The Next Wave: Smerz
These rising stars have genre-defying sounds and the ambition to make it big. We're all ears.
These rising stars have genre-defying sounds and the ambition to make it big. We're all ears.
This article originally appeared in V109, on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg met in their Norwegian high school. During a post-grad gap year, they moved to Denmark, took music classes, and started writing songs together. Three years ago, it actually started to seem like a legitimate career pursuit. But Stoltenberg reveals that "it never felt like a serious decision, we're still a bit surprised." Sonically, the two lean towards "R&B melodies with a club element," explains Motzfeldt, citing Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, and Rihanna, plus a more recent interest in electronica, as influences. They recently signed with XL Recordings, and now count Adele, Radiohead, and M.I.A. among their labelmates. "It's important for us to be able to just make whatever we feel like, whether that's pop or straight-up club music," Stoltenberg affirms. Their second EP is due out this fall.
