The Birth of ERNST Songs

We’re continuing our special series on the album creation process, this time talking about how our songs for this album have been coming to life.

Part 2: How our songs come to be

Right, where do you start when making a cake? 🥮

You first create the base for it — the filling and the icing come later (unless I got this wrong and I really am a terrible baker 😶)

The same applies to the song creation process. You need a basis to work with, which is at least some lyrics and/or a basic melody. This is where Dan and Nicki usually come in.

Dan often has a melody ready in his head whereas Nicki loves scribbling texts, thoughts or phrases in her little notebook. When the mood is right, these two sit down and see whether the melody is “in love with” certain lyrics/vocal melodies and vice versa.

Well, sometimes they aren’t 💔 and we need to let them be (or the melody comes back in a different lyrical outfit at a later time, as was the case with Neue Saiten). However, more often than not, they are made for each other which might feel like giving birth to… okay, I’ll stop right here with this analogy! 😬

Elias, Ralf and Philipp will usually arrive at the second part of the process, adding some delicious filling to the song-cake.

At this stage, the arrangement of the song happens: We create an overall structure, combining elements such as melody, harmony, and rhythm (including tempo!), building up the instrumentation.

An ingenious bass line from Elias then rests perfectly on Philipp’s drum foundations. Ralf adds a certain grungy weirdness with his guitar hooks (and boy, does he love his lap steel and guitar solos!). Dan’s synth lines have an 80s touch but he loves experimenting with organ and other synth sounds.

It doesn’t stop there, though.

We still need to put the icing on the song! We really love it when Elias brings his cello to the songwriting sessions. Haunting harmonies from Nicki and little guitar and synth/piano embellishments are also part of the ERNST icing.

You might ask: is there a difference to writing songs for this album than for your usual songs?

The answer is: No, not really.

The songs that we have written over the last two years and are still performing live because we love them so much (🥰), will be packed onto the album. There is only one song that is still in the making and not even the biggest of our fans have heard yet. 🤫

Shall we put that cake in the oven?

Well, stay tuned: next time, we’ll be talking about how Mario Fartacek, our producer, sets the right temperature for the ERNST song to be born the way you know it from Spotify (and soon, on vinyl!).

What else is coming up?

Thanks for crossing your fingers since the last newsletter 🤞 (We hope they haven’t fallen off yet! 😅)

We will be playing an acoustic gig at the Austrian Cultural Forum in London on 5th December before heading up to Manchester on the 7th for Year’s End Fest. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Hooray — back to the UK!

A goodbye, but not for long...

Thanks so much for reading and for your interest in us as a band and our music. We really appreciate you took the time and hope you had fun with the extra content!

Lots of love,

ERNST 💗💛💜