Austrian artist Beaks discusses the making of her new album ALDIE, writing poetry on the move, finding comfort in cycling and the importance of being kinder to yourself.
For Austrian artist Beaks, songwriting and poetry have always been closely connected. Her new album, ALDIE, came together over several months of travelling, with ideas scribbled down in bars, taxis and on friends’ sofas before finding their way into the studio. Made largely alongside close friend and collaborator Markus Windisch, the record moves between humour, vulnerability and moments of self-reflection, taking its title from an unusual nickname given to her during a particularly difficult summer. We caught up with Beaks to talk about the stories behind the album, the relationship between words and music, and why sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is get outside and ride your bike.
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
I wish I knew, it’s hard to tell. I’m from Austria and my music project is called Beaks.
We’ve been listening to ALDIE and really love it. How did the album come together?
Thank you, I’m happy you like it! It was a pretty natural process of just making music. One of the songs was produced by Isaac Eiger and Filous later played drums on it. The rest was made with my friend Markus Windisch.
You made the record across several months while travelling between cities. Did you find yourself writing differently depending on where you were?
I am inspired by my surroundings a lot. I pick up what’s happening around me, so yeah, I guess I did. I wrote a lot during that time. I would sit in bars in New York, on the bench out front of the house in Norway, in a taxi in Berlin or on my friend’s couch in Vienna and write. Then I went and took these notes to the studio.
What does ALDIE mean, and when did you realise it was the right title?
When I arrived in Paris last summer, I was really exhausted emotionally and physically, and my friend referenced Pete Doherty by saying I had a little death around the eyes. We talked the whole night on a bench in the 9th next to a basketball court. After that, he nicknamed me ALDIE, which is an abbreviation for A Little Death Inside the Eyes. I chose that as a title for the record intuitively.
You’ve written poetry for years. When you have an idea, how do you know whether it wants to become a poem or a song?
I don’t have ideas. When it comes to poems, I just write and it flows out of me. When I’m in the studio, I bring my notebooks. Most of the time it is like a puzzle and I finish writing in the studio.
You made the album with your close friend Markus Windisch. What does he bring out in you that might not come through if you were working alone?
I am a writer and he is a very talented instrumentalist and producer. We are a perfect match creatively and very good friends at the same time. We understand each other on a level where, while working on a song, we will finish each other’s sentences. He always pushes me to step out of my comfort zone.
‘Hit Me Back’ began after a show at Eurosonic and was a demo by three in the morning. What do you remember about hearing it back the next day?
I remember we were on the plane back to Vienna. Markus was seated a few rows ahead of us and worked on the song. We texted him so he would send us the updated demo, but he wouldn’t, so we started pressuring him with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and sent him the Goblin of Greed. He replied with Guarded Treasure. I don’t know why I am telling you this, but I guess it was funny. You had to be there haha.
You’ve called ‘Little Silver’ a letter to yourself. What were you trying to tell yourself when you wrote it?
I didn’t even know I wrote it for myself until I listened back to it a week before the release. It was a beautiful moment. ‘Little Silver’ is a call to not be so hard on yourself all the time and instead be loving and caring to your body and soul.
Bikes appear in both ‘Little Silver’ and ‘Crosswalk’. Is that a deliberate connection between the songs, or did you only notice it afterwards?
There definitely is a deliberate connection that I only noticed afterwards. ‘Little Silver’ is about self-love. It tells you to go outside and ride your bike because, as we know from ‘Crosswalk’, the faster we go, the quicker the tears dry.
Your songs seem comfortable letting a funny or bright moment sit next to something much harder. Does that reflect how you experience those feelings in life?
I’ve never seen it like that in my songs, like the funny and hard next to each other, but I think that’s just how life is.
You studied photography and graphic design before making music your main focus. Do you see a song clearly in your head when you’re writing it, or do its visual elements come later?
I see it in a very abstract way, like colours and the feeling of a world, but most of the time I cannot translate it into a visual at all. If it was supposed to be a visual in the first place, it wouldn’t be a song. My friend Juanita helped me with this a lot for this specific record. She’s awesome and also makes sick music (kid on air).
You’ve played these songs in a lot of different places, and now you’re taking ALDIE out on a headline tour. Which song are you most curious to see change once you start playing it live?
Probably ‘Vanilla Sky’.
What do you love right now?
The air outside, riding my bike, my typewriter, my friends, the Beat Generation.
What do you hate right now?
Clout, war, sexism, microtrends.
Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you.
An American Prayer by Jim Morrison and The Doors. Another one would be Pure Heroine by Lorde. Incredible record, it always transports me back to my teenage self.
When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?
The lyrics.
