Interview with Attic Ocean: On Writing Their New Song ‘Glow’

When we were writing the songs for our last EP, Retriever, we were looking for a song that would channel the fun we have when we play. It’s about a beautiful, clear feeling of happiness that we want to convey with the vocal harmonies, the playful bass, etc. Especially during our live performances, we try to bring this feeling to the stage.

Yes, that’s pretty much it. The song is dedicated to those who brighten and ease the lives of others and to whom we are wholeheartedly grateful.
It’s a song we’ve always wanted to write, and it came very easily to us because we’re lucky to have many such people around us. We hope that all listeners feel the same lightheartedness when listening to it as we did when writing it, and that they might also think of someone who makes their lives more beautiful.

We had very clear role models, such as the songs by The Sundays and their album “Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.” After perhaps dealing with darker stories and emotions on our EP “Retriever,” we wanted to show the stark contrast that is incredibly important to us in songwriting in order to write diverse songs.

For our music videos, we generally consider the visual aspect to be on par with our songs. It’s very important to us to work with other creative people whose work we appreciate. We place a lot of value on deciding for ourselves who we work with and don’t want a label or anything like that breathing down our necks.
Working with director Julie Lobo was a wonderful decision. We think it’s incredibly beautiful when our songs inspire people to be creative and when they have the confidence to show us their interpretation of the songs. We are really incredibly happy with the music video for “Glow.”

The songs on our EP “Retriever” were born out of a kind of conflict between “Lillies and Sea” and “Glow.” It’s too easy to use motifs like “light and shadow” to describe it, but it’s about processing our diverse influences. In the end, the terms “shoegaze” and “dream pop” always appear in our press releases and such. These classifications may be good for streaming services to cater to one audience or another. However, we want to retain the freedom not to limit ourselves in our expression—which for us is music. For us, “Glow” radiates this joy and freedom of making music beyond social or music industry constraints.