Name: Loki’s Folly
Members: Annie Kuchenmeister (guitar, vocals), Nissa Kuchenmeister (drums, vocals), Oskar Kuchenmeister (bass)
Interviewee: Annie Kuchenmeister
Nationality: American
Current release: Loki’s Folly's debut album, Sisu, is out via Kitten Robot.

If you enjoyed this Loki’s Folly interview and would like to know more about the band and their music, visit their official website. The group is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.  



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics, etc play?

Personal relationships and emotions definitely play a strong role in our music. Many of these songs are pulled from very personal experiences and writing about them is a sort of therapeutic process. Songs like “Appease the Girl” and “The Love Song” both came from experience.



Other forms of art like books and movies definitely inspire us a lot! I think “Trickster” is one song that pulls exclusively from the media, we were trying to write a song from the perspective of a trickster-type character. Characters like Loki, Puck, and Harlequins of any kind were at the forefront of that one.



For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

We rely a lot on chance and letting the songs speak for themselves and working things through in a natural way.

There are very few songs on this record that we had a solid idea of how it was going to end up, it was a lot of pulling ideas from different places and trying to get the most accurate representation of whatever we were trying to convey. So it was more about finding the concept that we wanted to go for and then experimenting until we found the way we wanted it to go.

That being said, “The Love Song” is one song that was written all in one go and it was very impressive to watch Nissa literally just write it out top to bottom especially since she was so young when she wrote it.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

On this album in particular the songs did definitely go through a number of versions. We started writing these songs back in 2017 and have been performing and perfecting them over the years. So there was a lot of preparation that went into what you hear on the record.

But, as far as sitting down to get a song started it is helpful to have a specific researched concept to get the ball rolling. Also sometimes having a collection of ideas that you can pull from is helpful and really going for a literal brainstorm with letting things come and go and morph into a finished product.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Our ritual for a few of these songs was to have songwriting sleepovers where we would sit together with a laptop listening to different stuff, usually with snacks, and work things out. It was a very fun process and I definitely recommend it for having a good time and also getting some creative energy flowing.

When we aren’t working together on a song though, it is nice to set your space up with things that make you feel good and are conducive to focus, like lighting a candle or even putting on a record that is inspiring to you.

Also sometimes changing up the scenery is helpful for working on a song. Things like going to coffee shops or sitting in a park are all things I have done to get into my creativity. That was our tactic for finishing “Little Mermaid”, we had been working on it and things were going slow.




So we took it to a coffee shop and the lyrics just came pouring out as quick as the coffee.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

We try to change things up from song to song, sometimes starting with a riff and finding lyrical content or syllables to match the sound, or sometimes writing out lyrics and building the music off of the emotions in the words.

It can sometimes be very difficult to start a song, especially when it feels like nothing sounds good anymore and you really want to give up. It just takes either time to let go of those feelings, or pushing through and getting the song done to get past that roadblock.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

It sort of depends on the song. We really try to change up how we start things so each song is very unique in that way where it could’ve started with a riff or a chord progression. Or it could’ve started with a poem and then grown from there.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

I think lyrics are good when they are from the heart and communicate effectively what the artist is trying to convey. That is what I try to do when I sit down to write a song: to get the most unadulterated version of an emotion, situation, or concept.

I think my main challenge is getting more direct with some of my songwriting. I have a tendency to kind of inch around the subject.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

It is a lot of tinkering and messing around with sounds and combinations of instrumentation, lyrics and vocals between the three of us.

There does tend to be a sort of click once we’ve found the way we want to do it. It is very rewarding to get to the point where a song is finished and we all feel happy with how each instrument and sound available is being used.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I think if there is a way to keep strict control of the process, we haven’t found it! It is definitely an organic flowy process where things come and go and intermix until something forms out of the process.

One song that you can really hear this amalgamate process of pulling things together and making a sort of frankenstein song is probably “Into the Darkness” where everything goes together even though it is a lot happening all at once.



Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

It is definitely hard to decide which idea is the best of all the options for a song. Luckily between the three of us we can usually figure out what we all feel strongly about and what feels like the best fit.

We also always try to save alternative ideas in case they will be useful for another song!

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

It definitely feels like entering another spiritual realm when working creatively.

I think that in order to make anything, you do have to be in that mindset of letting go of the material world for a while and living only on your own world of music or whatever other things it is you like to create.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

We like to have a clear goal for the concept of what we are trying to convey, be it an emotion, story or experience, so once it feels like we have gotten the most accurate representation it starts to feel finished.

Also, once we’ve played it a number of times and it has a really good feeling together then that is a good sign.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?

We definitely let songs sit for a while and keep playing them.

We tend towards having an open mind towards sort of always being creative with a song. If we write something and have been playing it for a few months but then have a new idea on how to make it even better, we would never shy away from changing things up.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

These things all have a lot of weight on the end product of a song. These things can take a really good song and make it sound wrong or out of place if it is not in the same mindset as the music. Which is to say you could have the best and most expensive production ever, but if there is a miscommunication on what the end result should be then it can sound totally wrong for what you intend.

We were very lucky to get to work with some amazing people in the production of this record, and they were all very collaborative and wanted to make the songs sound exactly how we envisioned them.

We got to be fairly involved in this process, and it was very nice to work with the people we did because we could tell them our ideas and they have the practical knowledge to make them a reality.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Immediately after finishing a song, it can feel a little bit empty and hard to get back in the swing. Sometimes all it takes is a little break or reframing your mindset or even literally changing up your process or workspace to get going again.

Luckily for us we have been working on the songs for this album for so long that any emptiness has long passed so the release is just exhilarating and we feel ready for the next!

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Experimentation would probably be the key difference.

For daily mundane tasks, I know the whole process and have done it many times whereas when I am working on music the main goal is finding new and different ways of doing things.

So if were to write songs like how I make a cup of coffee, then I would not be succeeding at that goal of constant change.