Milla Sunde and Marlow Bevan are not just musical partners, they are good friends. Meeting at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, the two instantly bonded and began expanding their talents outside of the classroom. Growing in popularity, the duo fastly advanced and 2010 saw the release of their debut album Encounter (Knightingale Entertainment). The band’s infectious and enchanting pop music is a mystical journey that they carefully woven and delicately created.

Sunde talks about how things have developed, the making of Encounter and their passion for giving back to the world.

Link: http://www.thegreenchildren.com/encounter/

What elements led to the two of you wanting to create a musical partnership? What influences did you have in common and what contrasts helped form and strengthen this bond?

Marlow and I are so similar that I think we were twins in another life! We have the same outlook on life and always agree on anything musical. We also have a mutual desire to create music with depth and in some cases highlight issues we care about.

We do have roles though and that works out pretty well. For this album Marlow focused on the music and production and I have concentrated on the melody and lyrics, however we do mix things up and intend to experiment more in the future.

What was your time like at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts? What kind of music and culture were you into while there and what was your focus? Was it the school that helped you develop the talent and range of your musical scope or was it by other means and circumstances?

We loved LIPA, it was a magical place full of talented and colorful people. It was like a little entertainment industry all under one roof, with musicians, actors, dancers and sound technicians.

When Marlow and I met we knew we were onto something special and quickly started working on things in the real world, so we didn’t focus on the course too much.

We concentrated on songwriting, but I definitely think the school provided a good range of classes and helped us find our direction. At the same time, music is a very difficult thing to teach, and it was mostly the atmosphere that was important to us.

Our time after school has really provided the biggest challenges that have allowed us to develop to what we are now.

You incorporate a blend of dance-like pop and R&B sincerity within your songs, not just lyrically but also how the songs are sung. What made you want to go towards that musical style and what satisfaction do you get out of it?

Everything comes very naturally so we didn’t really think or plan how we wanted the album to sound. Whenever we start using our minds too much we tend get in trouble, we try to listen to our hearts when we make and perform music and if it feels right we go with it.

We’ve both listened to a huge variety of music growing up which could explain the different influences you hear.

You have neatly wrapped a mystical-like story of your surroundings and history with an expansive vision of sound. How did that all come about? Would you consider “Encounter” to be more like a concept album? And how does all of this play in an era of the single song download?

As you mentioned, we’ve both grown up in small towns with beautiful surroundings and that has naturally influenced the album. In addition, we’ve been raised with lots of stories and folklore that have probably fueled our imagination even further.

‘Encounter’ is just the album we wanted to make, with a collection of songs we’re really proud of. We hope that people will want the album experience but have also been conscious to make sure every song was worthy of the release. It’s just the beginning of our journey and because we wrote and produced everything, there is obviously a lot of our personality in the music.

For you, what was it like making this album and what does it personally mean to you?

This was quite a long road for us because we were stuck on a major label for some time and did not have a good experience. Once we had left, we were determined to make our album without any interruptions! Making the album was a lot of hard work, but also magical and liberating.

There were times in the studio where we really felt blessed with the ideas that came our way. Finally getting our music out is very satisfying, to be caged as an artist is the worst feeling! We are very proud of the album and every song is important to us and reflects our journey so far.

Tell me about The Green Children Foundation? What led to its creation and what has the Foundation done so far? What made you want to get involved and why?

It was clear when Marlow and I met that we both had a deeper purpose and also wanted to use our talents for the greater good. We established the foundation together with the purpose of highlighting positive solutions that are working to conquer world problems, such as poverty.

It was set up in 2005 after visiting the micro-lending projects of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Once we’d met the poor women developing small businesses through the use of small loans we were incredibly inspired! We were lucky enough to meet Prof. Muhammad Yunus during this trip, who is the founder of the whole movement which has helped over 7 million women in his country.

After leaving, we instantly wrote a new song and then went back to make a music video in the villages!  Our hope was to shine some more light on the great work being done there and then to our total surprise, three months later Prof. Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize!

This was a great opportunity to raise some funds by selling the video in stores across Norway whilst the prize was given out. We raised a lot of money that went to a new hospital opened in May of 2008.

How do we become more aware? What does the Future of The Green Children Foundation hold, and what are some things you hope to accomplish with it?

We intend to write one song on each album dedicated to a cause we believe in. The primary objective is to shine a light, and then we will donate what we can from sales and launch campaigns so our fans can also get involved.

We’re not totally sure of our next project, we’ve been mostly focusing on poverty alleviation and education, but moving forward we also hope to support environmental protection and animal welfare.

There is an overwhelming feeling of positivity within your music and what you do. How do you maintain that spirit and what does that do for your music when today’s pop music is centered around not-so-intelligent aspects?

We try to stay true to who we are at all times and don’t believe in following trends. We’re a little sick of pop music today, it’s definitely hard to find romance, depth and innocence and I think people are looking for alternatives.

We believe in the power of music and have always loved artists with messages, so that who we want and will continue to be.

In correlation with the album, what do you have planned? What thoughts do you have for the future of the group? What do you have up your sleeve?

We’ve just released ‘Encounter Remixed’, which has bunch of cool remixes sure to get people dancing! We’ll also be doing a lot shows next year which we’re really looking forward to. Another album is also up our sleeves, we’ve been delayed so much so expect to see a lot more from us going forward!