rikas - soundtrack for a movie that haas not been written yet - nettwerk

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To be in a band is to constantly transform, grow, and change. Can you grow with each other? Can you bend to unforeseeable industry changes? Can you take what life throws at you and become stronger as a unit? Life doesn’t stop—can you successfully move forward together? This is what Germany’s Rikas have had to do in order to create their riveting forthcoming sophomore album, Soundtrack For A Movie That Has Not Been Written Yet.

“We started this record just to have fun. It's not been that easy, because so much change has happened,” guitarist and keyboardist Sascha Scherer says. “We’ve have to learn to adapt… This record is more inward-looking. We were reflecting.”

“I think a lot of bands have trouble staying still,” he adds. “When you stop touring and moving to a new city each day, you feel lost. I feel like our new album is capturing that feeling of go, go, go.” This feeling of inertia contains layers: there’s a sense of restlessness, but also brotherhood and camaraderie—feelings Rikas aim to depict in each of the album’s videos.

The breezy alt-pop foursome have been in forward motion with each other since their earliest days starting out in their hometown of Stuttgart. Now based in Berlin, Sascha, bassist Sam Luca Baisch, drummer Ferdinand Hübner, and guitarist Chris Ronge have built a loyal following around their brisk, easygoing harmonies, anthemic choruses, and egalitarian style, where every member contributes equally to songwriting and shares the spotlight both in the studio and on stage. 

Following their warm and inviting 2019 debut album, Showtime, and two interim EPs (2021’s Short Stories and 2022’s Goodbye Sunshine), Soundtrack For A Movie That Has Not Been Written Yet promises to be Rikas’ most cohesive and contemplative project yet, with 11 brisk yet beautiful tracks that showcase the band’s tight tempos and mellow delivery. 

Recorded at Hansa Studios Berlin with Daniel Schaub, Soundtrack also comprises several tracks left over from sessions in Los Angeles with producer Jonathan Rado (who also produced the Goodbye Sunshine EP). “A lot of songs have themes around moving and driving,” says Sam. Indeed, Rikas have been propelled forward in ways both literal and metaphorical. “We wrote a lot of songs in different places—we wrote demos with Benny Sings in Amsterdam, then we had a phase where we did our last EP in LA,” Sam continues. “It's always jumping around. The overall theme connecting these songs is motion.”

Opening Soundtrack is “Bike In LA,” a mid-tempo, piano-led ballad that reflects Rikas’ excitement to be in Southern California and simultaneous bemusement at how little distance a two-wheeler will cover in Los Angeles. “We rented a car, and it was such a different world to the one we were used to in Europe,” says Sam, who is German-American. “We did everything with that car. It was like such a contrast to the city life we have here in Berlin, where I can walk everywhere.” Sascha adds: “It means that finding our path, shaping our art and growing our relationships takes patience. Because you have to find out how your vehicle works and therefore where it belongs.”

Later, on the psychedelic groover “Passenger,” Rikas invites their audience to ride with them on the band’s unpredictable yet undeniably rewarding journey. “The moment that we wrote ‘Passenger’ was late in the process of making the album,” Sascha says. “The record made more sense to me after writing it. Before going into the mixing process, we were on holiday for two weeks during the summer. Sam and I came back and talked about what our plans are now. After we had some coffee, we started to make music. The recording process is not as creative as writing, sometimes. It felt like we were leaving to just play music and write. ‘Passenger’ finished in a day. It had to go on the record because it closes this chapter off.”

Meanwhile, the ‘70s funk/R&B-inspired “Strangers” is a direct homage to Celeste’s 2019 soul single “Strange,” which contemplates a shifting relationship from strangers to lovers and then back again. “We were in this room, jamming with the cords,” Sascha recalls. “Sam was repeating the ‘strangers’ part of the song—the theme already was there. The words, even though they were written by someone else, were absolutely fitting. We thought, let's stick with them because they felt so natural.”

Album closer “Jude Bellingham” features a lush, minor-chord melody about the Real Madrid soccer player of the same name. “It's a pretty European song,” laughs Sam. “We felt really inspired by these 2005 indie songs, like Peter, Bjorn & John. We wanted to make a song with that kind of drive.” 

He continues, “It’s a reference to our childhood. Because soccer is such a big thing in Europe. It’s how kids grow up… It’s a reference to the golden age of soccer where everything was cool and people like David Beckham were becoming superstars. Now, soccer is not the same as it was. Everything Is dictated by money, but Jude Bellingham is kind of the opposite. He stands for really cool things.”

The sunshiney, keys-and-guitar dance track “Barcelona” contemplates the idea of escape and starting over, perhaps in a Spanish art city. “‘Barcelona’ is about the feeling of wanting to move, but you never move,” Sam shares. “It's also inspired by bands like The Whitest Boy Alive and Parcels—they have a more European sound.” 

On the whimsical, daytime disco jam “Just Like Ice Cream,” Rikas let go of their usual structured approach and give into the freedom of simply jamming out together. “Lyrically, the idea of ice cream melting symbolizes a midlife crisis, or a feeling of going through a lot of temperature—or personal—changes in one day,” Sam says.  

“Opposite Opinions,” a crisply produced, rhythmic holdover from 2020 comprises skittering drumbeats and strumming acoustic guitar while looking at a world filled with global conflict and polarized points of view. “I think with that song, we were always pretty shy with it,” Sam says. Because it also has a different beat and feel to it. It came up really fast and easy, but we weren’t sure about it. We kept it to ourselves for a long time, but now we're at the point where we're gonna let it go.”

Things slow down on the yearning, bittersweet “Heartbreak Big Mac,” which the band wrote on a chilly, sunny day in Vienna. “It’s our favorite song on the whole record,” Sam says. “When we did the demo, we were spending a couple of days in this really cool writing studio. All four of us were in one room and finished it together. The theme of the song was probably to write a Beatles-esque song… When I write, I like to think in pictures. I already can picture the music video, which will be [drummer] Ferdinand Hübner sitting on this bench in Italy, eating a Big Mac.”

Sascha adds that Rikas, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, were inspired by an early viral video featuring an inebriated David Hasselhoff eating a burger: “It’s this heartbroken, devastated feeling.”

Finally, the jaunty, synth-packed “Where Do You Go” came out of the band’s Amsterdam sessions with Benny Sings and takes inspiration from Japanese ‘70s/’80s City pop. “We were thinking of early sitcoms that could be for a Disney movie or something like that,” Sam describes “Similar to ‘Ice Cream,’ it’s a really fun song but more depressing, lyrically. Like, ‘What do I want to see for myself in a world that's like falling apart.’” 

As Rikas look to the future, which will see not only the release of Soundtrack, plus 2024 European headline tour dates and festival appearances, the quartet, refreshed and renewed, are ready to take on just about anything.