Sion Hill (Nate Johnston) and Norwegian DJ/Producer MYXE (Rune Eie) have recently released their new house-pop single, ‘No Way Back From Your Love’. The track is laced in vibrant tones, crisp production and luscious pop melodies to create the perfect summer bop.
I caught up with Nate and Rune to chat about the new single, how an inspired hungover moment brought about the songs lyrics, gigging again as well as how the duo’s collaboration came about. At the time of our chat Rune was about to embark on a boat party to perform, the prospect of which seemed like finding El Dorado to me, here in Ireland and Nate in The U.K due to the pandemic restrictions.
Rune: “It’s on Saturday so I’m really looking forward to that. Well, they are getting a bit stricter here with the stuff, so hopefully, it will go through. I think it’s 120 [people]. I think it will go on because it’s sailing so it’s a sport, they call it, then.”
Nate: “Are you sailing anywhere close to London?. I don’t know what I would give for a boating party on Saturday, probably my left baby toe I would sacrifice.”
‘No Way Back From Your Love’ was originally written in London in 2020 by Nate and songwriter Louis Ryan for piano and voice and was actually intended for someone else to sing, but when Rune heard Nate’s vocal, he loved it so much that he decided to keep it in.
Rune: “We kind of got connected through a guy called Louis, that I met online. He told me about Nate, and said that he might have some vocals laying around that I could try and work with so that’s kind of how we got in touch, and, yeah, Nate sent over the vocals for ‘No Way Back From Your Love’ and I did an instrumental behind it”
Nate: “ I think this one is really a product of the lockdown. I see it as that. It’s a lovely thing because I wrote it together with Louis Ryan. He’s an Irish guy from Dublin, a great songwriter, and really great keyboard player. We just wrote some songs together a few times and then there was this moment, I think they opened up the studios for like a week or so, do you remember after the first lockdown there was this little mini lockdown for like a month, and that was how it was in the UK. I think we got into the studio, like, a day before that happened, so we actually got to use a recording studio, which is quite cool and then everything closed down. So we wrote that song and then yeah, he [Louis Ryan] connected with you [ Rune Eie], but we did everything virtually and I think that’s cool.”
Rune: “ I think the first time we spoke on the phone that was after the release actually. “
Nate: “Yeah. I’m just praying that next time you’re playing the tune at a boat party I got the invite.”
Rune: “Yeah for sure”
I wondered if the pair found the remote collaboration more awkward or difficult to communicate and express ideas through.
Rune: “It’s obviously not the same as meeting in person. But we had a good start on email and we both knew what we wanted. I really loved what Nate did with the vocals and yeah I think he found the instrumental, okay as well.”
Nate: “I don’t think that was too difficult doing it online. I didn’t really know what was going on because this song when we wrote it was a bit of fun. I wasn’t really intending on anything happening with the tune. I kind of forgot about it, and then all of a sudden I get this message from Louis being like, Oh yeah, MYXE this DJ has been working on the track with me and I’m like Okay, send me something. Then I got this 30-second clip. It was just the first verse and he was like just ignore the drop it’s not ready yet. You [refering to MYXE] said something you’re like oh no I’m not happy with that drop leave that off. Yeah. The next version I got was almost finished and it was quite cool. I like that collaborative process and you can do everything online now and there’s been so many songs, recordings and albums over the last year and a half, that have been done actually on Zoom and whatever.”
Rune: “Yeah, I think in the past it was a bit more awkward to do writing sessions or whatever through Zoom or Skype, because not everyone was doing it, but nowadays, it’s more the norm now, at least in my world. “
Nate: “Yeah, for sure. I think when we were using this technology during the last lockdown, we came across this thing where there is no latency, there was no lag between recording. Normally, the reason it was so difficult is, you’d try to write a song together and I play a chord and then you try to sing and obviously the timing doesn’t match. It’s always gonna be difficult and you can’t rehearse live together as a band over Zoom because there is this latency problem, but we found this one piece of software that fixes that. I think like Jay Z and some of the big boys and big girls in that world have been using that. I don’t know how we got our hands on it but even having things where we can actually sing a song together, over the Internet, and there’s no lag, that’s insane. So yeah, I think technology has made it easier but it’s not really that different, we’ve all been WhatsApp and phone calling each other for quite a while now”
When Rune heard Nate’s demo of the song he loved its rawness and decided to work with it. The demo was minimalist but highlighted the melody and the potential of the song.
Nate: “I think it was just keys and vocals actually that we did and this was one of those songs where I didn’t record. I think generally with House tracks and pop music, you sort of record it line by line, you know the vocals anyway, sometimes even, you might record just one word, just to get it perfect. So, yeah, I think that vocal take was actually meant to be just a demo take and you [Rune] used it, I liked that, that you took the original recording”
Rune: “Yeah the take, I really liked it because it was good, but still had that raw element to it and I just really liked it and normally I don’t do that, but I felt that it suited the vocal sounds.“
Rune: “If I like it, if I get a good vibe from it, then I’ll work with it. It doesn’t have to be techno or house or pop. It’s more the vocal itself, if it’s good, it’s good. I think.”
The lyrics for ‘No Way Back From Your Love’ were inspired by the Beatles’ – ‘All You Need Is Love,’ by playing on the idea of – if you can envision something, then it is not impossible. Nate explained how the lyrics came to fruition.
Nate: “It was an easy flow, I think. We made this little hook melody “Ooooh, oooooh”. I think that’s what Rune is saying there as well, it has this rawness to it because the night before, I’d been out quite late and I was just not really in the singing mood, but I felt kind of creative. I don’t know if you ever feel like this, when you’re hungover sometimes you are quite creative and come up with things. I came up with this idea. I love that simplicity of that song, The Beatles track, All You Need Is Love, and it’s, “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done, Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung”. This idea, it’s really simple but I wanted to follow along that sort of idea so yeah it’s not really the same thing but it was sort of the inspiration. Then, at the time I was in this relationship and it was happening really fast so I realised that when you meet someone’s friends and their family and when it all happens really quick, I’m like there’s no way back from your love, that was the idea. It wasn’t necessarily Beatles inspired, I just liked that idea of, there’s nothing you can say that can’t be sung and so on. An inspired hungover moment, I think”
The track is built superbly around the melody and Nathan’s voice, creating a light, fun atmosphere filled with driving beats, lush synths and even a whistle-like feature. This arrangement is the perfect example of Rune’s exceptional production skills.
Rune: “I think, for me as I speak from a production point of view, I tend to do that a lot. I’ve heard that I let the vocal get its place but sometimes maybe too much so the vocals a bit too much in the front but I think here, it turned out really well, but yeah I think that’s important. I really love vocals – so let them shine a bit.”
Nate: “Yeah, I think it’s hard to find that balance isn’t it sometimes?. I think you [Rune] blend the production really well and some producers, the vocal either gets lost or it’s way out, and I kind of get annoyed by that because I like to have a bit of both, you know,”
I wondered if the pair plan on releasing a summer-themed music video for the song.
Nate: “We didn’t do a video actually no. Maybe on the boat. Maybe at the boat party.”
Rune:”Yeah, maybe we could do some iPhone videos”
Nate: “Some decent iPhone videos at the boat party and some candid shots of people. I did actually have an idea of going down to Brighton with my cousin who’s a filmmaker and shooting something on a boat because it’s quite a summery little bopper this song and it’s got the little whistle and everything. I thought it would be cool just to film some girl on a boat, driving around the place. That was the idea but yeah never happened.
Rune:” That would be cool.”
Nate: “ Yeah, I think we just got to the beach and then we got in the water and it was too cold. You realise you’re in the UK. It’s raining, it’s not quite the Ibiza sort of vibe that we’re looking for, but I don’t know it would have been cool to see a video but we’ve actually been working on some other tracks so possibly down the line we will do that.”
With things slowly opening up both Nate and Rune have got a chance to get back performing. We discussed the nerves and surreal experience of doing live gigs after all this time.
Nate: “ I was Yeah” [nervous]
MYXE: “Same here”
Nate: “The first gig I did back, I played guitar for this singer, so I didn’t actually do my own show, and I was a little bit nervous because it was her thing and I was backing her up. I wasn’t necessarily nervous about the crowd but it is a strange feeling, getting back on a stage after a long period.”
Rune: “You can also tell, the people in the crowd they also think it’s been a bit weird, you know people dancing and being close and you can’t really keep one and a half metres on the dance floor.”
Nate: “I’ve done a few sit down gigs where people are separated but after just 15 minutes everyone’s up and dancing on the tables. It’s too hard to stop it. But we make our choices and if you decide to go to a concert, if you want to be there, there’s a risk you’re going to get COVID. So, maybe you have to isolate after the concert for a couple of days.”
Rune: “It’s a bit weird, to be honest, but here in Holland they’ve closed basically everything. It’s obviously nice to be able to play a little bit again and see some people, that’s good, but it’s still a bit weird. We have been so long without it now.”
Nate: “It’s crazy. I’ve lived in London so it’s almost back to normal. I don’t know if you saw the Euros, the finals like Wembley was pretty packed, the streets, it’s crazy but there’s kind of a spike again in cases so that scares me you know, events are coming back but are they gonna stay. What’s nerve-racking about it for me, is actually booking shows and having to cancel them because I’ve had to do it twice now, I’ve cancelled two tours. We’re booking a tour at the moment and if something happens again we got to cancel it again, reissue tickets, it’s a nightmare, but also it’s exciting, getting back out on stages. I’m playing a gig next weekend in my town in Mullingar. They’re doing a charity event, and it’s gonna be streamed live but there’s a small crowd there so even if it’s only like 25 people or something that are allowed to be at the event, it’s still nice to get to play for a few people. Although here I’ve been doing open jam sessions. I’ve been to concerts in London so it’s quite unusual that Ireland is a little bit behind, but maybe they’re doing the right thing, who knows.”
Both Nate and Rune have new music in the works for the rest of this year and they told me what they are looking forward to the most.
Rune: “Releasing music and hopefully get some gigs outdoors in winter and, yeah, travel a little bit again. “
Nate: “I’m actually releasing an EP, and an album. We’re trying to do it this year but it’s looking like it’s gonna be next January. But I’ve got a five-track EP coming at the end of August and, the album will be next year so it’ll be a few singles coming out before that, I have a few videos done. Then I’m booking a tour for 2022. “
‘No Way Back From Your Love’ is an infectious tune that is perfect to enjoy in the sweltering heat of summer. Both Nate and Rune display their refined musical prowess within the track and the result is a luscious pop banger that beckons repeat plays.
Stream ‘No Way Back From Your Love’ below
Author: Danu
