Audrey Horne sat down with the twin sister musical duo Say Lou Lou members Elektra and Miranda Kilbey to talk about their new album Dust, released in full November 22. The ladies dive into the inspiration behind their dreamy sound, the impact of the pandemic on their songwriting, and the self-reflective, healing aspects of a breakup explored in Dust.

Northern Transmissions: This album is about heartbreak, realizing you are growing distant from someone, the stages of a breakup, going through that pain – I can feel the emotion so palpably, the melancholy and deep feeling, as well as the ups and downs of that process, one moment feeling happiness or hope for freedom, the other sorrow – tell me about living in that headspace and re-living heartbreak while writing these songs. What were you trying to focus on and capture?

Miranda: It’s interesting because through the first ten years of our career we didn’t write about personal experiences in that way. We would see [songwriting] as a vessel for more general stories, political messages, or other worlds. Throughout our 20s we went through several big breakups. During the pandemic we each went through a breakup but we never wrote personal songs about it. We broke up [as a band] and then got back together and both thought it was time to get more personal and write literal songs.

Elektra: In some ways you try to protect yourself. It’s sometimes hard to access what’s right in front of you in terms of lyrics and the message of the song. Post-pandemic it’s easy to see exactly what happened: I got sober, I tried doing pilates. Let it be not the most poetic, let it be what it is. It’s sort of basic but it’s also something that people go through in a breakup

The pandemic was a reset for everyone – you couldn’t go anywhere or do anything. You were literally housebound and had to sit with yourself. Inevitably you had to deal with your own stuff. We did a lot of writing, journaling and inner quests because we didn’t have a choice not to. Within that, I took things a little less for granted. There was a little less to lose and within that process the whole music industry changed, the way people consume music, the way artists are heard or not heard. We have seen a huge shift in the way most of our friends in creative industries work. There’s been more content being pushed out, but less budget and space for people to make a living in their endeavors. It is hard to know what it is when it’s happening but I think the pandemic was the host for a lot of those things.

NT: What is it like writing music as sisters? How do you maintain a shared vision while bringing in aspects of your individuality? Especially when it comes to something as personal as a breakup?

Elektra: I wrote the lyrics for the record – a concoction of several different of my breakups – imagined perspectives from my ex-boyfriend’s point of view. Miranda has been a part of it, writing and editing. Waiting for a Boy we did write together and In my dreams.

Miranda : Sometimes when something’s really lived, there’s a lot of navel-gazing. Enough with the bitterness – you’re not a victim!

Elektra: I’m more dramatic and Miranda’s a bit more of a realist.

NT: Outside of music, is there other inspiration – maybe a piece of art, a movie or book, or a specific moment in time that you can point to, that helped you process heartbreak? Is there any of that influence in Dust?

Elektra: Music and film – for me especially film – is what gets me through life and is what has gotten me through life since I was a little girl. It is my companion through depression, heartbreak, anxiety, all those things. I feel like watching movies, whether it’s a basic comedy or a serious noir movie – when you feel an affinity with a character you feel less alone.

Miranda: Ray of Life (the Madonna album) has always been one I come back to for heartbreak. It reminds me of being 5 or 6 years old. It has a comfort, the songs and the videos all give me comfort. In that album she is someone who is making a change. She had a child, her spirituality has started coming to her and she has a lot of clarity and confidence about her heartbreak. She’s very clear.

NT: What were your visual inspirations?

Miranda: For the first part of Dust, we were inspired by the superficial era that was the visual companion to our childhood. The early 2000s when pop was extremely sexy. Hifi videos made us self conscious – we had a poster of Britney Spears, us doing that ourselves in a satirical ironic way. We were playing around with superficiality – this revenge ex-girlfriend, scorned ex energy. We’ve now pivoted into the second part of Dust which is more about self help, reflection and the guilt you feel in a breakup when you’ve moved on before the other person. Slightly esoteric but more dreamlike.

NT: You said in a recent interview that Dust Part 1 is about anger and Dust Part 2 is more about self-reflection. What do you think – or hope – comes next, after self-reflection? What do you look to in the future?

Elektra: The new songs we’ve written have nothing to do with a man or men. The new songs are about finding our place in the world, reckoning with the zeitgeist and how it makes us feel, reckoning with ourselves and our womanhood and getting older. New songs pass the Bechdel test. Dust Part 1 does not pass the Bechdel test, but you have to get it out of you. You just need to talk about it and tell everyone about it. And one day you wake up and you really don’t care anymore. But you need that time to be low vibrational.

NT: Who do you hope this album reaches and speaks to?

Elektra: Anyone who may have a moment who needs some comfort. We were talking about taking public transport. Whatever you’re listening to becomes a soundtrack to your daily life. That’s what we want. I want someone sitting on a bus or the tube, listening to it, reflecting on their life. Seeing life in a different color. I want to make people feel like they go through the exact same thing. We’re all teenagers at heart and we all have little children inside of us.

NT: Thank you so much for sharing with Northern Transmissions!

Order Dust by Say Lou Lou HERE