. Most of them have had a very eventful and tragic life. With this title we want to express our respect towards these great humans, also claiming, that in our current world, there are less and less brave artists who can inspire us with saying whatever they want. Judging others and censorship have become a common thing when it comes to art. Humans like to play God, although self-awareness and reaching enlightment is something yet to work on for each of us. But most people don’t want to realize this fact. They think that they are perfect. When death grabs you and you leave a life behind will qualify your temporary existence in our world. The question is whether your life will keep inspire other generations or your work will disappear as it didn’t have universal qualities to pass on.

There are a lot of different musical influences to hear on the album. Why such different songs?

• We don’t think they are so different, just listen to a Dire Straits, The Doors, or David Bowie discography, and you realize that back in the times to experiment with different sound and genres meant courage and true artistic expression. For us, the sitar can take place on the same album on which you hear modern drum lines.

Are you influenced by particular artists when you were writing the songs?

• For sure and we’re definitely not hiding that! One of our goals is to bring back the forgotten sound of artists that inspired us. Think of artists like Dead Can Dance, Clannad, Phill Collins, The Dandy Warhols, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Fleetwood Mac and The Verve.

Who produced the album?

• The amazing Eddy Bopp produced, mixed and mastered our debut album. It was an amazing experience to work with this creative mind. Eddy is a great addition to our sound and he translated all our crazy ideas into to practical ideas. 

When you have to describe the album in just one word, what will that word be?

• Love

How was it to write music during the pandemic?

• It was the smoothest, most-elevating experience we’ve ever had in terms of creating an album with someone else. Our musical chemistry works exceptionally good.

You already released a few sings from the album. Is there a reason why you did this?

• To tease the fans until the release.

What is your favorite number on the album?

• Davy: It’s hard to pick a favorite track of course because all the tracks are our little babies that were created out off nothing and they’ve just started in our minds. They all evolved to complete tracks with their own character. If I would have to pick one, it would Eleanor. This was the first track I wrote and it was the trigger for Anna to start writing lyrics, not even knowing that this would be part of Light By The Sea. We just wrote for fun with no strings attached, till we realized in Croatia that we had to do something with it, because we’re constantly listening to it and filosofing about the starting a band. So we can say, it all started with ‘Eleanor’.

I saw you two on stage some time ago. Can we see you on stage again soon?

• For sure, and we can’t wait to be on stage with the full band. From October the 15^th we’ll start with our clubtour through The Netherlands and after that we’ll head off to Budapest. There are a lot of other plans regarding to a EU clubtour, but we can’t tell too much about that already. For us this will be the first time truly playing together with a band. You might have already caught us on stage with our acoustic Light By The Sea show or the Solitary Sessions of Anna’s Ann My Guard. It’s such a pleasure to create and play music together. And the moment we’re on stage, we are in our happy place and we’re together.

Will there be a release party?

• There will be a whole release tour, but Mezz [Breda] on October the 24^th will be our official release party since Breda is our hometown.

Which other musicians can we hear or the album?

• You can hear several musicians on the album. You’ll hear Kai Liebrand on bass, Dirk Schonk on drums and Stephen den Dolder on percussion. Eddy Bopp will also be heard on the album with his majestic backing vocals. We can’t be more happy that we could work with those amazing musicians.

What are your future plans?

• To make better and better albums, to tour as much as we can and to keep enjoying and celebrating music and life together until we die.