This London-based duo is known for their dreamy soundscapes that take your mind on an aural fantasy. Made up of Nathalie Bruno and Jack Milwaukee, the band was born in East London after Nathalie and Jack became flatmates and discovered their mutual love for vintage synths, drum machine and guitars.

Now, they will be bringing their signature ethereal sound to Malta as part of the first edition of the Bewildered Music Festival.

The festival, which is part of the Valletta 2018 cultural programme being developed in the run up to the European Capital of Culture year, was developed from the concept of Sofar Sounds Malta, an innovative model of intimate, secret pop-up gigs held within domestic spaces, introduced in April last year.

Bewildered Music Festival aims to offer an opportunity to listen to non-mainstream musical genres which are not usually played on radio, resulting in more exposure to different art forms.

How was Leave the Planet born? What drew you guys to making the jump from sharing a love for the same music to actually making music?

It all came very naturally. My bedroom is full of equipment so, as our friendship grew while living together, we started jamming and eventually coming up with songs we were both happy with.

Do you remember your first experience making music together? How did it go?

Our first time making music together was actually for Jack’s solo project M!R!M, where he asked me to come up with vocals for one of his tracks for the album.

When we started to try and come up with new stuff, we realised we were creating very dreamy pop pieces and that’s when we decided to start our own project.

Your band name is a reference to a song by Galaxie 500 – what made you pick it?

We love astronomy and, I think we both have very melancholic souls which make us want to escape from real life at times. Leave The Planet just seemed so perfect, and our music reflects the name.

Are any of the musicians from that band aware of this tribute? If the band were to reunite for one night and they offered to play your music, which tracks would you want them to choose and why?

We both have very melancholic souls which make us want to escape from real life at times

Well, we did send our cover of Strange to guitarist Dean Wareham, and he liked what he heard.

You describe your music as ‘dreamy’ – which songs give you the good dreams, and which give you the bad?

I don’t think any of our tracks feel like a bad dream. Perhaps a sad, lucid dream, but never bad.

Are there any specific themes or motifs you address with your music?

Not really, I make up stories with my lyrics depending on what vibe I get from the music we created.

How would you describe your creative process and who does most of the lyric-writing?

Jack makes the drum beats and production. We both write the music and I write the lyrics/vocals.

Who and what inspires you?

Synths, pedals and the universe… among other things.

What can we expect from your first album?

A more refined version of what you have already heard.

Do you enjoy the recording process or do you prefer playing live?

We love recording the most. We actually enjoy the writing process more than the recording itself.

How difficult is it to recreate your studio sound in a live setting?

It’s only me and Jack in the band and with this album we have a lot of instruments being played, meaning we have to find people to play them. Which, in itself, is hard. Apart from that, the sounds etc are easy to recreate.

Is this your first time in Malta? What are you expecting from the gig here?

Yes, it is our first time. I personally never expect anything, I like to turn up to play shows and know what I am dealing with when we get there, this way it’s more exciting and I’m never let down

And what should we expect?

To escape for a while.

Bewildered Music Festival is being held in collaboration with Valletta 2018 and Pjazza Teatru Rjal on August 28 and 29 at Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Valletta. Leave the Planet play on August 28. Also taking part are local acts Plato’s Dream Machine, Fastidju and China, the London-based Big Deal and Berlin-based Maltese musician Jim Hickey. Tickets are available online.

www.bewilderedmusicfestival.com.