sssiv: Creative Trust in Songwriting
Copenhagen, Denmark-based indie band sssiv formed almost accidentally through a shared practice space. Sara and Stephen began jamming after talking drums, soon joined by Sasha, and the trio quickly found a natural chemistry that led them to keep recording from the start. Over two years ago, each member was navigating their own circumstances, and the project became less about forming a band and more about a shared space to play, decompress, and let songs emerge in real time. When it came time to name the project for live shows, they chose something abstract and personal, playing with “S” words like sssoft, sssalt, and ssslue before landing on sssieve—eventually shortened to sssiv.
Upon the release of their latest EP sssiv 2, we sat down with the band for a Q&A.
Q: We were going to ask you to describe your sound to someone who’s never heard it, but then we saw “a trust-based space between dream-pop, neo-psychedelia and indie folk,” and that’s kind of perfect. Did you always have a clear vision of that blend?
A: It’s more just a product of our environment. We all come from different backgrounds and styles, and we have implicit trust in each other to guide what we’re doing. We don’t come to the table and say, “I wrote this… let’s try that… maybe do something more like this…”; we just hit record, start playing, listen to each other, and try things, and hope we’ll be pleasantly surprised when we listen back.
Q: Your latest EP, sssiv 2, is a great listen, and all of the songs enter the ears as one cohesive listening experience. Can you describe your creative process a bit? Were the instrumentals written as a sort of glue to join the other songs together?
A: Really, each song is just a different stage of development from our original jam session. Songs like “all the time” or “summer vibe,” we recorded the original ideas long ago, added lyrics, played them live, tried new structures, and ultimately Bene came in, listened, and gave us great guidance to really finalize them. The original riffs and melodies are still there, but it’s shaped. “tell me what i want to hear” is an original improv, straight from a demo session.
We also like to keep working through old ideas. “ask for better” comes from an improv instrumental on sssiv 1, and “i can never fall asleep” is actually a remix of our first song, “memory boy.”
We see all of our songs as somehow connected and always evolving together.
Q: At this point, you have three EPs: sssiv 1, Between 1 and 2, and sssiv 2. Although it seems like they could work combined as an LP, what led you to release them months apart?
A: They’re more markers in time for us; points when things felt ready for the world, and we wanted to poke our heads out and say hello. They are definitely all connected though.
Q: How did Benedicte Pierleoni come to produce the new EP?
A: We all love Baby in Vain and hold their approach to songs and playing in the highest regard. And when we all finally got together, it felt very easy, and Bene was offering exactly what we needed from a producer.
Q: We’ve long been advocates for music that can prove it was made by humans, and we appreciate that your process “allows accidents,” even though we could not locate any. Would you mind describing a few?
A: They would be hard to locate, because we tend to build around the mistakes and make them feel more at home. But it’s a lot of things that feel like accidents to us—hitting a weird major note on bass in a mostly minor riff, or leaving in a rogue harmony from a first vocal take—that maybe don’t feel wrong to someone who is just hearing the song in the final form. But it could also be intentional, like playing the guitar upside down or playing two solo takes on top of one another that weren’t meant to be together.
Q: With all of the technology designed to polish production and erase any evidence of errors, what made you decide not to embrace it?
A: At the time, it was a direct statement against generative AI, really. That wave in 2023 or so made us question the value of “perfection” and prioritize what humans could do with music and what music does for humans. It led us to an ethos as a band to not be afraid of releasing beautiful sonic moments because they aren’t “ready” or whatever. This is our expression, captured as it is. And that approach has been very freeing.
Q: Like Stephen (bass, vocals), we are a bit obsessed with microphones. What’s a favorite from the mic locker?
A: We almost always have a room mic set up when we play, and it’s an old Beyerdynamic M260. It always sounds smooth. Also an older Sennheiser MD21, a mainstay on mono overheads for the drums.
Q: We heard “all the time” and had to interview you, but then we heard “summer vibe 2026” and were nearly moved to tears once the layers of vocals fell into place. Is this sorcery? How do you approach arranging vocals so they feel that immersive?
A: It was Sasha who originally recorded a demo of those vocals over an instrumental we’d done, and we all felt the same way as you! Then of course, Sara and Stephen have different ways of hearing harmonies and parts, and we like to limit ourselves somewhat to what we can recreate live. Then we demo’d and played that song in a few forms live over some months, so by the time we recorded, we basically did what we did live plus some doubles here and there. But it’s pretty close to Sasha’s original demo.
