LEANN BURKE / THE DEPAUW
Four twenty something’s clad in black apparel and leather jackets take me up to see their studio in the neighborhood of Frederiksberg in Copenhagen, Denmark. We walk up several flights of stairs to the attic; it’s cold and cluttered filled with instruments and amplifiers. The foursome made of Sofie Augustinus, Alex Foersom, Mio Friberg and Mikkel Beck, all under 25, met when they were teenagers. They drifted apart, but last year decided to collaborate on a new project, calling the band St. Augustin.
I first heard St. Augustin at Studenthuset, the bar down the street from my apartment, a frequent hangout for Danish students due to the low priced beer and generally good, local bands. Initially, I was struck by the penetrating voice of front woman Sofie; equal parts soulful and whimsical, wholly eerie. The band produced a dreamy, layered version of pop meets singer-songwriter folk that was unique to my American ears. This was music that isn’t being made anywhere else.
A series of Facebook messages brought me to their couch. Sofie sat pealing a tangerine, Alex chain-smoked while Milo sat perched near the computer. I’m later told he’s the professional one.They showed me what they have recorded so far. We started with Mio’s, the bass player’s favorite song, “I Want What Is Mine.” It builds slowly into a clash of profound, rhythmic expressions, then takes us back to the original more simplistic tones and Sofie’s permeating sounds as she sings, “I want what is mine. I’ve been swimming around. I’ve been waiting too long.” A final, manic jolt of busy, but never sloppy pop finishes the track. “I just want the guitar to not sound like the guitar,” Foersom adds as the song is ending.
My personal favorite, “Crazy,” is little short of therapeutic. The simple, tight drums hold together a song about insanity. The chorus, “I’m sorry, I’m not as crazy as you,” repeats throughout rhythmically, met by a trance like sequence chugging into a piercing final, altered chorus that confronts the truth of the piece, “I’m sorry, I’m just as crazy as you.” The live version I saw at Studenthuset ended in a mash up featuring Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time.” Clean and professionally, they merged the songs in a way that made sense.
“Shut the Blinds” deserves honorable mention for its warm melodies, introspective baselines and nostalgic undercurrents. It’s also the track that best displays the talents of drummer Mikkel Beck. The element of nostalgia is at the core of their sounds. Their music and poetry is reminiscent of a distant experience, somehow familiar but fresh.
Their first EP is yet to be released. The band made the possibly controversial decision to record the whole thing themselves, deciding it was their concept project and their vision of music. Mostly, they didn’t want to be dictated by anyone else on their sound. Foersom revealed, “We want the sound you would get at one of our rehearsals. Untarnished.” Sofie confirmed, “We don’t have machines or computers, no synth. We make music with the instruments we got.”
I left our interview feeling like I do when I listen to their music, a bit sad but better off for it. Haunted by a voice and sound that are near impossible to classify and harder to forget. There is something special about this band and their chilly, melancholic mixtures.
Checkout their Soundcloud and Facebook: https://soundcloud.com/st-augustin, https://www.facebook.com/st.augustin.music