Danish singer-songwriter Mads Langer chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about his new music.
Your songs have such a lovely essence to them. They are incredibly endearing and are almost pleading for the listener to see, to feel, and to hear the goodness that is in life and love. What do you hope people feel when they hear your music?
I’m hoping that people will feel recognized. I hope that they will see themselves in my songs. I try to write songs from a very honest place, and that means that I write songs about the good things in life but also about the tough things in life.
I write about love but also about longing – and sometimes love and longing co-exist (and it’s the same with light and dark). It’s about hopes and fears and everything in life. If they feel recognized, my dream has come true, basically.
“Where Oceans Meet” was created around the world and then you ended up being at home for a long time due to the pandemic. How did those two opposites affect the album – its overall sound and the lyrics?
I’ve been traveling and touring since I was 18 years old and I don’t think I had slept in my own bed for more than 2-3 weeks in a row since starting that journey. So the fact that I’ve been sleeping and spending time in my own house and among the same surroundings for more than a year has definitely affected the whole creative process around “Where Oceans Meet.”
You can tell it’s been super-focused with a common thread running throughout the entire album. I haven’t been touring and recording at the same time like I’ve done on many of my other songs prior to this album, so I’ve had time to really dive deep into the process and hopefully, people can hear that.
“Where Oceans Meet” is available on Spotify by clicking here.
Take us through the creation of “Lightning” – did it start out as an anthem about universal love or did its message evolve over time and influence the concept of the video? Or was the video concept thought up as a complement to the song’s lyrics?
When I wrote “Lightning” I wanted to write a song about recognition – those magic moments in life when you fall in love…the first time I looked my little daughter in the eyes, the moment I’m on stage and the audience and my music kind of collide and you feel that energy at the same time with a lot of other people…I wanted to write about those moments.
Getting struck by lightning in that sense was a beautiful image (for me, at least) and when I did the video I decided with the director that we should basically pay a tribute to all kinds of love.
I think it’s important to talk about inclusion, it’s important to talk about the importance of diversity and we’ve all got to fight those old views on what love is because I have many friends, I have close family that doesn’t fit into the heteronormative boxes that we have sort of were told is the only way that love could be for many years all over the world, and that is just not true.
Love is beautiful regardless of anything. If two people love each other, I think it’s a beautiful thing no matter what.
The video for “Lightnin” stars actor Alex Høgh Andersen (“The Vikings”) and it may be seen below.
“Monsters in My Mind” has nearly three million Spotify streams. What do you attribute that success to?
I think “Monster in My Mind” is a song that people can relate to because anxiety and mental health are huge issues for so many of us. I feel like the world is stressed out and many people feel like they can’t keep up. I don’t think that ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ are the biggest problems today with our youth, it’s mental health issues.
That’s the biggest challenge for the younger generations and even the older, too. I guess there are a lot of people out there like myself who have had to find a way through life, through the anxiety. I’m so glad that people have taken this song into their hearts and that we can share it together.
“Hanging With You” is another fan favorite, with 1.2 million streams. It’s such a catchy song. What can you tell me about it?
“Hanging With You” is a favorite of mine. I wrote the song in LA before everything closed down and that song just had to be on the album.
For me, it’s full of summer memories, it’s full of memories of me hanging out with my friends in the sun in California. And then when everything closed down immediately it took a whole new meaning for me because those were things that we took for granted before and all of a sudden we couldn’t do.
I hope that people can feel the sense of appreciation I was trying to convey, appreciation for those times when we can see each other and party and hug a stranger and go to festivals and concerts and all the kinds of things that we used to do and are slowly becoming able to do again.
You have such a strong connection with your fans. They adore you and you really show genuine affection toward them as well! What do you attribute that to?
I think I have such a strong connection with my fan base because I’m basically just like them. I’m not trying to portray myself as some sort of superhuman. I feel like the fact that I try to just be open about the stuff in life that I find really challenging means that people can relate.
It took a long time for me to build a platform where I can actually make a living out of music, and so I really appreciate my fans, I really appreciate that people show up to my concerts and that they stream my music. I hope that they can feel that I don’t take them and my success for granted at all. I feel very grateful every day.
Are there certain types of songs that your fans seem drawn to more than others (ballads vs. upbeat, love songs vs. philosophical songs)?
I think different types of songs hold different places in people’s lives. I think the songs that people feel the most drawn to are the ballads, the more thoughtful songs. But I also feel like those ballads have to co-exist with the happier songs as well because that’s like life – there is both light and dark. So people can dance and cry and laugh at the same time at my concerts.
Does that affect your songwriting or song selection for albums? Or do you follow your creative instincts?
When I’m in my creative space, I’m not really thinking about anything but that moment, so I never have the final result in mind when I’m writing a song. I’m just following the flow.
Sometimes I end up writing happy songs, sometimes I end up writing songs that are not happy at all. That’s how I feel it should be. If you try to overthink it, I think that the end result won’t be as good.
If there was just one thing you’d want US music fans to know about you, what would it be?
The US means a lot to me. I’ve spent at least three or four months a year in the US since I was 19 years old so it feels like a second home. I always feel a connection with people when I go to there. I’m just hoping that I can meet a lot of you guys next year when I come back again for promotion and touring.
To learn more about Mads Langer, check out his website, Facebook and Instagram.
