There’s nothing better than a great record about how complicated this thing we call love can really get. Almost every genre spawned at least a few of these along the way and some have exclusively and by design devoted themselves to exploring it in depth. Perhaps only the extreme metal genre is an exception but, then again, maybe all that talk about murder, coprses, church burning and Satan is just another way of saying “girl you done broke my heart?”

Last week or so we came across a record by a Swiss 4 piece called Len Sander. The title on the cover read: The Future of Lovers. Intrigued, we gave it a spin and boy is love in modern-day Switzerland complicated! But isn’t that case everywhere? The record is great: deep and layered and at times sorta Sade-esque.

What you are about to read is an on-the-fly interview we conducted with lead singer and lyricist of the outfit: Blanka Inauen.

Who or what is a Len Sander?
It’s a band.

Is everybody in the band a lover or are there some fighters on board as well? If so, time to blow their cover!
We are all fighting for love I guess.

Do you follow Black Mirror at all? 
No.

I was just thinking that this record is sort of like that type of social commentary, but just not as caustic…
Thank you.

Lets say that thesis is that as a society we are experiencing a dissonance in how we relate to each other, caused primarily by the available technologies... What is the problem and is there a way out? 
I think that we have this basic need to fully experience our body with all its senses and I feel that this need can very easily be neglected in our society that is very much based on the intellectual, the visual, the digital. I think and believe, maybe hope, that the senses will claim their place back again someday soon. There will be a counter-movement to the digitalisation of our lives.

Are we doomed as lovers?
No, as long as we are ready to learn how to truly love. We think that love is something that just comes naturally, that once you love, the force of it will take over and guide you. But from my experience and my observation I’d say that the ability to love is rather something that we have to learn and develop.

I’m curious about how you write your lyrics. You have this gift of crafting the personal into something universal, can you tell me a bit about the process? 
I am constantly collecting words, phrases and ideas for lyrics and type them into my phone. So when I read something that I like but also when a strong feeling or thought about something comes up I write it down. And all these text fragments then build the basic material that I use when I go into the songwriting process. When I write a song I start organising all these ideas on a more conscious level. But I think that it all begins with your decision on what you are surrounding yourself with: the books, the movies, the people, the music; it ultimately all influences your thinking and your work.

Apparently, you guys created this record in Berlin... You know that we’re also based in Berlin, right? 
Now I know.

And no visits to the office, no cake, no flowers,  nothing? 
I was waiting for you to bring ME flowers.

Next time new can do a cake and flower exchange, okay?  Before I let you go tell me about the 5 things you absolutely love about Berlin. 
Cycling on Tempelhofer Feld, browsing through the bookshops Motto, Black Cracks and Zabriskie, eating the Samurai Menu at Life, drinking and smoking at Tier, getting an ear-massage by Funktion-One.