Łaszewo, an electronic trio from Santa Barbara, has made an impression with their music, combining EDM and indie elements to create a thrilling, yet introspective sound that lingers. The trio is on tour for their debut album, In Color, released in August of this year. On Nov. 1, they will be at the Scoot Inn to deliver their sound to Austin. In an insightful interview, the trio discussed their musical evolution and reflected on their love for music-making. Read the interview below.
KVRX: What’s Łaszewo's origin story?
Matt: Initially, Łaszewo was a solo project that I started for fun in high school. It was my senior year of high school, and it was kind of just a hobby. I wasn't professionally interested in music at the time, but I was just making instrumental beats and stuff and posting them to SoundCloud for fun. And they're in the future-based realm of music that was popping off at the time, like the Louis the Child and Odessa kind of sound– and Flume. Then I went to college, and shortly after being in college, I met Justin at a party, and I was looking for other DJs and producers in our college town, Santa Barbara, to network with and make music with. Shortly after that, we decided to try to make some stuff together. Justin had this acapella that he had sitting around. He's like, let's try to make a song out of this. And we did, very shortly things came together within a day, and we're like, damn. That’s great workflow. There’s obviously something here, working together. We were like, why don't we just become a producer-DJ duo at that point? And we gave it a few days and we're like, alright, we're going to try to come up with a name between the two of us. If we don't top Łaszewo, we're just going to keep it, and we just ran with it.
Justin: About a month after that, I was getting off work and I heard a girl singing through a window. She was seeing karaoke, Whitney Houston. And I'm like, oh my god, I’ve got to meet that person instantly. So I go knock on the door, and there she is. She's living in a sorority house with like, 13 girls, she has her guitar, and I'm like, do you write songs too? She sang three songs for me, and I'm like, you're fake. Like, I honestly thought she was already famous, and she's like, I just do it for fun. I go to college here. I said, you gotta meet Matt. Like, you have to meet Matt. And it all just came together, right there within a month, and it was just perfect timing.
Kiki: Definitely, like, some kind of cosmic intervention.
How would you describe the sound of your music to someone who has never heard of Łaszewo?
Matt: Euphoric, electronic–
Kiki: Indie pop
Matt: Indie pop that finds itself in the EDM world of things, but also has this singer-songwriter element being brought to it through Kiki's vocals and lyricism. We bounce around in genres, but I think fundamentally, like instrumentally, we're rooted in chill, euphoric, electronic music, and then with that singer-songwriter element on top
If someone were listening to you for the first time, where would be the ideal setting to do so?
Kiki: When we make a song and I'm like, this is it, this is a great song, I imagine myself immediately driving with the windows down along the coast. I always know one of our songs is a good one if I go there when I'm listening to it. I'd say windows down in the car, just blasting like that. Yeah, that's a good vibe for sure.
Justin: I was about to say road trip, so right there with you.
What’s your songwriting process like?
Matt: It varies from song to song. When we first started out, it was initially a lot of Justin and I making instrumentals and then presenting them to Kiki, and Kiki would write over them. Then bam, we had a song done right there. As the years have gone on, it's definitely become a lot more collaborative, as far as making and starting songs from scratch, like the three of us there in the studio, but it still varies from time to time. There are songs that we all literally start from ground zero together. We're simultaneously writing lyrics and building an instrumental. It gets to a place, like, got a song, we polish it off. There are still songs that we have instrumentals for that Kiki writes over and then a lot of times too, Kiki will start ideas on the piano, and she'll have a top-line idea. We'll record that and then build an instrumental around that. So we really kind of cover all the bases.
What about the production process? What’s that like?
Matt: I usually like to set a mood with the chord progression that's making me feel something specific in that moment, and I think that's what provides the inspiration as far as where to take that specific instrumental. A lot of times I'll just lay down some drums first, then kind of be playing keys and I usually find that I can't really move forward, like truly inspired, unless the chords are moving me in that moment. I think that's kind of the foundation. Then, a lot of times, I'll get down a quick idea, and it's like, okay, I wasn't really feeling that, like it came to a roadblock. Then, I find that it's when you step away for a certain amount of time, come back a few hours later, you see things through a fresh and different lens in our hearing. That's a lot of times, when I have the clarity as far as what direction to take and instrumental, but it's a varied process every time.
Justin: [Matt and I] lived with each other for five years, so on random days I would hear something through the wall, and I'm like, what is that? And I would run in, I'm like, is that you, are you listening to some big song? He's like, No, I just made this. We would geek out on that, work on it, and then call Kiki over. She would come over, and we would just write the song right there … they come together pretty quick in the beginning.
Your debut album, In Color, came out in August of this year. How long had that been in the works?
Matt: Technically, probably a couple of years as far as the vocal ideas we had gotten started, like they had been stuff that [Kiki] had written a couple of years ago. But I'd say, the general body of it we started at the tail end of 2023.
Kiki: The actual album came together pretty quickly.
Matt: We made a goal in December to decide what we knew for sure we wanted to write … we wanted to have 20 demos all compiled together, that we could kind of choose from to make a more concise body of work. That all came together starting in the fall of 2023, when we really sat down and were like, let's write an album. Then the whole thing was written and produced a lot sooner than it actually came to completion as far as mixing and mastering, so I think it had been done a few months before. I would say the majority of it came in a month or two.
Kiki: I was gonna say that– that crazy month where we were in the studio, like every single day to hit that goal. It was 20 demos by the 20th of December. We were in the studio like every single day, and we wrote 20 new songs. Then, when we were compiling for the album, there's lyrics and melodies that we pulled from older versions of things, and added them in. But a lot of the songs came together in that crazy month
How were things in the studio?
Kiki: It was awesome. I honestly was living off of Red Bull.
Justin: Yeah, a lot of caffeine and Chick-fil-A. We should’ve named the album that.
Kiki: Yeah, it was insane. We got so much creativity out.
Matt: I’m ready to do that again … I mean, we tour a lot, we play a lot of shows, and so the majority of our years are spent finding that balance between traveling, playing shows, and then finding time to write music. And it was nice for once to have a break from shows; we were able to set aside an actual chunk of time to just hone in on the music. That's the greatest ever. I’m ready to do it again.
How does it feel to finally have the project released to the world?
Kiki: I remember, well, I can't remember which one of them said it to me, but, the day before it dropped, someone was like: tomorrow, you can never say that you never released an album … it was [Matt who said it] … tomorrow, you're a musician that's released an album, and you'll never be able to say you didn't. So it felt good. It was kind of weird, though, because everything came together quite a long time before that, so then by the time it was released, it was refreshing to see everybody's reaction. It brought new life to the songs for us, seeing it through other people's reactions.
Matt: Yes. And now getting to play the album out on tour and stuff, it's really special to see which people have already learned the words to what songs. It hasn't been out for too long, so that's been great, just seeing fans connect so quickly.
Is there a favorite song of yours from the album?
Kiki: My favorite is “I’m Violent.” I think it's been my favorite since we wrote it, like the day that we wrote it, I was like, yeah, this is it for me. And still, usually my favorites, or the songs we make that I like, switch around, but “I’m Violent” has been a very consistent one; I just love it.
Matt: Mine is “Headed Back Home,” the outro to the project. I feel like that song summarizes the last year and a half, two years of my life, lyrically to tea, and it has this massive crescendo that just keeps building and building to end the project off. And then Kiki just drops some absolute bars to wrap things up. It makes me feel alive.
Justin: I would agree with that, but I’ll just say something new. I'll go “I Wanna Live. I jump around. I'm usually like, I love them, but those three songs, to me, are my favorite three. I really like the songwriting, and structure, and just the overall song.
How would you say your sound has evolved over time?
Matt: As I said before, like when Łaszewo first started, it was very inspired by the future-based movement and super saws and wobble synths and stuff, which were my production influence. Then, as the three of us started working together more collaboratively, we've maintained the electronic sound of things, but also have brought in the singer-songwriter stuff, but also in the more sonic element of indie.
Kiki: I’d say that came with it becoming a more collaborative process, like, the more comfortable we got with each other making music together. I don't really listen to electronic music, so a lot of my influence comes from classic rock or old songs, or honestly country music, and those influences come out a lot more now, now that we all collaborate so closely on everything, and then the same with our lyrics. Sometimes I’ll write lyrics that are super singer-songwriter and super intimate, but they don't quite work with the production. So we'll electronify that, if that makes sense, kind of make it fit into the electronic world a bit better while still maintaining that intimacy. So yeah, I think our sound has become a lot more true to us as people, yeah,
Are there any specific musical artists who have been influential to you?
Kiki: As a group, it's Coldplay. That's one throughline; we all grew up listening to Coldplay. We all love Coldplay, but then individually, it varies.
Matt: Flume and Odessa were what got me into producing electronic music. I think I will always carry a bit of inspiration from them, from day one.
Kiki: Mine is a lot of lyricism, like Billie Eilish. I also love Tom O'Dell and Holly Humberstone. More intimate, acoustic singer-songwriters.
Justin: I would say Flume and Louis the Child.
What’s your favorite thing about being part of the EDM scene today?
Matt: It’s a fun community to be a part of.
Kiki: Such good energy, and the fans are awesome.
Matt: We dip into both the EDM and indie world, so we have a pretty diverse fan base of people that are straight-up EDM fans and like us because of that, and we have a lot of indie fans as well. But, through and through, it's been so apparent that the EDM world attracts such a positive and energetic and lively fan base. We've seen that at our shows and just through connecting with people at festivals and stuff. Overall, it's a very special community to be a part of.
What was your favorite concert experience? Have you had a favorite audience?
Justin: Last Halloween, Chicago. There’s an energy around Halloween; everyone's dressed up. And Chicago's just such a great city. There was something special about that show, so we're really excited about Austin this weekend. We have very high expectations coming off last year's Halloween, but we think this will be great.
Kiki: I think every show has something special and different about it. I can't pinpoint an exact one, but for some reason, the shows where something goes a little bit wrong are always my favorite because everybody's just so nice and it brings you closer as a room. It's just a room full of people, and there isn't a separation between us and the people who are there to see us anymore. You know, it's like we're all in it together. So those are, honestly, my favorite – when the show isn't perfection.
Matt: For example, we played New York a couple of weeks ago, and our second song in, the power cut out, and the music stopped playing, and they couldn't get it back on for a full 17 minutes. And so we're just on stage.
Kiki: Microphones weren’t working.
Matt: We’re half trying to figure out how to get running, but it’s not on us. Then, we’re improving with the crowd.
Kiki: Everyone is just hung in there, and then everyone had such a good time when we got things back up and running, but that’s probably the worst thing that could happen, and it ended up being a phenomenal show.
Justin: It kind of adds to the show. It builds participation … every time things have happened, it's turned out to be a really good show.
Kiki: But we try to keep it to a minimum!
Matt: I have one specific one. I can't speak if it's my absolute favorite, but our LA stop last year on our first headline tour, the Meet Us in the Middle tour. It was the first time we had been on the road for over a month at a time, and we all live in LA, so coming back to our hometown after being on the road for so long was so special, and we had some special guests come out – Goldfish and Riz Levy and Arden Jones – that we love. We've made music with them and performing that show with all of them for our hometown crowd, after being on the road for so long felt really special.
Do you have any unique pre-show rituals/traditions?
Justin: We’ve done one thing every show, I think ever. We’ve never missed it in five years, knock on wood. We do 10 jumping jacks right before we go on, in a circle, just to hype each other up.
Kiki: Yeah, it's one of the best things that I think we could have come up with, because, for me especially, it really helps shake those nerves, because your heart's racing, and you’re excited to get up there, and doing 10 jumping jacks kind of gives you a reason to have your heart racing and a reason to have your blood pumping. So it's not as like, oh my god, I'm just scared. It's like, all right, I'm in the zone now, and it's a great way to just get us moving, get the blood pumping.
What are you looking most forward to at the Scoot Inn?
Matt: The obvious one is that it's Halloween and we're going to be dressing up. We told all of our fans to dress up, so that’s just going to bring great energy in general. Another thing is that it’s our first and only show on the tour that is outdoors. I've found that outdoor shows, like in little outdoor amphitheater, sometimes have a different kind of energy to them, in an exciting way, just being under, under the stars and whatnot at night time, so I’m excited to be outdoors.
Kiki: We also have friends in Austin, so we’ve been here a couple of times, and there are just such good people here. It’s always a really fun time.
What’s your favorite thing about Austin?
Kiki: How wonderful it is, and how everybody's outside doing stuff all the time. In LA, you can't walk anywhere, so I just love that once you go somewhere here, you can walk to a bunch of places, and there's a bunch of cool young people out and about.
Matt: The food’s insane.
Kiki: Yeah, the food’s really good. There’s always live music somewhere, which is also sick, like the music scene is so cool.
What’s next in store?
Matt: At this present moment, we just hit the halfway point of our tour, and we essentially went straight from releasing the album to touring the album. We have a month left of touring the album, and then after that, we’ve got a couple of surprises. We’ve got a couple of surprises left for the rest of the year we can't speak to in too much detail, but in 2025, we’re excited to put out the best music we’ve ever written.
Kiki: We’re all feeling very excited to just get in the studio, go back to the basics. That’s where we absolutely thrive, in the studio making music. I've heard other artists, they'll get an Airbnb somewhere for like a month and take all their studio equipment and just go and make an album, and that sounds like a dream. So maybe we’ll do something like that.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.