“Hands / Trees” by Almost Twins
Inspired by a beloved soul who has a green heart and takes the forgotten plants from the hallway into her care, she brings them back to life in her room with water and affection. The spring of a relationship: everything blooms, nothing dies. A song about the magic, hands that feel each other for the first time, and the moments of growth. The fragility and warmth at the beginning of a significant moment.
Almost Twins have taken on this theme in their song “Hands / Trees” and interpreted it musically. Sonically, the men (Laurenz Welten (Saxophone, Clarinet), Valentin Mühlberger (Wurlitzer, Synth), Raphael Schuster (Drums) and Arne Imig (Bass)) around singer and guitarist Max Grüner, who initially launched Almost Twins as a solo project, have a lot to offer.
Warm synth pads and rotating Wurlitzer patterns blend with dreamy saxophone and clarinet melodies and create a sound that feels light-footed, without losing depth, conveys calmness and yet allows itself to break out of it.
The Leipzig-based band manages to translate a picture of growth musically; the listener is immediately suggested images in fast motion, at least that came to my mind when listening. Satisfaction sets in, and the mood is more than relaxed. We are looking forward to the next release here.
How did Almost Twins come into being and who are the musicians behind it?
I started Almost Twins two years ago when I moved to Leipzig. The original idea was to record a solo album with guest musicians from my new hometown and thus connecting with the local music scene. In May 2022 I organised a solo concert in a small coffee called Café Lux, where I was planning to perform some of my new songs with my flatmate Laurenz who now plays the saxophone in the band.
While we were on holiday Laurenz showed a demo version of our current single “Hands/Trees” to his friend Valentin and Betram and they both fancied to play this gig at Café Lux with me. We asked Raphi if he wants to join playing the drums and after one rehearsal it was clear that something special happened. All of a sudden, we were five people on stage, and we couldn’t believe how well it went, so we decided to stay in this constellation. Soon after Arne came in for Bertram and completed our current band setup.
“Hands / Trees” creates an impressive atmosphere. What inspired you, and what is the story behind the song?
I wrote “Hands / Trees” for a very beloved person who is very good with plants. By the time we were living in a housing project in Dresden where she used to rescue all the abandoned plants from the hallway and with water and love she somehow managed to bring them back to life in her room. In fact, I had the impression that every plant was growing and blooming under her care, as if there was no better place to be. Getting to know her, was like being a plant in her room.
You are a band of five, how does your creative process work?
For current songs I mostly tried to bring a basic version of a song to the rehearsals, which I can already perform as a solo version with acoustic guitar. Then everybody is doing their thing and we arrange it together. Some parts of the songs changed drastically playing them together and I always welcome the creative input of everyone involved because I often encounter music to be richer when there is a common musical vision instead of having only one person’s head and heart involved. I’m always keen to try out different approaches towards songwriting so it’s likely that material on a follow-up album might develop differently.
Do you have any plans to perform live on stage soon?
Yes, we have plans for a release tour in May, playing festivals in summer and another tour in November. We will publish our tour dates soon on our social media.
What is your opinion on AI in the music industry?
As all technology AI has its pro and cons. If you can incorporate it in your creative process, why not. The limit is always your imagination. At the moment, it’s not possible to tell AI how to write an interesting song, drumbeat, guitar pattern, reverb, or whatever, if you don’t know, what you’re looking for. And even if algorithms get better and more human somehow, I wonder why I should want it to take over my personal creative process. I think writing music is something artists mainly do for themselves, to express a certain feeling or need. Later it becomes a product which gets promoted and sold and so on…
Thinking about the song “heart on my sleeve” with the AI generated Drake vocals which went viral, I think it’s very important to value the years of work that Drake put into his music career. But I believe that in the end people want the original anyway and it will not be possible to benefit from only using another person’s voice on an AI generated song in the future. It’s the person behind it, that creates the magic.
How would you describe the indie scene in Leipzig?
Leipzig has a thriving music scene which is evolving more and more over the last years. There are a lot of interesting artists around and it feels well connected and supportive. It has a great mixture of concert locations. From underground places you would not recognise as an event location from the outside to more official venues like the UT Connewitz, or the NATO.
2023 is almost over. What are your plans for 2024?
We will release two more singles and videos before our album release in May. After that we really want to perform this music live in clubs and festivals all over Germany in 2024 as well as playing our first shows abroad.
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