Lola Dutronic – Five Questions With

Lola Dutronic shares a toe-tapping new single, “Let’s All Dance” (Our Last Summer)

Toronto/Dusseldorf-based Synth Pop duo Lola Dutronic is made up of Richard Citroen & Stephanie B-Yen.

The two have unveiled their single, “Let’s All Dance” (Our Last Summer). The single is accompanied by a video featuring dancing robots and cats.

You may have heard their previous music in numerous movies or tv shows, including “The L Word.” Plus, their album, The Love Parade, received a 1st ballot Grammy Award Nomination in the Dance/Electronica category.

Watch the video for “Let’s All Dance” (Our Last Summer) below, and learn more about Lola Dutronic via our Five Questions With segment.

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

We are Lola Dutronic. We’re a synth-pop duo based in both Canada and Germany via the magic of distance recording.

Ex-pat Brit Richard Citroen works out of Toronto, while German vocalist Stephanie B-Yen works out of Dusseldorf (Home of Kraftwerk!).

We’ve worked with all sorts of people, including Mike Garson (David Bowie), Paul Zone (Man2Man), and Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club).

We’ve also had radio hits in places like Japan, Greece, and even Peru, but for some reason, we can’t seem to get arrested in Canada.

Tell us a bit about your most recent release.

“Let’s All Dance” (Our Last Summer) is our new single taken from the new album that we’re currently working on under the working title “More Songs About Stardom & Death.”

We wouldn’t exactly call it a concept album, but there’s definitely a lyrical theme running through it. We hope to have it out by the end of the year.

And just in case you’re wondering, we ran the title by Chris & Tina, and they loved it!

Meanwhile, the new single just sort of arrived fully formed out of the ether while we were working on something else.

We took that as a good sign, as our most successful record to date, “Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead,” arrived pretty much the same way as all the best songs tend to.

Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?

Films and TV mostly. Often there’s a phrase that an actor will say that we like the sound of or a film title that we’ll incorporate into a lyric like “From Here To Eternity” or “The Last Picture Show.”

Other times we’ll name a song after a film like “Girl On A Motorcycle,” “The Best Years Of Our Lives,” “I Could Go On Singing,” “The Stranger,” “Airport,” “A Christmas Without Snow” etc.

We even wrote a song called “Brigitte Bardot” even though it’s not really about her at all, as well as naming our last album “Lost In Translation” after the Bill Murray/Scarlett Johansson film.

Another source is some of Stephanie’s day-to-day phrases, which at first glance sound perfectly normal but have a slight twist, as English is her second language.

Do you have any upcoming shows or festivals you’d like to tell us about?

Sadly no. We’re essentially a studio project, although we HAVE done several live shows in Europe, including supporting Tom Tom Club on the German leg of their last European tour,
as well as a handful of dates in Toronto & Hamilton in places like The Drake & the now defunct This Ain’t Hollywood.

The thing is, we live in two different countries, so the costs of mounting live shows (airfares/hotels/buy-ons) are astronomical, so we’ve had to turn down all manner of offers, some as far away as the launch party for Vogue Magazine Romania, a short German tour supporting La Roux and local Toronto shows with The B-Girls.

That said, we’d LOVE to tour properly, so if we win the lottery, we could probably do a club tour in all the countries where we’re on the radio with an all-star backing band consisting of some of our friends.

Most of them are just a phone call away…

What’s your goal for 2022?

To finally have a proper hit after floating around on the margins. Who knows? Maybe “Let’s All Dance” (Our Last Summer) will be a hit in the clubs this summer?
Failing that, having a major female artist cover one of our songs would be cool too.

Connect with Lola Dutronic:
Bandcamp
Facebook

Jenna Melanson

I’m Jenna, and I am the founder and editor of Canadian Beats. I have had a strong love for Canadian music, which started many years ago. I have a passion for promoting these talented Canadian bands and artists, and that’s how Canadian Beats came to be. I am so proud of what it has become over the last few years, with many talented music lovers and writers coming together to spread the word of Canada’s music.