Hamburg art-house pop duo IVY FLINDT return with Welcome to L.A., the cinematic first single from forthcoming EP Sphinx.
Produced by Grammy-winning Danton Supple, the track captures the hope, ambition, and quiet loneliness behind chasing a dream in Los Angeles.
In this FM PRO Quickfire 5, Cate Martin and Micha Holland discuss the city’s contradictions, the song’s emotional tension, the meaning of Sphinx, and the restrained production behind its cinematic sound.
The brighter something shines, the darker the shadows it casts. And my music comes from the tension I feel in a certain time in a certain place.
Q1. Welcome to L.A. captures both the attraction and disappointment of chasing a dream. What did Los Angeles reveal to you so quickly?
Cate: I tend to form strong impressions of a place very quickly. That’s one of the things I love about travelling – you’re suddenly paying attention in a completely different way. At home, routines sometimes tend to blur my perception, but somewhere new every detail feels significant.
Micha: We arrived in Los Angeles with a very clear mission: to introduce our new music to people in the industry. That made us excited, but also incredibly vulnerable. Every meeting, every street corner, every conversation seemed to carry a little more weight than it normally would.
Cate: What struck me almost immediately was that sense of striving. It felt as though everyone was chasing something just out of reach. Welcome To L.A. isn’t necessarily about Los Angeles as a place – it’s about that strange mixture of hope, ambition and quiet loneliness that may come with pursuing something you deeply care about.
Q2. Cate, the melody arrived on your first morning in the city. How did that initial idea develop into the finished story?
Cate: I woke up on our first morning in L.A. with this little musical phrase in my head and recorded it before breakfast straight into my phone. For me writing the first verse and the chorus is the heavy lifting. After that, it’s about finding my way back to the emotional place where the song first appeared.
So months later, while we were working on the first Sphinx demos at Tambourine Studios in Malmö, Sweden, I found myself sitting in the studio kitchen mentally walking back through Los Angeles. I revisited those memories and that’s how the rest of the lyrics finally came together.
Q3. The track feels eerie and enchanting at the same time. Why was that tension important?
Cate: If I hadn’t felt that tension, I probably wouldn’t have written the song in the first place. The brighter something shines, the darker the shadows it casts. And my music comes from the tension I feel in a certain time in a certain place.
Q4. Welcome to L.A. introduces your forthcoming EP Sphinx. What does it reveal about the wider project?
Cate: I think it introduces the emotional world of the record quite well. Sphinx isn’t really a concept album, but I guess all songs explore questions of identity, belonging and learning to stand your ground, even when life feels uncertain.
Micha: That’s also where the title comes from. The Sphinx has stood in the desert for thousands of years. To me it represents resilience as much as mystery. There’s something deeply comforting about remaining yourself while everything around you changes.
Cate: If these songs manage to say, “This is who I am. This is where I stand.” then I’d feel we’ve achieved something worthwhile.
Q5. FM PRO TECH Q: Micha, you played every instrument on the recording. How did you build the arrangement so each detail supported Cate’s lyrics without overcrowding the track?
Micha: For me, arranging is much more about taking ideas away than adding them. Every instrument has to earn its place emotionally, not technically. I don’t ask whether a part sounds interesting on its own – I ask whether it deepens the feeling of the lyrics.
Because I played all the instruments, I could constantly adjust that balance and make sure everything pointed towards the same emotional centre. We wanted the arrangement to breathe and leave space for Cate’s voice. Danton Supple immediately understood that approach and brought even more depth and clarity to it in the final mix.
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