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Orchee Sorker | February 12, 2022
Swedish duo, NOTD, talks about their new music video "Never A Good Time", nominated single "So Close", and live performances. The duo consists of Tobias Danielsson and Samuel Brandt.
How did you come up with the name “NOTD”? How did you both meet?
Hi! NOTD is the last two letters of each of our last names (Danielsson – ON // Brandt – DT), reversed.
We first met when Sam found my (Tobi) music on SoundCloud in 2017 and messaged me to work on music together. At the time, he was making music under the name Severo and I was working as ToWonder, but it didn’t take long for us to decide to start working together more seriously and that led to the creation of NOTD. The craziest part is that after starting to work together for a bit we realized that we were coincidentally attending the same high school in southern Sweden. From there we became NOTD and the rest is history.
Congratulations on the recent release of the music video “Never A Good Time” with The Band Camino! What was the process for creating the song and then its music video? I really like the cinematography and color choices. It goes with mood. Who came up with the storyboard?"
We’re so excited that the video is out. It was a long process of editing and going back and forth until it was just right. The Band Camino had been on our list of dream collaborators for a long time, and the hardest part was finding a song that felt like a mix of NOTD and TBC. When they sent us an early version of “Never A Good Time” we knew almost immediately that it was the right song for the collab. From there it was just about dialing in the production, which actually took about a year because of everyone’s busy schedules.
This music video was our first time working with Blythe Thomas, a Nashville-based director. She was great throughout the process in terms of taking input from both TBC and us and then working it all into a vision that everyone was happy with.
“So Close” ft. Georgia Ku was nominated for Dance Song of the Year in 2020 iHeart Music Awards. What was the creative process behind the song? How did you feel about this recognition?
We’re so proud of that song and to get recognized by iHeart alongside such talented artists (Ellie Goulding, Kygo, Marshmello, Loud Luxury, among others) was the cherry on top. The awards show was supposed to be in March 2020, so unfortunately they never happened, but it was an honor to be named in such good company.
You all have gotten the opportunity to play at festivals like “Life is Beautiful” last year and “The Hangout” this year. What do you love most about live performances?
Life Is Beautiful is hands down our favorite show we have played to date. It was extra special because of how difficult it was to get into the U.S. to play that show – our Visas had been on hold for many months due to COVID backups and we ended up having to go spend several weeks in Mexico to avoid the EU travel ban before going to Vegas for that show – so the journey made it extra special. Not to mention that we got to play for 15,000+ people at sunset with a full band. That’s one we’ll remember forever.
We can’t wait to play at Hangout this year, we’ve heard from many artist friends that the festival is very special so we’re really looking forward to getting out there again and playing music live for our fans. The endless hours in the studio are all worth it when we get to see our fans react to the music in real-time and enjoy it all together.
What all can fans expect this year? What are your upcoming plans? New music or a maybe a tour?
We have lots of songs with great collaborators that we love that we’re so excited to release. Our sound is constantly evolving and we can’t wait for our fans to hear what we’ve been working on. There are also touring plans in the works, of course, we’ve had to move things around (like everyone), but we hope that we can finally properly hit the road later in the year and we’ll be announcing some exciting plans in the near future.
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