Stefanie’s still figuring that out for herself. Indeed, the enforced quiet time the pandemic brought afforded her the time and space to do so “because COVID was there and there were no shows. There was no work, there was no life, there was nothing, and the only thing that remained were the thoughts in my head.” It was during this pause that Unison Life was made, with a year-and-a-half of solid focus poured into it. This was the longest they had ever spent working on one body of work as their hectic touring schedules would usually never have permitted them to do so. Naturally, when music, her bandmates and her own thoughts were all she had, Stefanie’s lyrical output was deeply reflective, as she contemplated this idyllic concept and the often unhealthy steps she would take towards achieving it.
“I’m a person that runs away from uncomfortable situations,” she admits. “I never want to start discussions, because I hate it. The songs are a bit about that, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. For example, the song Liar is about me lying so that I don’t have to say the truth, so that the moment is comfortable for everyone. But eventually, the lies come to the surface, and then it’s fucked anyway.”
The band began work on Unison Life remotely, but in the end, only one or two songs from those sessions made the final cut. What they truly thrived off is the kind of natural, in-person interaction that can’t be fully replicated on a Zoom call. Instead, they hunkered down together in a COVID bubble (remember those?) and got to work. When they weren’t writing, they hung out as friends rather than as bandmates, talking about music, even cooking together. This downtime they enjoyed together, where they weren’t necessarily being musicians, just people, was, in its own way, productive.
“I think [it helped us] understand each other better when we were writing music,” says guitarist Stijn Vanhoegaerden. “We knew better what everybody separately wanted from songs. It was a lot easier because we talked more about it.”
“It was kind of like team-building,” adds Peter. “When you’re on tour, you also spend a lot more time together, but the mindset is different. It’s moving from city to city in a van, with timings and soundchecks. It’s different than in a pandemic when everything was down and we just had each other. We only had this.”