London-based alt-pop duo REYKO have released their highly anticipated third album “Fantasia”. The album features a colourful mix of themes and styles, inspired by artists such as Jane Birkin, The Beatles, and Billie Eilish. It includes tracks sung in English and Spanish, covering a range of themes from love stories to heartbreak, with a mix of instrumentals, psychedelic electronica, and ballads. We caught up with them to chat about inspirations and the new album’s reception!
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your new album, “Fantasía”?
It has a lot to do with the moment in time when we wrote the album, which was the end of 2021 and 2022. Huge post pandemic euphoria, but at the same time nuclear threats, big crisis scares on the news, but at the same time loads of travelling and playing in new countries, new places, etc…So we wanted to reflect all these extremes and how we were living them with our music.
Your music has been described as an eclectic, genre-defying amalgam of pop songs and inventive, quirky sounds. How do you go about blending different genres and influences in your music?
We are actually learning along the way hahaha! When we first started we naturally tried to imitate the bands and music we looked up to. It did take us a bit of time to come to terms that we don’t necessarily need to belong to any trends, styles or scenes and just do our thing and be ourselves. It kind of feels like it’s more a psychological thing about accepting who we are, with all the different little nuances of taste, backgrounds, moods, languages, etc… and to throw it all together in the pot when we make music.
Your album features songs sung in both English and Spanish, can you talk about the decision to include both languages and how it contributes to the overall sound of the album?
It’s just who we are, really: two Spaniards who have spent most of our adult lives in London. It just feels natural to write songs in both languages because we switch between them in almost every sentence depending who we’re speaking to: to each other, a friend from the neighbourhood or a video call with a family member.
You have had a lot of success with your previous albums, including millions of streams and touring internationally. How do you feel about the reception of “Fantasía” so far?
Yes, we feel very fortunate that people have been listening to our music in the last three years, especially given the world’s circumstances. It made us survive as a band, really, and we’re very grateful for that. That’s how we’ve been able to tour internationally this last year. It was basically playing in places where we see that people listen to us.
As for the reception of “Fantasía”, so far we’re quite happy with it. It’s still quite early to form a solid opinion, though. We do feel like there’s a nice exciting vibe going on. We hope that once we start touring the album, the initial excitement will grow into something bigger.
Can you talk about the creative process behind your album artwork and how it relates to the themes and sounds of “Fantasía”?
The artwork was done by the incredible American artist Kim Hamburg. We had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted when it came to colours, collages and mood, and we found Kim on Instagram. What struck us about her art is that she pretty much already did in her own work whatever we had in mind! We just needed to give her a couple of guidelines and she did her own thing. She does all her art in analogue and she mixes collages, painting, drawing, etc… and puts it all together. We’re very happy with the final result as it really represents the music visually.