“I always knew B had a great voice.” Jake Nicolaides tells me, “I actually started out making tunes on my iPhone and showed them to B one day over a drink in the pub. From then on we made tunes together whenever we both had some free time and it kind of just snowballed from there.”

One half of the alt-pop duo Litany, alongside Beth – “B” – Cornell, the pair dropped their debut EP “4 Track” earlier this year. Eight tracks of delightfully dreamy indie-pop, Jake and Beth describe how each song has a personal meaning, “We wanted our first EP to represent us in the most open, honest and authentic way possible so it was important for each song to encapsulate a key moment in one another’s lives. We’re most interested in real-life, everyday stories that relate to everyone so the aim was to combine that with music.”

We caught up with Jake to find out more…

How did you two meet?

We met in school during a battle of the bands style competition. I was on guitar, Beth on vocals. We lost despite our then 13 year old selves trying. We did become good friends afterwards so there was a silver lining.

Do you have similar tastes in music?

We actually do have really similar taste. It’s fairly uncommon that Beth will hate something that I like and vice versa. Our ears always prick up at the same time when we hear something cool. I think its the range of different sounds and genres that we both like that makes our collaboration work.

How would you describe your “sound”?

We like to think nothing is off the table when it comes to our sound. The only fixed constant is that we always try to write songs that have good solid songwriting and vocal hooks that once you’ve heard it, you wanna hear it over and over.

You’ve just released your new EP, “4 Track”. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Yeah! So we had been writing this debut for about a year, chopping and changing to make sure we got it just right. We wanted this EP to feel as organic as possible and to authentically represent us both sonically and lyrically, so each song describes specific moments in one another’s adolescent lives. The music feels nostalgic as were the topics we wrote about. We kinda hate platitudes in pop writing so added in 4 interludes which helped us further express the meanings behind the lyrics in each song.

If you were one of those people who can see colours when they hear music, what would the tracks look like?

Neither of us really associate colours to music now that we think about it. I guess they are more linked to the locations and time period they were recorded in. For example, “Flaws” was made in our first studio in the centre of town so when I hear that song it reminds me of the polystyrene ceiling and blasting the song out into the hall during rehearsals.

Do you have a favourite track from your EP?

It’s funny because I think we’d both really struggle to pick. Each one has moments in it that we love and find special. They are all so different, it’s so hard to put one in front of another. “Bedroom” is a bop though and SO much fun to perform live.

What else are you up to this year?

This year we have got a lot going on! We’ve got a handful of shows up and down the UK over the next few months including, our headline London show at Electrowerkz on October 4th which we are VERY excited about. Apart from that we are currently working on our next EP which will be released later in the year so it’s all go go go!