SKYE NEWMAN *SE9 Part 2, Healing, Identity and Taking Back Power

Why Skye Newman Had to Return to SE9

interview + written KLAAS HAMMER

With SE9 Part 2, available to stream on Spotify, Skye Newman delivers her most personal work to date. Exploring identity, inherited trauma, healing and self-discovery, the project transforms deeply intimate experiences into stories that resonate far beyond her own. In conversation with LE MILE, she reflects on the making of the record, the courage it takes to embrace vulnerability, the importance of setting boundaries, and the everyday inspirations that continue to shape her creative world.

Skye Newman
/ Sony Music

Skye Newman
/ Sony Music

Klaas Hammer
"SE9 Part 2" is named after the postcode that shaped your childhood. Looking back, what are the most important lessons and experiences from SE9 that still influence the artist and woman you are today?

Skye Newman
Looking back, the most important lessons and experiences from SE9 that still influence the artist and woman I am today are probably the ones I talk about in “Vicious Cycle” and “Too Far South.” Those two, in particular, really stand out to me because they’re about taking back my power, finding more strength in myself, and facing things that I didn’t necessarily feel comfortable facing a little while back.

I think they carry really important lessons in life. It’s about trying to do our best for the next generation and making sure we become better versions of ourselves before we have children. We need to be aware of how much the way we view ourselves affects our children. And “Too Far South” is also about being selfish with your life in the best way. I think so many people don’t realize that you need to put yourself first before you can be the best version of yourself for the people you love and the ones around you.

There are so many important messages throughout the project. You can definitely hear even more by just listening and really taking in the music.

Throughout the project, you explore themes such as inherited trauma, identity and emotional survival with remarkable honesty. Was there a particular song on the record that felt especially difficult—or liberating—to write?

There were definitely a few songs on the album that felt more difficult to write, but also incredibly freeing at the same time: “Too Far South,” “Traumatised,” “Vicious Cycle,” and I think “Family Matters” is a big one. I got to process a lot of emotion and heal so much through writing this album, which was such an incredible experience. That’s why I love music so much, and I’m so happy that my music has reached people and carried the message I wanted to share: that no matter where you come from or what you’re facing in life, you can do whatever you believe in. You just have to believe in yourself to get where you want to go.

So yeah, there were definitely times when I struggled in the studio. And I think “Woman I Am,” as beautiful as the song is, was definitely a turning point in my life. It was a moment where I realized how incredible women are and how amazing it is to have that love around me, but also to acknowledge the struggles I’ve had to go through in order to truly realize that.
But yeah, it was such a beautiful experience and such an amazing thing to be able to write about, so I’m very lucky.

Skye Newman
/ Sony Music

Skye Newman
/ Sony Music

One of your greatest strengths as a songwriter is transforming deeply personal experiences into stories that feel universally relatable. As your audience continues to grow, how do you balance vulnerability with the need to protect parts of your private life?

I would definitely say this is one of the hardest parts of my job: trying to balance vulnerability with the need to protect my private life and my own personal business. It can definitely be a struggle at times. Facing a lot of these issues in such a public space can be really, really scary, and I do get people overstepping boundaries or digging too deep into things. But I think you just have to trust the process, write your music, allow yourself to heal through it, and simply not answer questions you don’t feel comfortable with.

I’ve been in interviews where certain things have been said or questions have been asked, and I’ve just thought, “I’m not comfortable with that.” And I think that’s okay. It’s important to set boundaries. It’s definitely hard sometimes because there are certain subjects you may want to talk about more, but then it becomes a domino effect—more questions, more attention, and more people trying to get too deeply into your personal life.

I think you just have to set those boundaries and be aware that people are going to pry and people are going to want to know, but that doesn’t mean you have to tell them. Just do what you’re comfortable with.

Beyond music, what currently inspires you the most—whether it’s books, films, fashion, art or everyday moments—and how do those influences find their way into your creative world?

Beyond music, so many things influence and inspire me. That goes for films, clothing, my personal style, and fashion—I love it so much! I love putting an outfit together because it expresses how I’m feeling that day or the stage of life I’m currently going through. I definitely think all of that plays a part in creating my art. I think it all builds towards creating who you are as a brand and who you are as an artist to the world. I think a lot of people connect with my style and my love for fashion, and it allows me to share a little more of my story.

I also take so much inspiration from the people around me every day and from my experiences with them. Even a small conversation with a stranger can be inspiring. There’s so much inspiration in the world if you just step outside and talk to people. It’s crazy how much you can discover, and it’s such a beautiful experience that I then get to turn into music. So yeah, I’m very, very lucky. As I said, it’s amazing—and thank you guys for always giving me inspiration.

---

all images courtesy of Sony Music

Régina Demina Shares Her Camera Roll: During the Making of SCRT

#ThePersonalEdit

Régina Demina Opens Her Camera Roll During the Making of SCRT

written LE MILE

For this edition of The Personal Edit, Régina Demina shares a selection of personal images captured during the making of her EP SCRT. Recorded and developed between studio sessions, travels and moments away from the spotlight, the photographs offer a glimpse into the period that shaped her latest release.

Loup, my beloved friend and head of my label Hise, during the shooting of “Osaka Yama”. We edited and colour-graded it the night after. We did everything together during that period. I love her.

Based in Paris, Demina works across music, performance and visual art, building a sound that draws together pop, cloud rap, trap and witch house while reflecting influences from rave culture, suburban landscapes and her Eastern European roots. With SCRT, available to stream on Spotify, she approaches songwriting like a private diary, balancing intimacy with experimentation.

Shared directly from her camera roll and paired with her own captions, The Personal Edit follows the people, places and everyday moments surrounding the creation of SCRT, revealing the creative process through Demina's own perspective.

The original drawing I did in Japan last year, which I used for the cover of the SCRT EP. We reframed it and made it darker digitally with my friend Guillaume Hugon, Head of the creative agency Golgotha. We kept the original close-up for the alternative version of the EP, with slowed and sped-up versions.

The original version of another drawing of mine. I used the detail of the two faces kissing for the first single of the SCRT EP, “Oui ou Oui ou Non”, which I recorded with Vialice, whom I met at a rave in Paris. He lives in Chicago.

Vialice during his gig ans Paris

In a hotel room in Switzerland, during a film festival. I was acting in a film called Une chambre à elle by Lucie Martinez Garcia. During this trip, I rewrote the lyrics for “Cursed Words”, the last song on the EP. The song was not directly linked to the trip. The text was originally written three years ago, but I enjoy the space and bored time alone in hotels to write.

Me and Loup working on a song during a concert in a church Metz

On the way to the Hise studio in Montmagny, I had to bring my Focusrite in my handbag because the one at the studio had crashed. We had to finish the masters and some mixes that day.

Inside the Cathédrale de Metz. We shot the music video for “Osaka Yama” outside because I love churches, gothic things and Yung Lean.

A selfie to check my makeup before a showcase. I tried to recreate the makeup my friend Jennifer Lecorre often does for me. It’s cute, but her pencils are unmatched, and I missed her that day. The cute top is from my friend Harmony Coryn. I like being dolled up by my favourite people.

Loup and Jennifer in my building, searching for melodies for the unplugged versions of the EP. I’m happy Jenny was there that day because she gave me very cute glam, and we shot some reels for Instagram. She is like my sister now and was one of my first loves when I was a teenager. Today, she feels like family.

My nails freshly done and my favourite bag, thrifted in Japan, on the day of the EP release. I needed a small treat after all the hard work.

My favourite picture together with Loup. My booker Florence took it with a Polaroid.

all images
(c) Régina Demina

DRAGON PONY *South Korea’s Rising K-Pop Band

DRAGON PONY
When Four Players Collapse Into One Sound

interview + written AMANDA MORTENSON

Dragon Pony belong to a generation of South Korean bands quietly reopening the space for guitars, drums and collective noise inside a musical ecosystem famous for precision pop engineering. Formed by Ahn Tae-gyu, Kwon Se-hyuk, Pyun Sung-hyun and Ko Gang-hun, the four-piece operates within a musical landscape long dominated by tightly produced pop systems. Their work moves in a different direction, built around live instrumentation, collective songwriting and the physical intensity of performance, Dragon Pony position the band itself as the central creative unit.

total look OKIIO LOUNGE

shirt FOURONESIXZERO tie + jacket ARCHIVE

Each member brings a distinct role into that structure. Tae-gyu’s voice anchors the group’s melodic direction, Se-hyuk’s guitar frames its tonal identity, Sung-hyun’s bass provides the gravitational core, while Gang-hun’s drumming defines the band’s rhythmic architecture. Together, these elements produce a sound shaped as much by chemistry as by composition.

The band’s thinking about music often extends beyond technical language and performance becomes a shared environment where stage and audience collapse into a single moment of exchange. In this conversation with LE MILE, Dragon Pony reflect on sound, time, collaboration and the subtle mechanics that allow four musicians to merge into one evolving presence.

total looks MONTSENU

Amanda Mortenson
When the four of you walk into a room together, what kind of silence follows you — quiet curiosity, anticipation, or something else entirely?

Ahn Tae-gyu
Before a show, I think it’s a “silence of preparation and excitement,” where anticipation and nervousness coexist - hoping that everything we’ve prepared will be delivered well to everyone who came to see us. And after the show, it feels like a “silence of reflection,” as we slowly let the heat and energy from the stage settle and look back on whether Dragon Pony’s message and energy truly came through.

Tae-gyu, if your voice could melt and take a new shape, what would it become when it cools again?

Ahn Tae-gyu
If I borrow the idea of melting and taking on a new form, I think when it solidifies again it would become something like an even harder metal. The stories and emotions that melt and flow through me would eventually become stronger, more solid.

Ko Gang-hun, drummers often speak through impact. What’s the most delicate sound you’ve ever tried to create — and did anyone notice?

Ko Gang-hun
I don’t think the sounds I make are very close to “delicacy,” so I haven’t had many experiences like that! But one thing comes to mind. When I fall for a drummer, I tend to try to imitate everything about him very meticulously - their motions, gestures, even the tone of their kit.
There was a time when I was completely captivated by Thomas Hedlund, the session drummer for the band Phoenix, and I was trying to copy everything about his playing. During that period, a fan once told me that my snare tone reminded them of Thomas’s snare, and I still remember that.

total looks OKIIO LOUNGE

total looks ARCHIVE

total look ERREUNO

What’s the most unexpected sound you’ve ever decided to keep in a song?

Pyun Sung-hyun
Before recording bass, I once accidentally captured some noise. I liked the feel of it, so I sampled it and used it as an FX sound.

Sung-hyun, you once said the bass feels like gravity. What happens when you want to escape it?

Pyun Sung-hyun
Whenever I want to escape that gravity, I do my own personal work - taking photos or videos, or trying to make new music. I step away from what’s familiar for a moment and do the things I personally want to do.

Imagine Dragon Pony performing for someone who’s never experienced music before. How would you describe what’s about to happen — without using words like song, beat, or emotion?

Kwon Se-hyuk
(Dragon Pony = 4 / The people joining the show = X)
(4 + X) = 1
Thump thump thump, boom boom boom, waaaah ÷ (4 + X) = ♡

(Interpretation: When Dragon Pony and the audience come together, they become one - and when that show ends, what remains is love.)

total look FOURONESIXZERO

Se-hyuk, if your guitar suddenly refused to play anything “beautiful,” where would you take it to make peace?

Kwon Se-hyuk
I’d take the guitar to the cinema, into nature, to see people - and to meet the people who’ve been waiting for our music - and then come back.

Who in the band has the best relationship with time and who’s always challenging it?

Ko Gang-hun The person who gets along best with time - and the one who has to - is probably me, the drummer. Because drums are tempo itself.
And the person who goes against time - and has to do it well - is Tae-gyu, our vocalist. Sometimes it’s amazing when sounds are played precisely and meticulously inside the tempo, but there are also times when what feels best is playing freely and comfortably without being obsessed with tempo - and I think that’s something unique to the human voice.

There’s always one instant on stage when you stop being four people and turn into one sound. What triggers that moment for you?

Kwon Se-hyuk
I think the time we’ve spent playing together and living together is what allows us to come together as one. That collective synergy is the band’s identity, and depending on what kinds of times we continue to share, we’ll keep growing and changing.

total look ARCHIVE

When your fans sing louder than you, does it feel like letting go or expanding together?

Ahn Tae-gyu
It’s a feeling that’s hard to put into words. In that moment, it’s not just our performance anymore - it expands to include the audience, and it becomes a moment where everyone is playing together. It’s one of the moments that makes me truly happy.

Looking ahead — five, ten, maybe twenty years — what kind of story do you hope people will tell about Dragon Pony: a quiet legend, or a vivid one?

Ahn Tae-gyu
In the end, I want to be remembered as a vivid story. But at the same time, I hope that everything we leave behind through the stage and our music stays with people - and that when time has passed, it might also become a kind of legend someone can quietly take out and revisit.

Pyun Sung-hyun
I want Dragon Pony to be remembered with the image of “a band that burned hot.”

Kwon Se-hyuk
I hope we can simply be Dragon Pony as we are - and that, in our own way, that can shine fiercely.

Ko Gang-hun
It still feels far away for me to imagine, since we haven’t been a band for long. But if I think about it, the bands I respect - like Foo Fighters and Oasis - have all expressed their stories vividly to the world, and they still are. So I think it would be amazing if we could become like that too.

total look OKIIO LOUNGE

total look ERREUNO

---

photography KANG MINJE
photo assistants LEE AHREUM + LEE JAEHO + YOO JIHOON
videography CHOI SEUNGWON
1st ac PARK HWANPIL
b cam KIM DONGHEE
fashion KIM HYUNJEONG
fashion assistant PARK CHEOLBEEN
fashion pr KIM HEEWON
hair LEE SEUNGJOON
make up LEE JEONGWON
band DRAGON PONY
talents AN TAEGYU + PYUN SUNGHYUN + KWON SEHYUK + KO GANGHUN

Mulaa Shares Her Camera Roll: On Love Letter, Touring and Finding Her Voice

#ThePersonalEdit

Mulaa Joans Opens Her Camera Roll from Her First International Shows

written KLAAS HAMMER

For this edition of the Personal Edit, Mulaa Joans gives us a glimpse into what life is really like for a young rising artist. Between soundchecks, fan meet-ups, radio interviews, and visits to all kinds of venues, things never get boring. The singer has already caused quite a buzz on social media. She has more than 400,000 followers on TikTok, and her song “Love Letter” alone has been streamed millions of times, with over 50,000 posts created using her sound. To get to know her a little better, she answered a few questions for us.

My first international radio interview in Amsterdammm
photo / QMusic

Klaas Hammer
How did you first get into music, and which artists inspired you the most in your early days?

Mulaa Joans
I got into music because I think I was born with it. I always felt so inspired by and close to the songs my dad and I listened to. He used to play artists like Prince and Pink Floyd. But I really started singing because my mom used to sing to me every night before I went to sleep. It was something she loved to do, and girls love being like their mums. I wanted to be like her and sing. We still sing together to this day. It’s so cute.

What does a typical songwriting session look like for you, and what tends to inspire your songs the most?

I often write songs or melody ideas and concepts in my bedroom, or while sitting by my window, to YouTube beats. It was something I always used to do when I was little because I can’t play any instruments, but I really like that I still implement that in my songwriting today. I then usually take those ideas into sessions with the people I work with, and we make the song better. I’m inspired by literally everything. I think as I’m growing up, I’m learning how to speak about things that may have happened to me in the past, things that maybe I wasn’t ready to speak about when I was younger. But I’m also very inspired by film. I often write songs based on films or TV storylines.

Your music has been all over our feeds, with videos and edits with millions of views using your song “Love Letter.” Why do you think the track connects so strongly, and what is it about it that resonates with so many people?

I honestly think it’s because the lyrics are so blunt and honest, and often people are scared to say exactly how they feel. I’ve always been a very confrontational and blunt person, so I think it comes across in my songwriting. People relate to it because it’s something they feel they want to say to someone in their life, but don’t feel like they can. The song gives them an outlet for that.

Looking back so far, what has been the most memorable moment of your career?

I think the most memorable moment of my career has been my show in Amsterdam. I can’t even express to you how crazy it is that people in another country are singing the lyrics to my songs that aren’t even out yet. That is just actually mad. The fans were so nice, and I really loved getting to stay and chat with them.

Signing my setlists for a newfound fan!!

Claws out for my headline in Amsterdam! It was unbelievable, I loved every second

Visiting a venue I can only dream of playing in Brussels one dayyyy

Fan meet-up in Amsterdam! This blew my mind, and I can’t wait to come back

A moment for the Paris fit… This skirt I will be buried in

One of my fav shots from tour, taken by a very talented fan, @shotbyninte
photo / Ninte Hogeslag

Backstage pouts, ’cause it’s my go-to face 🤫

This was my first time seeing my name in lightssss… WTF

Smiley soundcheck with Kent on the keysss

all images
(c) Mulaa Joans

ELMIENE *That’s How Elmiene Lets Songs Become Someone Else’s

That’s How Elmiene Lets Songs Become Someone Else’s

interview + written KLAAS HAMMER

Elmiene proves that the future of neo-soul and contemporary R&B is in good hands. With his gentle voice, smooth production, and emotionally raw, poetic songwriting, the British-Sudanese artist blends modern sounds with a sense of nostalgia. His track “Someday” perfectly captures this signature style.

His rise began unexpectedly when a viral 2021 cover of D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)” caught the attention of producer Lil Silva, marking a turning point in his career. Since then, he has released several EPs and standout singles, earning recognition such as a top-five placement in the BBC Sound of 2024 poll and a BRIT Award nomination for Rising Star.

Following a steady stream of releases, including his 2026 single “Reclusive,” Elmiene now offers a first glimpse into the next chapter of his artistry with his debut album „sounds for someone“.


Elmiene / photographed by Andres Castillo

Klaas Hammer
The title of your album, “sounds for someone,” feels almost like an open-ended idea as if your music is speaking for or to someone specific. Who is that “someone” to you?

Elmiene
I don’t think it’s ever been one fixed person, you know. The songs feel like they belong to me at first, and then once they’re out, they don’t anymore—they become whoever needs them. So ‘someone’ could be anyone. It could be me at a certain time, it could be someone I’ve loved, or someone I’ve lost. I liked leaving it open, because I want the music to find people where they are, rather than telling them who it’s for.

You were born in Frankfurt, raised in Oxford and have Sudanese roots - three very different cultural spaces. How do these influences show up in your music and shape the way you create?

I think those different places show up more in how I feel than in anything obvious. Growing up in Oxford, I was quite internal, quite observant—I spent a lot of time in my own head, and that definitely shaped how I write. And then Sudan is more like memory and inheritance. It’s family, it’s stories, it’s emotion that’s been passed down. So the music becomes this mix of introspection and legacy—trying to understand what’s mine and what’s been given to me.

Listening to your recent work, there’s a strong sense of intimacy and introspection. What themes or inner tensions were you trying to explore or make sense of in this project? And can you tell us a bit about the recording process behind the album?

This project was me trying to sit with a lot of different emotions at once. I felt lonely sometimes, I felt loved sometimes, I felt guilty, I felt forgiven—it was quite overwhelming at points. A lot of it comes back to love and loss, especially around my dad, and just trying to make sense of memory. I wanted it to be really honest, even in the smallest moments, like zooming in on things that might seem insignificant but actually carry a lot. The recording process was quite instinctive—we weren’t chasing perfection, just trying to capture something real before it disappeared.

Elmiene / photographed by Andres Castillo

When watching you perform, what stands out is not only the warmth and emotion in your voice, but also a very natural stage presence. Did you always feel like the stage was where you belong, or is that something you grew into over time?

I think I grew into it over time. I never really saw myself as someone who was meant to be on stage—it felt quite distant at first. But then I realised performing is just an extension of the song. I’m not trying to be anything different up there, I’m just singing something that means a lot to me. And I think that’s what makes it feel natural now—there’s no performance on top of it, it’s just the feeling.

Your music often feels like a very direct emotional outlet, almost like a diary set to sound. Are there things you find you can only express through music, but not in conversation?

Yeah, definitely. There are things I wouldn’t know how to say in conversation, or maybe I just wouldn’t feel comfortable saying them. With music, you can sit in a feeling without having to explain it or resolve it. You can contradict yourself, you can be vulnerable in a way that doesn’t need to be justified. It’s the only place where I feel like I can be completely honest.

With your family roots in Sudan, a country currently facing significant challenges, how does that reality shape your perspective as an artist? Do you feel a responsibility to reflect or respond to it through your music?

It’s always present in some way. Even when I’m not speaking about it directly, it shapes how I see things—family, identity, everything really. I don’t feel like I have to make explicit statements all the time, but I do feel a responsibility to be honest and to carry that part of me properly. If I’m telling my story truthfully, then Sudan is already in it. And if that resonates with someone or makes them feel seen, then that’s important.

seen by Andres Castillo
talent Elmiene
thanks to Cherry

CHARLOTTE DAY WILSON *That Version that Stays Untouched

That Version of Charlotte Day Wilson that Stays Untouched

interview + written ALBAN E. SMAJLI

Charlotte Day Wilson continues to work from a place that remains closely connected to how she began, building songs in isolation and protecting that condition as a necessary part of her process. What started as a private space to explore her voice and identity without interruption still defines how she approaches music, requiring a level of focus where outside noise, expectations, and constant communication are pushed aside in order to reach a state where decisions come from within.

Charlotte wears a Vector jacket by CAMPILLO, a shirt and pants by WANGDA, a ring by AGMES, earrings by GRISÉ, and shoes by TWOGAA

For Patchwork, this way of working becomes more deliberate through repetition and revision, moving away from immediacy and toward a process that involves returning to songs multiple times, adjusting details, and testing whether they reach a point that feels fully resolved. Her earlier releases, including CDW, Stone Woman, Alpha, and Cyan Blue, already established a clear direction, but the most significant shift comes through her role as a producer, where growing confidence replaces previous doubt and allows her to define structure, pacing, and final decisions without relying on external validation. This position enables her to recognise that she is best suited to produce her own work, reinforcing a process that remains internally guided.

Collaboration stays part of her process, grounded in ease, mutual awareness, and working with people who know when to contribute and when to step back, creating a space where trust supports the work. Visual elements follow the music, with imagery and clothing developing from its tone, turning style into an extension of her language shaped by identity, perception, and the way she chooses to present herself in public. Her current direction moves toward a more reduced approach, with an interest in creating space within recordings and limiting the number of elements involved, allowing each sound to carry more weight without relying on density. This shift continues the logic that has defined her work so far, refining it through a more concentrated and controlled use of sound.

Charlotte wears a HELGA womens polo by CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION and a necklace by GRISÉ

Charlotte wears a HELGA womens polo by CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION, jogging pants by WANGDA, a necklace by GRISÉ, and Moto Boots 1.0 by SUNNI SUNNI

Alban E. Smajli
Looking back to the moment you started making songs alone in your room, what part of that early creative energy do you still try to protect today?

Charlotte Day Wilson
I think I still try to protect the aloneness of it. The feeling of uninterrupted exploration with oneself. It’s not always easy to truly be alone, even when you are alone. There are always creeping thoughts of other people, other music, texts and emails that need to be responded to, a friend you haven’t checked in on in a while. Tuning out all the noise and finding a flow state where none of that can penetrate your focus and it’s just you and the music.. I always hid who I was from the outside world so music became my sanctuary where I could express and discover myself. I protect that sanctuary with my life because I probably wouldn’t really have one if it weren’t for it.

Did you approach Patchwork differently than your earlier releases?

I approached Patchwork differently than the music I’d recently put out. I went back to the version that I was just talking about in the last question. Really indulging in myself, however long it takes. Deep focus, deep alone-ness, searching for magic and glorious lifts. On Cyan Blue, the approach was “first thought best thought” which was very fun. But this time I reconsidered a lot and repeated and repeated, adding slight variations, until I found the glory. If the glory never came, the song didn’t make the cut.

When you look back at CDW, Stone Woman, Alpha, Cyan Blue, and now Patchwork, what feels like the most important shift in your relationship with music?

I would say the most important shift in my relationship with music is my confidence as a producer. I needed this project to remind myself that I’m good at what I do. I lost the plot many times over the past few years, doubting that what I was making could possibly be good enough. I know now, that not only am I good enough, I am the best producer for my music.

What kind of creative chemistry do you look for when collaborating with artists like Kaytranada, BADBADNOTGOOD, or Saya Gray?

I look for ease. But most of all now, I look for people who empower me and I look for people who I want to empower. So much of the time our greatest critic is ourselves. Sometimes all you need is for someone like Saya to remind you you’re on the right track. A great producer knows when to intervene and when not to. This requires a tame ego, which is not always so present in this industry.

How do you feel when fragments of your music appear in songs by artists like Drake or John Mayer?

I think it’s incredible. Once my music is out in the world it takes on a life of its own and it always amazes me to see the unexpected places it goes.

Charlotte wears a jacket by WANGDA, a cropped shirt by CALVIN KLEIN, Arco pants by CAMPILLO, and boots by STONE ISLAND

Charlotte wears a uv-reactive hoodie by STONE ISLAND and a necklace by AGMES

“If Only” circles around the idea of moments just out of reach. Are there experiences in your life that continue to shape your writing years later?

Yes of course. A lot of the time when I’m writing I don’t even know who or what I’m writing about. I let my subconscious do the talking. Sometimes I won’t even realize until years later what my subconscious was trying to tell me, or what memory I was revisiting. I learn a lot about myself in the unraveling after a song is pulled out of me.

How important is the visual world around your music when you begin shaping a new project?

It’s important but it’s not everything for me. The music can often provide an answer to a visual question but not the other way around.

What role does clothing or style play for you when performing or creating visuals?

Clothing is very important to me. Like music, it’s a language that not everyone speaks. How we present ourselves in public says so much about how we want to connect or not connect with others. I always think about the very human desire to be accepted and I think clothing plays such a huge role in how we can achieve acceptance. I think that’s something a lot of people have a hard time being honest about when it comes to clothing but I know deep down it’s true for so many of us. It’s an expression of gender, of “class”, cultural identity, and the relationship we have between our body and our mind. On the days where I feel tired and lacking in personality, I might try dress better so that even though I’m a dud of a person that day, my odds of acceptance are higher with a nice outfit on. I think when I’m 60 I’ll start dressing without any concern for how my outfits impact others but for now I’m engaged in the social conversation of it all and I find it fun.

When you imagine the next phase after Patchwork, what kind of sonic territory feels exciting or still unexplored for you?

I get excited about the idea of extreme minimalism. Lots of air in a recording, less stacks of sound. I don’t think I’ve quite approached music like that yet and I want to try.

Charlotte wears an ASHLEY womens trench by CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION, a shirt by WANGDA, and earrings by GRISÉ

talent CHARLOTTE DAY WILSON

seen TAKAHIRO OGAWA via FACTORY DOWNTOWN
stylist PACO LAMPECINADO
hair KELLY NOVOBIELSKI
make up MARIA ORTEGA via SOUTH JAMES
production MUSIC IS MUSE
creative direction TAKAHIRO OGAWA + PACO LAMPECINADO

The Personal Edit of Krista Papista: During the Making of Euro Divas

#ThePersonalEdit

Krista Papista Opens Her Camera Roll During the Making of Euro Divas

written LE MILE

For this edition of The Personal Edit, Krista Papista shares fragments from her camera roll captured during the making of her recent album Euro Divas. Moving between a residency in the Czech Republic, travels across Asia, and the final stages in her Neukölln studio, her images trace a process moving across geographies, states of mind, and shifting identities.

Based between Berlin and Athens, Papista works across music, film, and performance, building a practice rooted in queer ritual, erotic mythology, and hybrid sound. Drawing from Cypriot, Greek, Middle Eastern, and Balkan influences, Euro Divas emerges as a layered world shaped by memory and transformation. Built from spontaneous snapshots and paired with her own reflections, The Personal Edit becomes a visual diary of creation — capturing the environments, bodies, and moments that fed into the album’s formation.

Journal of shows. Fusion festival, Art Explora, Schinkel Pavilion, Chauffer dans la Noirceur.

Stalagmites in the neighborhood, and a photo of my mums’s village Kythrea.

EURO DIVAS VINYLS ARE DONE AND SENT OVER TO ATHENS.

I started working on Euro Divas album in the Czech Republic. I did an art residency in the country side in the Czech Republic. The accommodation provided was in a monastery, I had the peace & privacy to devote myself to the album 100%. It was a sad little town, bordering Poland, some beautiful Baroque churches, I developed 40% of the album there. My track Heartmode was inspired by this fountain that I found on a wall in the monastery, they say you can only manifest what you want, when you are operating from Heartmode.

While traveling in Vietnam, I went in a Hare Krishna temple and found a photo of myself as baby goddess, I tried to get into it but I couldn’t. Vietnam was incredible.

BRIDGE IN FISH VILLAGE , EL NIDO PHILIPPINES.

The mandolin I played on Eurotrash.

I came back from traveling and finalized the production and mixing of my album in my studio in Neukölln. I was drinking about 3 bottles of Nature Energy a day, they don’t produce them anymore :/ why? Final stages of mixing took place in November, the whole of Berlin turns yellow and red.

WHERE I'M I.

all images
(c) Krista Papista

BILL KAULITZ *That’s Bill Kaulitz: Offline, Unfiltered, and Entirely Present

That’s Bill Kaulitz
Offline, Unfiltered, and Entirely Present

The Algorithm Has Left the Chat—Bill, a Pink Swimsuit, and the Real Headline


interview + written ALBAN E. SMAJLI

Something about Bill Kaulitz disrupts all expectations about fame, he moves with a kind of impulsive certainty, always spinning a little outside the expected choreography. Once the ringleader of a hair-gel-fuelled teen frenzy, he now fills his days with dogs, spontaneous notes, late-night Instagram DMs, the second season of Kaulitz & Kaulitz playing out on Netflix, and the kind of wardrobe decisions that started early—long before anyone was watching, when he swapped trunks for a friend’s pink swimsuit on a crowded beach, discovering the addictive thrill of attention before he had words for performance.

Bill wears total look by VERSACE

Bill wears a total look by VERSACE and shoes by SCAROSSO

If his closet could talk, it would offer up a mess of confessions about last-minute fashion choices, impulsive adventures, and those secret, tangled stories that happen only after the city has gone to sleep—always accomplice, each garment a collaborator in Bill’s ongoing refusal to blend in or apologize. Recklessness and vulnerability orbit together here, just as Bill embraces every emotion fully—choosing to feel loneliness, joy, and even loss in their sharpest forms, collecting experiences the way some people collect shoes.

Remove the endless scroll, mute the digital noise, and Bill remains someone searching for real connection, content to swap the feed for the company of friends, the calm of jazz, the comfort of champagne, and the gentle presence of his French bulldog, Alfia. There’s always another scribbled note or whispered Maus for the people who matter, secrets layered beneath eyeliner and tucked into diaries, never needing an audience, only the satisfaction of having lived every minute wide open. Bill drags his own weather with him, shrugs off nostalgia the way most people dodge last season’s trends, refuses to archive any version of himself unless it’s handwritten and hidden somewhere even the algorithm can’t reach. He exists in a loop of invention and desire, never looking back, never asking permission, just rerouting the atmosphere every time he walks into the room. Never watered down, never apologizing, so entirely present you half-suspect the world’s only just now learning to keep pace.


Bill wears a sweater and bag by HERMÈS, belts, gloves, and trousers by 032C, and shoes by SCAROSSO

Alban E. Smajli
If you had to live in a world without mirrors or cameras, how would you define your identity?


Bill Kaulitz
Just through instinct I guess! I've always trusted my instinct. Laughter too! I'm generally a very positive person. My biggest traits are being quirky, spontaneous and ambitious, I’d say. 


Do you remember the very first time a mirror winked back at you and said, “Yes, babe, this is it”? What were you wearing?


OMG. That could have been very early on. When I was about 5 years old and my mom took us to the beach, I decided to wear the pink swimsuit of my friend Katharina, instead of my boring trunks that every boy wears. So we swopped. I felt super alive and loved the attention from all the people starring at me. I always loved to stand out and break rules. I guess that started at a very young age.

If your closet could speak like a moody ex, what secrets would it spill about you?


That I don't doubt my fashion choices a lot, even if I maybe should. I don't think too much. I'm super fast and trust my gut when it comes to clothes. I'm really not a diva, even if sometimes i'd wanna be. It would probably also say that I've been in here with more than just one guy having sexy fun. When you're out of the closet it can be pretty fun to go back in ...hahaha.

How do you actually handle loneliness? The kind that doesn’t get filtered through reels or drowned in airport noise?

I don't! I give in to the feeling! I love to feel all the feels and loneliness can also make you feel alive. I think the worst feeling you can have, is to feel nothingness or jaded or numb. As long as you feel loneliness every once in a while, you know you are living and still have a fire burn inside you that has longing and a craving for connection and people. I gotta admit I'm doing pretty good on my own. I hardly ever feel lonely but I think that's because I have an identical twin. I even go on vacation alone all by myself. It's the best. 


Bill wears a sweater by 032C, a jacket and trousers by HERMÈS, and shoes by MARSÉLL

Bill wears a shirt by ARKET and a coat by JOSEPH

What do you think you would miss the most if there were no social media or mobile networks today?

The inspiration that comes from it. I'm a very visual person so I love photography, architecture, fashion and the access to all of it with just a fingertip. Also I would miss my number one flirting and dating tool. Haha. Cause I date mostely through Instagram.


If you could ghost one memory forever, digitally and emotionally, what would you delete?


The death of my two doggies. That was very hard on me. I'm an animal lover and my dogs were like my kids. The way they both passed was very sudden, way too early and unexpected. That's a memory that I'd like to forget. But I'm not one who lives with regrets, so I can't really think of anything else I'd like to forget.

How would you go about dating if you had to do it completely offline today?

I would probably party even more than I do now. I love to go out and meet new people through mutual friends or just strangers at a rave. I love to have a good drink at a bar and make friends. Thats the best! I also love house parties, birthdays and my favorite are weddings. I always end up with someone at a wedding.

Bill, imagine being offline without any technology or social media, how do you cope with just being alone with yourself?

Could I still watch TV?

Of course, TV is still offline

I love movies and old TV shows. Thats like therapy for me and calms me a lot. If I wouldn’t have a TV either I would probably lay out by the pool with a good bottle of champagne, listen to jazz music and play with my doggie Alfia. I adopted her a year and a half ago. Shes a little merle frenchie and my absolute everything.

When was the last time you wrote something with your actual hand? Like pen, paper, no autocorrect?

Not that long ago. I wrote a love letter to fashion for a big magazine very recently. I love writing by hand. I do it every day. I have a little scribble book where I write in every day. Just notes and stuff I can't forget. Also all the notes for my weekly podcast are always handwritten and I keep all of them..

Let’s imagine you had kept a diary in 2006, what do you think would surprise people most if they read a page from it today?

That I was hiding a lot of secrets and pain behind those perfectly smokey eyes.

Bill wears a total look by LEVI’S, a brooch by JW ANDERSON, a bracelet by HERMÈS, and shoes by MARSÉLL

photography   CHRISTOPHER PUTTINS
stylist   ARKADIUSZ SWIETON
hair & make up artist   PATRICK GORRA
set stylist   NICI THEUERKAUF
photography assistant   MORITZ HILKER
styling assistant   LEA ISABELL UHLE
copyright LE MILE Magazine / Christopher Puttins for LE MILE Issue 39 "OFFLINE", FW2025/26 Edition

DEBORAH DE LUCA *Equality at 140 BPM

DEBORAH DE LUCA
*Equality at 140 BPM

written + interview ALBAN E. SMAJLI

Born in Scampia and wired for motion, Deborah de Luca takes the booth as a surveyor might seize a blueprint, her compass a strobe that scans the crowd.

She draws tempo across faces like lines of elevation, setting three instinctive tracks as a base layer, a quiet study before construction begins. From there she lifts the room piece by piece, each transition a new frame rising into place, until the set breathes as a structure of rhythm and light. Lately the final touch often glimmers with a Gigi D’Agostino refrain — a silver filament stretched through a contemporary shell, binding past and present in one luminous design.

Silence holds a private garden key for Deborah. Life surrounds her with music in studios, in clubs, in cars, so she seeks stillness and lets it refill the body. Between the first record and the last drop new selves appear and dissolve, across long marathons of four to seven hours, a full cycle of morning energy, afternoon charge, evening glow. One word: equality, a law for dance floors where categories melt and a single pulse writes a passport for everyone.

dress VERSACE
shoes LE SILLA

“In a techno club, it doesn’t matter if you’re white, Black, gray, yellow, Christian, Jewish, atheist—inside, we’re all of the same religion: techno.”

Deborah de Luca speaks with Alban E. Smajli
for LE MILE .Digital

Her faith moves through cosmic grammar. God equals the universe, a field of energy, color, and music that answers when addressed with intention. She runs her label since 2013, appetite vivid for sound, image, cinema, miles. Tastes shift like seasons of the tongue, sometimes heavy and hard, sometimes featherlight and melodic, especially in the final hour when the sun inside her sets leans toward amber. Craft sits on both shoulders during those passages, melody braiding with steel, her signature: hard pop, techno fluent.
Small rooms feed her with a certain charge, afters where the ceiling breathes and the floor talks back, like that morning in Florence when the dial locked into hard art techno and a new facet snapped into view. The ugliest sound in her memory came from plastic whistles pecking at the kick, a fashion that squealed and left a sour ring. Spin her catalog from end to start and a path appears, a gradual climb shaped by taste and by the sound of her city, a line that rises in small steps and keeps rising.

When the lights rise and the room exhales, a ritual follows. Fifteen minutes of fierce self audit, choices weighed and corners checked, then a homing current toward bed, toward two dogs, toward the sunset that washes the house in gold and resets the chest. Flights create a sealed capsule where the pilot drives and the grid fades into distance, films flicker, thoughts wander, and nerves surrender. She wants the work to live on, a structure that other hands can lift and carry, music that glows with memory and future. Deborah de Luca composes momentum and mercy in the same breath, a builder who treats crowds like cities and nights like blueprints, and across seven hour marathons or one hour transmissions the mission stays constant, read the room, raise the structure, leave them with a song that follows them home. For a long, long while. Always.

top VOFT KNIT
skirt RICK OWENS

Alban E. Smajli
Your sets feel like architecture. What’s the last thing that shattered your sense of control?

Deborah de Luca
I take “architecture” as a compliment, but honestly, there’s not much pre-built. The first three tracks I already know, because I need time to read the room and understand who’s in front of me. Those first 15 minutes are my time to analyze. From there, I build what comes next. Maybe that’s architecture, but it happens live, piece by piece. Only when I play a DJ set that’s streamed online, like for the Street Parade or my live shows from the Vele di Scampia or at Maradona Stadium those are the only sets I prepare at home. They’re not random but carefully studied since they’ll have media exposure. I decide on the tracks beforehand, or even create some pieces specifically for the occasion, but I never fix their order.

You grew up in Scampia. Now you tour the world pulsing through Funktion-Ones. Is there still a part of you that hears silence and gets suspicious?

Actually, I love silence, I don’t become suspicious. When I get in the car, I turn the music off; if a driver is with me, I turn it off; if I’m at a restaurant, I like silence. Because I live constantly with music—when I make it, when I listen to others, when I work in clubs, or when I hear someone play before or after me. So I need silence, I look for it, it regenerates me.

How many versions of you exist between the opening track and the last drop at 4:37 a.m.?

The first track is always mine, the last one is usually not, especially lately, when I like closing with a Gigi D’Agostino piece from the early 2000s. So no, I’m not the same from the first to the last track. I take a journey, especially if I play long sets of 4, 5, even 7 hours. I’m not the same person from the first to the last record. Sometimes I come back, then I drift away—it’s the same in life. You wake up one way in the morning, by afternoon you have different energy, and in the evening it changes again.

Do you believe in God? Or just in bass?

I believe, but not in the God most people think of—not that man with long hair and blue eyes, born in Jerusalem, who should have been darker-skinned anyway. I don’t believe in that. I believe in the universe. For me, God is the universe. When you ask for something, you ask the universe. The energy comes from the universe, you attract it. To me, that’s the same thing—God is the universe. But it has no human figure; it’s everything around us: energy, colors, music. That, for me, is God.

top VOFT KNIT
skirt ISZA
lip ring ASK & EMBLA

You run your own label. Do you still feel hunger, or is it something deeper now? Obsession maybe, or ritual?

I’ve managed my label alone since 2013. I’m always hungry, and that will never pass—whether for music, colors, friendships, films, travel. Hunger will never leave me. Sometimes I just change tastes—sometimes I want sweet, sometimes salty. In music, sometimes heavier, harder; other times softer, like in the last hour of long sets. But yes, the hunger never fades.

Do you miss the chaos of small clubs? The kind where the smoke machine breaks and the floor sweats back at you?

I miss the energy of small clubs a lot. Sometimes, when after a festival I play a little after-party in a small place, I’m really happy, because you’re closer to people. It also gives me a different idea of music, I play differently. For example, last time in Florence, in a club after a festival, I was much harder than usual—very art-techno. I discovered a new side of myself there.

What’s the worst sound you’ve ever heard on stage?

When the sound system isn’t as it should be and the monitor speaker starts crackling, it’s terrible — it breaks the magic.

If someone played your full discography backwards, what message would emerge?

You’d hear the journey. Where I started slowly, climbing step by step—not mountains, just hills. I evolved with my own taste, with people’s taste, with the sounds around me, with the influences of my city. You’d hear that it’s been a steady path upward—not of highs and lows, but always slowly rising.

Techno doesn’t need words, but if it did—what would yours be? Just one.

Equality. In a techno club, it doesn’t matter if you’re white, Black, gray, yellow, Christian, Jewish, atheist—nobody cares. Inside, we’re all of the same religion: techno. And that’s something very beautiful.

What keeps you OFFLINE when your whole life runs on voltage and signal? Or is OFFLINE just a myth sold to the unplugged?

My home, my dogs, the sunset at home. Also when I fly. Yesterday I had a 14-hour flight and could have connected, but I didn’t. On planes, I let the pilot drive, I rest, I disconnect completely. When I’m not flying, it’s still my dogs and my home that keep me offline.

You’ve built something—music, myth, a kind of feminine rage wrapped in steel. Do you ever worry it’ll outgrow you?

No, I don’t think it can become bigger than me. Music is understandable for everyone, and even if it grows, it remains something elementary. I never feared it could outgrow me.

When the lights come up and the bodies thin out, when it’s just sweat on the floor and silence in the booth, where does your mind go? Who do you become when the music stops?

Honestly, I’m very tough on myself. The first 15 minutes after a set I spend thinking I haven’t done my very best—that I should have played another track, that something was too easy, too commercial, or too hard. Even when everyone says it was great, I criticize myself. Then I can’t wait to get into bed, and to go home to my dogs.

“For me, God is the universe. Energy, colors, music—that, for me, is God.”

Deborah de Luca speaks with Alban E. Smajli
for LE MILE .Digital

top YVY LEATHER
panties MAISON CLOSE

photographer NICHOLAS FOLS
styling + production ANCA MACAVEI
styling assistants JYOTHSANA SELVAM + LESLIE GUERRA
assistant on set MELISSA RUSSO

talent
DEBORAH DE LUCA

NEMO *Fame, Freedom, and the Art of Doing Nothing

NEMO
*Fame, Freedom, and the Art of Doing Nothing

written + interview Alban E. Smajli

Nemo’s world is a delicate line—fame on one side, fierce privacy on the other. Talking with LE MILE, Nemo is clear: silence is as essential as sound.

Fresh off the Eurovision win, Nemo is headed somewhere quieter, carving space for nothingness in Aix-en-Provence, where everything else can fall away. Nemo creates music as a universe—crafting worlds, experimenting with genre, and aligning their art with their wardrobe, where every stitch resonates with sound. Privacy, once blurred in the rush of recognition, is now an obsession.
In the spaces between spotlight and solitude, Nemo finds the balance—where the loud meets the quiet, where raw edges mix with crafted lines. Their art? Pure and boundless, spilling over into fashion, music, and a life that answers only to their own rhythm.

shirt MCM
pants NAMILIA
jewelry PANDORA

“I think I'm learning to do nothing in my downtime. I’m going to Aix-en-Provence in France, and my plan is to do absolutely nothing. If this works out, then I would say that what gets stripped away when the lights fade is, ideally, everything.”

Nemo speaks with Alban E. Smajli
for LE MILE .Digital

dress  RITUAL UNIONS

total look TOEBROCK
sunglasses MCM

Alban E. Smajli
How do you balance the rawness of your personal life with the glossy, sometimes artificial world of fame? What gets stripped away when the lights fade?

Nemo
I think I'm learning to do nothing in my downtime. I worked through my first vacation after, like, five months of working full-time every day. I’m going to Aix-en-Provence in France, and my plan is to do absolutely nothing. If this works out, then I would say that what gets stripped away when the lights fade is, ideally, everything. I work in cycles of full awareness, being fully present when working and giving it my all, then having days where I do nothing at all. I think that's a balance. I mean, I crave to create.

Your style is a statement on its own. How do fashion and your art collide? Is your wardrobe a mirror or a mask for the world to interpret?

I think my wardrobe aims to reflect my music in the best possible way. So, in that sense, it’s a mirror of my music, my art. It’s either a mirror or an extension of it, sometimes both. That’s what I strive for, from stage to street.

Where does your artistic identity end and your private self begin? Or is the concept of privacy already extinct in your universe?

No, privacy is really important to me. I’m realizing this as I become more exposed, both as a person and as a public figure. Through this, I’ve come to see how essential privacy is. I didn’t understand this at the start, as my public and private lives were intertwined—everyone in my public life was also part of my private life. But as I became more recognized, especially to the degree that happened this year, I began craving privacy, moments for myself and with friends, away from the public eye. I value being with people who don’t overanalyze or categorize everything I do. So yes, privacy has become very important to me.

Does the music industry’s obsession with genre labels suffocate creativity? How do you intend to break those constraints with your next moves?

I always aim to create something fresh, something that opens a door not many have stepped through—or maybe even one no one has. In a world where almost every sound has been explored, new genres rarely arise, so mixing elements—genres, moods, contrasts—is how something entirely new can emerge. The more daring you are with mixing, the more likely you are to hit those moments. That’s my goal in music, and I think it's there in many of the new songs I’m working on. This explosion of constraints. I might put that in my bio: 'I’m an exploder of constraints.'

team credits

talent NEMO
seen JULIAN MELZER
styled KLAAS HAMMER
hair + make up LEO STERN
photo assistant YEONGHYEON KANG
fashion assistant KATHARINA PITTACK
production LIAM MONOT

post production lemilestudios

“Privacy is really important to me. I’m realizing this as I become more exposed, both as a person and as a public figure. [...] I value being with people who don’t overanalyze or categorize everything I do.”

Nemo speaks with Alban E. Smajli
for LE MILE .Digital

total look PINKRAININTHEBRAIN

also read
.aesthetic talk JOEL SÁNCHEZ *Breaking New Ground

Are you craving a deeper integration between music and the fashion world in your future?

Definitely. I’ve been working closely with many designers recently and learning so much about fashion, especially in the UK. I’ve met some wonderful people, and I feel the urge to expand my vision through fashion. It’s a powerful way to express myself, alongside music, singing, and writing. Integrating fashion more closely feels essential. The experience over the last few months has been eye-opening, and I look forward to more collaborations, launching my own line, and possibly participating in Fashion Weeks. These are things I’d truly enjoy.

Your lyrics seem to hold the weight of entire worlds. What's the one theme you keep circling back to, even when you try to escape it?

A general theme in my music has been freedom—finding freedom in yourself and defining it personally. That’s at the core, and even when it’s not directly in the lyrics, it’s in the sounds I choose, the worlds I create, and the feel of my music. So, I’d say that’s the recurring theme.

The Eurovision crown is still yours. What’s next? What keeps you awake at night now that you’ve tasted this level of success?

I’ve learned a lot over the past half year. The main thing is that I love creating without limits and collaborating with musicians I admire. Recently, I’ve been working with people I hadn’t had the chance to work with before, and it’s opened a new world for me, pushing me beyond my comfort zone. That’s a feeling I love. My aim is to make music, release albums, play concerts for the rest of my life, and create work that deeply resonates with me and challenges the conventional views of music and art, as well as myself. Those are my goals.

jacket + pants NAMILIA
shirt MCM
sunglasses KRISZTIAN P

“The experience over the last few months has been eye-opening, and I look forward to more collaborations, launching my own line, and possibly participating in Fashion Weeks. These are things I’d truly enjoy.”

Nemo speaks with Alban E. Smajli
for LE MILE .Digital

Agnes Obel *The Power and Poise

Agnes Obel
*The Power and Poise

written Chidozie Obasi

Denmark-born, Berlin-hailed multi-hyphenate artist Agnes Obel has an ability to walk a fine line creating records that are both emotive and raw. But the beauty of her work is that her entrancing, soul-laden voice also has the prowess to leap from alt-pop to indie, connecting the dots with emotional power.

“As a songwriter, I think the stuff I aim towards journey across a conscious level, turning into a quite subconscious state,” she details, with no signs of peacocking braggadocio on display. “So when I’m writing,” she explains, “I can see a pattern that isn’t planned: It’s sort of happens with a natural frequency, which ignites the longing of the most intimate emotions that run through my music.”

The singer’s impressive depth shines through the polarity of her practice—fear, love and grief are all in the picture, a canvas she meticulously curates by writing, recording and producing on her own terms—but it’s always by the sheer soulfulness and powerful ingenuity of the music, and the way Obel sings even the darkest lyrics with rhythmic and melodic daring. “I really like how language, when working metaphorically, can make the mind jump to different places,” she says, adding how “sometimes people wonder if my lyrics are truly about anything, but it's just how my imagination works.” Pure, gloomy and impactful, her vocals sit in the passenger seat of our consciousness, wrapping us in a comforting blanket of melodic thrills and poignant lyricism.

Agnes Obel
seen by Christopher Puttins

blazer MARKE
dress AVENIR

total look WILLIAM FAN

“I think the stuff I aim towards when making music journey on an unconscious level, quite subconscious dare I say. So when writing, I can see a pattern, but not a planned one: It’s sort of what is happening on a naturally-driven flow, which makes longing the biggest emotion that runs through my music, and again it’s not done on purpose.”

Agnes Obel speaks with Chidozie Obasi
LE MILE Magazine TRANCE, Nr. 36

seen CHRISTOPHER PUTTINS
styled CHIDOZIE OBASI
hair + make up KATJA MAASSEN
coordination DENNIS CAPPABIANCA
photo assistant MORITZ HILKER
talent AGNES OBEL

special thanks to Chateau Royal Berlin
LE MILE shot Agnes Obel in the Apartment of Chateau Royal Berlin

Chidozie Obasi
I'd love to begin by taking a trip down memory lane. What's your earliest memory of music?
Agnes Obel
Well, you know what? I truly can't recall a particular memory or moment that made me fall in love with music, but I guess there’s a few. I don't even know what my first memory is [Laughs]. I started playing piano really early, and my piano teacher was a cellist, who also played the instrument. She quickly discovered that I loved a particular repertoire, and the one I was really into was that of Impressionist pianists. I was 10 at the time, and I bought a compact disc with a DVD that played Debussy’s Clair de Lune: I don’t exactly remember the version, but I still have the CD somewhere at home and every time I listen to it, it provides me this out-of-body musical experience. I somewhat realised this piece was the start of a journey.

Could you agree that growing up in Denmark has impacted your sound in a way?
Undoubtedly so. We are all a product of where we grew up, and I feel like my parents truly influenced me in many ways. Also, the media I was exposed to rendered my experience of music and the repertoire I liked as a kid. But I guess a lot of the music my parents played back in Denmark was a of a simple kind. If they played classical music, it was more instrumental, but when they played jazz, it was more of an upbeat kind. I feel like I got my candour and simplicity from them.

A large fraction of your repertoire sounds lyrically cathartic and poignant, with a somewhat mystic layer that punches right into the soul. What exactly are the emotions that you wish to express in your music?
I think the stuff I aim towards when making music journey on an unconscious level, quite subconscious dare I say. So when writing, I can see a pattern, but not a planned one: It’s sort of what is happening on a naturally-driven flow, which makes longing the biggest emotion that runs through my music, and again it’s not done on purpose.

Do you think that, aside from longing, loss is another component of your repertoire? Because there’s a blend of love and melancholy in Riverside, for example, which stretches to Familiar, and I trust there’s someone or something subconsciously hidden you’re referring to.
It’s fun to personify things that echo on in your mind, and I really like how language, when working metaphorically, can make the mind jump to different places. Here in Germany, there's a strong tradition for one-to-one lyrics. And that's when I made Familiar: I was working in a studio next to German pop songwriters, and I realised that everything I wrote was a metaphor. I'm completely aware it doesn't always work, and sometimes people wonder if my lyrics are truly about anything. But it's just how my imagination works.

Starting from the soft and honest lyricism of Philharmonics (your 2011 album), and then walking through the highways of the Aventine (your 2013 album), you round up with Myopia, creating an extraordinary sonic journey that blends emotion and execution. How do you keep feeding your sound?
I think all humans process the world through storytelling, and when stuff happens to us, we make stories about them in different ways. I’ve found my way of making stories. I try as hard as I can because I write on my own, and I develop avenues I have maybe traveled to or I try to avoid. So here's so many things I can do and try to repeat. In my studio, I have settings for each single song. On technical terms, I have a setting for various voices. So I can, of course, go down the same sound route if I want to. Sometimes I try, as I use literature a lot, to feed my mind with words and ideas by finding a way of expressing what I feel. For example, now I have kids I feel like being pregnant was really crazy. It's like you have this cycle of biology happening inside of you and you have no control. I thought it was very inspiring and also a little scary. And now this feeling I have from becoming a parent I believe is one that relates to universalism, where you kind of feel love for everything except yourself. I never really had anything like that before. It's a very strange thing, a weird phenomenon that happens to your brain. I tried to become familiar with that through literature.


What does the familiar mean to you? There’s so many ambiences in your songs, like the river, the curse, the Aventine. There’s also a wealth of emotional and physical places that are very familiar to you, which are recurrent in your pieces.
I feel like I can only sort of make music from a very calm place. There's an element of irritation. I think that in Familiar, there was some irritation, but it was a sort of fear. I was annoyed at that sort of this fearfulness of the transformation and of what that could be. In this case, it was love. It's like the idea of a love or a thing that could exist, but there's this fear of what the outside world would think.

“We are all a product of where we grew up, and I feel like my parents truly influenced me in many ways. Also, the media I was exposed to rendered my experience of music and the repertoire I liked as a kid. But I guess a lot of the music my parents played back in Denmark was of a simple kind. If they played classical music, it was more instrumental, but when they played jazz, it was more of an upbeat kind. I feel like I got my candour and simplicity from them.”

Agnes Obel speaks with Chidozie Obasi
LE MILE Magazine TRANCE, Nr. 36

total look BOBKOVA

And was there a particular moment that you found lost in your music and went through a state of myopia that made you refrain from writing?
Absolutely. When I made Myopia, that's the only time I really had a hard time making an album. And I can also tell now when I listen to it: My father died in 2014, and I'm not able to process it yet. However, I said to myself that I’d just keep going and continue whatever I'm doing. And then I think grief and sorrow really hit me when I made Myopia. I was making music alone sitting in a little box by myself, and when you’re zoned out in your loneliness it hits you very hard, particularly when it’s someone so close that you’ll never going to see again. Even though this loss made the whole writing process difficult, it was also inspiring: I was trying to work by pitching down my voice again, like I've done with Familiar, to represent this feeling of an undercurrent of voices, people, spirits and characters who are part of our lives, but fade at some point. You can feel their presence in a way, and I was trying to represent that sound-wise and lyrically, endlessly experimenting with both.

What have you learned about your music over the years?
Well, I've realised there's a power in being able to do it on your own. So, of course, you never do anything really alone, which is also an illusion, but this thing of working intuitively with the process and not splitting it too much up into parts is something I learned a lot. I think has been working for me and makes it interesting for me to go back to it as kind of my own technique of making music.

And then in terms of next projects, you said you're working on new music, right?
Yes, I’m working on a new album and it’s feeling incredibly cathartic, yet again. And I’ll tell you: there’s something about the brain that believes that you've finished the process, but there’s a punchy beat that keeps pulsating inside, so now I'm like [pauses momentarily…] well, maybe I shouldn't give away too much.

follow artist @agnesobel
discover online www.agnesobel.com

all images (c) Christopher Puttins