NICK & JUNE Bring Their Cinematic Dreampop To The U.S… New EP Out May 12th
“The almost perfect mix of pop, indie, melancholy, excitement, high altitude and a deep fall…this filigree work of art just makes you happy” – Alternativemusik
“The parallels range from Conor Oberst, to The National to Azure Ray…simply beautiful” – Waste Of Mind
“A pearl… very tender, beautiful indie pop. Mazzy Star meets Lana del Rey, that’s the very best dream pop” – SWR
“Delicate, dreamy, poetic… practically an audiobook” – OK! Magazine
Nuremberg, Germany’s Cinematic and Textural
Nick & June Prep New EP Beach Baby, Baby
Out May 12, 2023
New Single “Hugh Grant & His Consequence” Out Now!
APRIL 11, 2023 (Nuremberg, Germany) – “We have always been inspired by various things to write our songs and stories, from French New Wave to movies by Sofia Coppola, Noah Baumbach, Wes Anderson, Xavier Dolan or Greta Gerwig,” says Nick Wolf of the textural dream pop from German duo NICK & JUNE, whose new EP Beach Baby, Baby will be released independently on May 12, 2023. “During the pandemic, we watched many classics of film and all-time favorites… Maybe that’s why the overall concept of the EP has a cinematic touch.”
Photo credit: Luka Popp
Lushly orchestral with their indie rock in check, Nick & June’s charming and pastoral pop occupies the realm that hosts artists like Beach House, Belle And Sebastian, Angus and Julia Stone, and Bon Iver. Amidst a glittering fog of trilling synthesizers, vibrating organ sounds, and gentle beats with drum pulses, Beach Baby, Baby embeds dark reverb guitars, letting the bittersweet paired voices of Nick and Suzie-Lou Kraft lead the way through euphorically orchestrated restraint and meditative ramifications of thought.
From the gentle piano intro of “Bonjour Tristesse” to Suzie’s hushed, wistful singing of “Anything But Time” to their misty-eyed cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” Beach Baby, Baby is a breezy and buoyant EP hoisted high by the innate chemistry of their musical and vocal interplay. “We wanted to dive deeper into textures, subtle melodies and lyrical creation,” explains Nick about their music. “We wanted to paint the songs in all their facets with melody, lyrics, sound aesthetics.”
Their latest single, the idiosyncratically named “Hugh Grant & His Consequence” finds them reveling in a syncopated and captivating melody that highlights the rather cryptic story behind the song. “We love to play this game with different points of contact – especially if they are perhaps a little misleading at first,” smirks Nick. “We wanted to tell a story between a ‘coming of age’ trope of departure and the melancholy that follows. The poetic persona writes a letter to a former (or maybe a parallel) version to him/herself and that melancholy returns eternally after all. We want to crank up associations. How the listener interprets all this and what happens in the inner cinema? That’s up to you.”
Ending on an otherworldly and lulling reimagining of David Bowie’s “Starman,” they close the EP like end credits of a film. “I have always been a big Bowie fan, so it was clear that there would be a Bowie cover at some point,” Suzie-Lou adds. “The story of the ‘Starman’ fit beautifully into the EP and we immediately had the idea of how to pack our sound and aesthetic into the arrangement.”
Based in Nuremberg, Nick & June started in 2011 and have released two albums – Flavor & Sin (2013) and My November My (2017). Their uniquely vivid and layered folk embedded choirs and brass harbored few inhibitions about freestyling at times – and with singles like “Home Is Where the Heart Hurts, Pt. 1” and “London City, Boy, It’s Killing Me” that morphed into minor indie hits: over 20 million streams, air time on the radio, prime-time TV and even the big screen, in the acclaimed coming-of-age film About a Girl.
Now with Beach Baby, Baby prepped for release on May 12, 2023, Nick & June are ready to tackle the U.S. – a prospect which had eluded them due to the pandemic. “With the last album, we were on tour non-stop for two years all over (Central) Europe,” says Nick, explaining the six year gap since their last album My November My and their new material.
“When we wrapped up, we realized that we needed a break mentally and physically, so we deliberately took a sabbatical. We had planned a big tour including dates in the U.S. but COVID hit and practically everything was canceled.” Hopefully now, the band can build to getting back on the road with a potential trip to America. “We are very excited to see how the EP will be received,” concludes Nick. “We are currently making plans for additional recordings, which will hopefully take place in the States. After that, we hope to tour the US for the first time as well!”
Beach Baby, Baby will be released independently on May 12, 2023.
Beach Baby, Baby
Tracklisting
Bonjour Tristesse (Intro)
Anything But Time
Manic Pixie Dream Girl
Can’t Help Falling in Love
Lip Sync to Love Songs
Hugh Grant & His Consequence
Starman
