miaw are aglow on maximalist, ethereal pop song “Walmart”

Beaming, monolithic synths, that start and stop on every other beat to energise the dance-floor, begin “Walmart”. Its propulsion prolonged with tumbling breakbeats seconds in. Liza Dries jumps in with her angelic voice, divinely cutting through the track’s glitchy whirlwind. The second half shifts to freeform dream pop territory with chirpy guitars, and Frederik Fog quietly joins with whispers at its shimmering end. It’s like an adrenaline rush of a carnival ride: the thrill never lets up.

“Walmart” and miaw’s catalogue is inspired by many places, and so are the two sound architects, literally. Dries is from the Netherlands, while Fog is from Denmark. They first met in Cologne at an Alex G concert, and had their own projects: Dries was a solo ambient and electronic pop artist, and Fog was in an art-rock band. But they only started writing together on a whim after a few years of their friendship. Many laughs ensue as they claim that their first songs sucked. “I was living in this flat near the train tracks,” Dries recalls. “We made them in the kitchen, it had bad lighting and was such an anxiety space. Maybe if I listened now, I would actually like them.”

Nonetheless, they continued writing, drawing upon their producer expertise in Ableton and Dries’ visit to Denmark. The country’s capital, Copenhagen, notable for its growing underground left field alt-pop scene. That was also spontaneous and led to their 2024 EP, My Petswan, which put miaw on the map. A quick burst of genre-bending pop not dissimilar to contemporaries Drop and Splitscreen of 100%WET, plus labelmates Lyra Valenza. Dries and Fog lived in Cologne around the EP release, yet moved apart for two years, finally reconvening in Copenhagen last August to work on miaw almost full-time.

As the duo readies new music, they’ve faced a lot of first times. More festival dates than ever; live DJ sets for local radio stations; and playing as a three-piece, with producer Emil F. Emborg. The big hurdle has been taking their laboured-over, digitally collaged tracks to the stage. “We want to have the feeling that we are playing the music. It’s so on the edge all the time, it’s so easy to become like we’re playing to a backing track,” Fog explains. “It’s just feeling the roles we have and what we are giving to the songs.”

Breaking away from recreating the studio recordings is what gives miaw a new lease of life when playing live. “During rehearsals, we said, ‘Everything’s open. We can do free jazz on the tracks,’” Fog adds. “We have to trust everyone, you just do what you do.” The freedom they gain in this setup – also by ditching in-ear monitors – allows them to surprise each other and be with their audience.

It’s a dynamic Dries admits is new to them, but Fog likens it to seeing Water From Your Eyes perform, who played with no click and veered off course. He also mentions black midi when they were a four-piece: “They had so much intention in everything they did, and massive sounds. I feel so alive in that music.” I point out james K’s hypnagogic ambience and rejuvenated trip-hop as a reference point, and both agree. Dries goes further by citing Yawning Portal and Torus, stemming from her presence in Europe’s ethereal ambient scene. With miaw’s artistry built upon so many places, that lends to its own surprises. “Sometimes the music we listen to is kind of dark, but I feel a lot of times, the music that comes out of us is brighter or sweeter,” Dries says.

Dries sums up the magic of miaw coming down to “being in the same room and sharing some sort of mood” to capture an initial intuitive idea, while preserving their headspace. “It’s most natural for us to be able to feel the energy in the room,” Fog affirms. “We work really quickly, but we can also be really slow. If we get up, do it now, we’re feeling it, then there’s more.” With miaw being even more present, they’ve never sounded so fully formed.