Though they made the music in 2019, it took until this winter for the Danish duo X & Yde’s EP, Sound of a Bite, to come out. It’s worth the wait: Though the release is in conversation with the larger Danish indie community—one track features guitar from major scene movers ML Buch and Lola Hammerich—it is in its own space altogether. The record’s meandering rhythmic drift is at once jazzy and dissonant, pulling from a variety of musical traditions to make something that we can’t quite put our finger on. We sent some questions over to the duo. Read the article and listen to Sound of a Bite below.

If we're not mistaken, this is the first music you’ve released since 2019. Why the gap?

X & Y: Indeed it is. We made this music back in 2019 and found it on a lost hard drive last year while reconnecting as friends. As many might relate to, it was a crumbling sensation in 2020 and many things, relationships and structures, got dissected. An important and tough move to get through that catapulted growth in both of us. It was a very beautiful experience to be able to reconnect, move on from past hurdles, and at the same time share this music. 

We love the EP cover. Is there a story behind it?

X & Y: We thought the bone was interesting. Looked like a stretched X or a mirrored Y.  Felt like the sound of a bite. It’s made by Eli Rafanell. It’s from a comic they made about how dogs would be the only angels to forgive us if everything living died. 

Could you talk a bit about the lyrical themes explored on this EP?

X & Y: The lyrics explore juxtaposition, oral tradition, ad-lipping, lip-syncing, kissing, rhyming, speaking in tongue, and speaking up. Also, quoting some 400-year-old lesbian poems.

How does this project differ from your own individual practices?

X: It’s a very intuitive collaboration without needing to explain too much. Heatedly jumping on a carousel playing new age flute music while being emotionally confused together. 

Y: Yes it feels very playful. Going along with what initially were mistakes, and being taken somewhere unexpected. A lot of this EP was made on rum as I remember.

What is your favorite way to warp, mangle, or distort a sound?

X & Y: We love to just play around, the surprise and unexpected. We love overdrive, convolution and chorus a lot. To crash sounds and search for delicious bites in memo recordings and other audio files and use them in different ways. 

Any major vocal influences? 

Y : Elizabeth Fraser, 070 Shake.

X : Mercedes Sosa, Violeta Parra, Bad Bunny, Björk.

Who is an underrated Danish artist there should be more ears on?

X & Y: slim0 !!