Modern Tales Takes Us Through Their Debut Album ‘Stars Align’ Track By Track
We love a good mystery, a heady crime-at-night caper, a lost sibling rumored to be living abroad, a romance where the closer the attraction, the messier the identity, and if you needed the moody soundtrack for your next mysterious romp, then look no further than Stars Align, the debut album from Modern Tales. Comprised of two brothers, producer Jonas Rathsman and singer Franz Novotny, this album is a cinematic mesh of emotive dance-adjacent songwriting, layered in mind-melding lyrics that seem perfectly cast for naughty adventures, all apparently written in just two weeks. Curious cats we are, we reached out to ask the duo about the album in depth.
"Pretty Little Thing"
This is one of, if not THE, favorite songs. It came together real quick. Franz had the vocal melodies laid down on top of the pretty repetitive yet beautiful piano melody. There were no lyrics at that point, apart from in the chorus, where Franz was singing "Pretty Little Thing." So we sat down with that idea and based the story around that sentence—and boom there we had it.
"Monster"
Initially a song without drums, "Monster," one of our first ever songs together, underwent some insane transformations from disco to piano songs before finding its current form. It probably reflects our early uncertainty in defining our musical direction. The decision to name it "Monster" without a clear reason (haha) challenged us to write lyrics around the title, ultimately shaping a piece with punchy drums, melancholic synths, and spooky vocals.
"They Can't Take The Sky Away"
Inspired by an amazing loop on Jonas's computer, we wanted to finish the song by experimenting with analog synths and laying down some vocals. By using Logic's FLEX PITCH, Franz made a vocoder-like sound by recording all the vocals in a single tone and constructing the melodies around it. The song's title was actually taken from an anime poster Franz saw in London a few years ago.
"Brother"
As one of our earliest creations, "Brother" was born out of a chill studio session exploring various piano sounds. The resulting piano melodies and structure formed the foundation, while Franz's vocals, brought the lyrics to life. We came up with a fictional story about two brothers separated by war, drawing inspiration from our dark Nordic fantasy, perhaps containing underlying personal significance as siblings—we don’t know.
"Lean On Me"
We created "Brother" and "Lean On Me" in close succession. We were in the zone of making cinematic-focused music. We wanted to infuse a bluesy touch with a dark twist, so we experimented with different sounds and synths. The vocals emerged alongside a repetitive instrumental, kind of like a moving train, allowing us to create a distinct, repetitive vocal melody. The lyrics unfolded into a tale of a boy leaving everything behind to pursue a new path, with a little helper.
"Lost In The Future"
Born from a random, (messy as always) idea on Franz's computer, "Lost In The Future" found its place on Modern Tales. The song has a, let’s say, VERY RICH tapestry of synths, echoes, and delays, so the decision to include vocals became very liberating since we could step away from all the synths for a bit, eventually leading to the use of VocalSynth to get that vocoder sounding vocal. Together, with that bouncy, abstract synth melody as our starting point, we wanted to complement it with some live drums that played alongside. Collaborating with a drummer friend, Tugg, we incorporated his insane live drum recordings into the song. Surprisingly, we didn't initially have vocals, but they found their way into the composition during live performances.
"Wide Awake"
As one of our recent creations, "Wide Awake" was made spontaneously in Jonas's studio, a blank piece of paper. Exploring Jonas's synths (juno 106, Moog Sub 37) and a drum machine (Elektron), we made the majority of the song in a single session. The vocals were the final addition, culminating in a typical love story.
"One More Song"
As one of our very first songs with a 'happy' sound, "One More Song" originated from Jonas's distorted, punchy beat he was working on one day, which instantly sparked our creativity. Although initially uncertain about the high-pitched funky and soul-ish vocals, the track eventually encouraged us to explore that world some more, signifying a pretty big step in our artistic development.
"Coming Back 4 You"
Originally a chilled piano afro beat recorded on Franz's broken laptop microphone as one of many pointless pitching ideas (lol), "Coming Back 4 You" transformed into a magical closing track during a few days of working on it together. Though not initially intended for the album, its ability to tie the overall project together earned it a place among the final selections, which we are very happy about
