Peer Lebrecht
After four years, VOYNA re-emerges with a track that bridges introspection and radiance, setting the tone for a new chapter in Peer Lebrecht’s creative evolution.
Few artists manage to embody introspection and sonic elegance quite like Peer Lebrecht, the voice and mind behind VOYNA — his solo project that unfolds somewhere between poetry and dream, melody and melancholy. After four years since the release of The Cinvat Bridge, Lebrecht returns with Wrong Face, released today, the luminous first single from the forthcoming album Monsters. It is a song that glimmers with both fragility and confidence, a dance between restraint and release, between the gravity of introspection and the buoyancy of melody. Lebrecht, best known as the frontman of Golden Apes, once again proves that he is not simply composing songs but sculpting emotional topographies — each sound, each lyric, a fragment of an inner dialogue carried on in whispers and echoes. The track’s understated radiance invites listeners into a space where humor and sorrow, denial and acceptance coexist, not in opposition, but as two sides of the same truth.
In this conversation, Peer Lebrecht speaks with disarming openness about the journey that led to Wrong Face and Monsters: his need to create without pressure, the evolving interplay between light and shadow in his work, and his deeply personal approach to sound. He reflects on the intuitive nature of his songwriting, the subtle freedom that comes with self-guided exploration, and the delicate balance between solitude and collaboration. The interview reveals not only the thoughtful craftsmanship behind VOYNA’s music but also the quiet philosophy that fuels it — a meditation on transformation and artistic honesty.
What first inspired you to start making music?
Peer Lebrecht: There´s just one simple answer – music.
I was 13, 14 years old when I put my hands on some keys for the first time and I was at the peak of my musical awakening those days, tuned my whole emotions, perceptions and views to the music of Cure, Bowie, Joy Division, The Furs…. that was the kaleidoscope through which I looked at the world, the language I felt connected to and familiar with… the soundtrack of a little boy´s quest for answers and directions….
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your work before?
Peer Lebrecht: This is a really tough question; I even struggle to describe it to myself. I´m not even sure if there´s a ‘signature ‘ sound but that’s something for someone else to decide — someone less biased. Sure, there are some recurring themes – be it the influence of my musical pantheon (see above) on moods and atmospheres and the way to view on certain things or the fact that I´m a musical autodidact and nothing I do has some kind of complex, academic grounding, just a spinning compass in my head and heart that I follow intuitively.
Otherwise, it’s just restless sonic wanderlust…
I would say the most obvious common thing is this warm and caring layer of melancholy, the fragility of sounds and states of my mind. And of course the brilliance of Mr. Thommy Hein.
It’s been four years since VOYNA’s debut The Cinvat Bridge. How does it feel to return with “Wrong Face” after such a creative pause?
Peer Lebrecht: This is not entirely true, since there is the “…and the heresies”-EP, released in 2023.
21, 23, 25…so there’s actually been quite a steady output! But to be fair — this is a coincidence and to be honest, I realized that right now.
But yes, the whole Voyna thing was never supposed to be about pressure and the need to put out new music come hell or high water. I just need to keep working with sounds and melodies and harmonies constantly…it´s my meditation, my way of keeping balance. When I put on my headphones I enter my sanctuary, my cave for meeting my penguin. Sometimes the result is pure rubbish — just a means to an end — and sometimes things emerge that I truly like and enjoy. And that was the case with the ten songs on “monsters”, all crawling to the surface over the past year….
What sparked the beginning of this new chapter for VOYNA?
Peer Lebrecht: Looking back, I guess it was the release of the latest Golden Apes album in 2023. The making of it was quite a demanding process and somehow I felt the need to realign my joy in making music, to redefine my sense of self in it. Sometimes you have to step off the main path in order to see more clearly where you’re going. I think this was happening when I started to make some first musical outlines without any specific purpose….
“Wrong Face” is described as both “refreshingly unpretentious” and “captivating.” What does this song represent to you personally?
Peer Lebrecht: It is as personal as it can get when it comes to the words and the mood. Of course. It is a small reflective bit of thinking-out-loud, put in a colorful and nice-to-look-at late summer-dress. I´ve always liked to put the heaviness of the words on a soft mossy ground to let them influence and blend into each other. It brightens some dark shades and scratches some polished surface. It is an entertaining way to play with emotions and perceptions and gives you a different view of your own thoughts. This repeating mantra of denial against that lofty, sunlit harmony – yin and yang in rotation.
The song balances a tension between sparse verses and a buoyant chorus — was that contrast intentional from the start?
Peer Lebrecht: To be very honest – there´s never anything intentional from the start. I don´t work with plans, concepts or sonic mood boards. It all begins with a melody or a little chord progression and it´s up to them where they lead me. There was a fair chance that “Wrong Face” could have become a completely different track, but obviously it was asking for the shape it finally got.
There’s a line — “…this is a wrong track…” — that seems to carry both humor and melancholy. Can you tell us more about the meaning behind it?
Peer Lebrecht: I´m glad you realized. And maybe this is exactly what it´s about. Humor and melancholy are a brilliant pairing. Life is too detailed to see it through just one eye.
Compared to earlier VOYNA material, “Wrong Face” feels brighter and more melodic. Was this shift in tone deliberate?
Peer Lebrecht: You’re right, “Wrong Face” is indeed quite catchy and bright. And this might bring us back to the line you mentioned above. But with a twinkle in the eye…
Looking at the album as a whole I´d say it became quite balanced but with a more relaxed approach. I didn´t feel the nervousness as I did with the debut back then, so all decisions and steps were taken with a less caged mind. There´s some nearly pop music (“Wrong Face”), there´s some ritual soundscapes (“White”), there´s some distorted stylistic stew (“Days of Light”) and all of it feels good and legit on the album. And this is the brilliant thing about Voyna and its possibilities. I don´t have to worry if stylistics fits or not, whether I accept borders or let myself be driven by a frenzy of curiosity because I never promised a definition nor a manual.
VOYNA has always blended introspection with atmosphere. How did the sound evolve for Monsters?
Peer Lebrecht: There are so many things that inspire and influence you, that trigger your mind and imagination. A sound, a word, a memory, a passage of a book, a movie scene…those things are hardly something you can orchestrate as the waves they cause.
As mentioned, I never really sat down thinking ‘I’m making an album now.’”. It all comes and came in lines, paragraphs, chapters…. just without page numbers. The song “Milk” for instance dates back to 2020. A little sketch found in a shady corner of my mind, whereas “Midnight Sun” was a quite late addition, sometime late in 2024. So the colors of the palette come by chance, as the nature of the songs and the feelings that feed them.
There was only one thing planned and deliberately desired – the involvement of real basses and guitars. There have been real guitars also on earlier releases but more as an additional sonic layer, a texture, but now I wanted them to be part of the songs DNA, a brush instead of a color. And I guess these breathing and vivid bass- and guitar sounds shaped the overall sound a lot. Thank god I know some guys who could help me out with that…
How does your songwriting process differ between VOYNA and Golden Apes?
Peer Lebrecht: Same head, same heart, same imprints – yes, the origin of the ideas might be the same but it´s a bit like species evolving differently depending on the habitat they live in. Musical Darwinism. Doing songs with the Apes is a process of shared input, of different views and interpretations. You provide a canvas and a topic and everything else comes from a shared dynamic, a reacting to and with each other. The drums that set an unexpected direction, the guitars that pile up layers and reliefs…there´s this unpredictability, the thrill to see things grow and fade without knowing which way, which shape, which apparency.
When working on Voyna songs it´s less this result of creative output but more of reflective perception. You lack the feedback, the echoing vibrations that help you to navigate. There is just this vast flat land and the horizon and all topography, all seasons, all space and time wait for instructions. There is a lot of freedom and there is a lot of solitude, a lot of uncharted territory and quite a lot of me…
Are there particular instruments, sounds, or production choices that shaped the texture of “Wrong Face”?
Peer Lebrecht: I guess one of the main features of the song is Christian’s breathing and pulsating bass line, which perfectly sheds the verses’ gravity before letting it go when the chorus arrives. I really love this organic character, the liveliness it gifts the song with.
The upcoming album is titled Monsters. What kind of “monsters” are you exploring — personal, social, metaphorical?
Peer Lebrecht: “…and you say the monster is in the room…here we are alone…”
Have a look at the lightly opened wardrobe, a careful glimpse under the bed, hear the noise in the attic and wonder what´s that shadow on the wall…. It´s the monster in me and it´s the monster in you.
Would you say “Wrong Face” gives a good first glimpse into the overall mood of the album?
Peer Lebrecht: I guess I think so, yes. There´s a lot of everything in it. It´s definitely more compact and less complex than other tracks but the variety of light and shadow is a proper blueprint for the albums texture in some way…
How do you approach balancing darkness and light in your music — both sonically and thematically?
Peer Lebrecht: There’s no real approach to it, to be honest — it´s f***** life. There´s always both of it. Or to make use of this little sticky phrase:” There´s no shadow without light.” Toss the coin and see what happens. And let´s be honest, as an artist you love to walk the thin line where both meet, this blurred stripe of ambiguity where everything staggers and stumbles…
Who did you collaborate with on the recording or production of Monsters?
Peer Lebrecht: There is of course Thommy Hein, who is with me since the very beginning of this musical journey. He´s not only the one person I trust when it comes to all things musically and sound-related, he´s also one of those rare true friends — a companion, adviser and supporter. He was involved in every output so far, as a creative sparring partner, musician, engineer, mixer…. his studio in Berlin is the place where all things fall into place so to say and somehow I can´t imagine to work with anyone else…
And there are Max and Christian, both members of a band so close to my heart, who were so kind and engaged to help me out with their instruments (guitar and bass). It was so brilliantly strange to rehearse all the songs together in the room – something I haven´t experienced with Voyna so far. It felt good, it felt alive and there´s no doubt about the fact that the final album would sound differently without them. I´m endlessly grateful for their support….
Was there a moment during recording when you felt, “Yes, this is the sound I was looking for”?
Peer Lebrecht: I´m not sure if I can pinpoint a certain moment when I felt `Yes, that´s it! `. When you enter the studio with your little DIY demos and then all things come together, get bright and clear and shiny, it´s always special. I so liked the sound when the guitars and basses were added, when everything really started to breath and grow…I´m not even sure if I had a special sound in mind at all but we definitely found it.
What influences — musical or otherwise — have shaped your artistic identity the most?
Peer Lebrecht: There are so many things from many artistic areas that shaped me and left an imprint on me over the years. Things that trigger and push, that guide your view and shift the spotlights. There has been and always will be Bowie, whose sounds and visions are my sonic astrolabe since my first musical attempts at walking. And there are The Psychedelic Furs, Joy Division, Cure… all these zodiacs that guided me when I started to explore the world out there…eons ago. But there is also Harold Budd, Philip Glass, Eno, Robin Guthrie…There are the writings and thoughts of Robert Anton Wilson, the art of Umberto Eco, the minds of Bosch, Dali, Nietzsche, Fromm and Freud…and there are all things by Lynch. There are really a lot of things I adore and which cause oscillations in me…
Monsters is due out in late November, followed by live shows in 2026 — what can listeners expect from a VOYNA live performance?
Peer Lebrecht: Good question! I really don´t know yet. I wasn´t even thinking about bringing this thing on a stage for a long time because I wasn´t sure about the dimensions I wanted this to have. Is it really just this kind of cliché therapy to pitchfork some of the demons inside or could it have value to other people too? Does it work in- and externally? Just when listening to the new songs in their final stage I realized that I would be really curious about feeling them performed live. I´m still not sure if it will work but I definitely want to try it. Let´s say I want to test it. I´m still mind-mapping but I promise details will follow….
Do you see VOYNA as an ongoing parallel to Golden Apes, or more as a separate,
evolving entity?
Peer Lebrecht: I always tried to keep things separated even when I know that this is tricky and a bit naïve. Same head, same heart…
Somehow it feels to me like two stars in the same sky. With different rotations and orbits, that cross paths now and then and exchange energy and influence each other’s way but then they part again in different directions. And everyone passes different regions, different kinds of space and time…
If you could sum up Monsters in one sentence, what would it be?
Peer Lebrecht: It´s the musical rendering of my mind´s condition at a particular moment in my life.
After years fronting Golden Apes, what does VOYNA give you creatively that’s different?
Peer Lebrecht: Maybe it doesn´t give me things that are specifically different but it gives me more of the things I like, need and enjoy. It feeds my artistic curiosity, it gives me fire and water, calm and noise and sets the dining table for so many revealing conversations with all those monsters…
How do you stay inspired as a songwriter and storyteller in theever-changing post-
punk and darkwave landscape?
Peer Lebrecht: Ask the penguin. It´s the ever-changing world out there as a whole that keeps me inspired.
Finally — what’s been the biggest wrong face moment in your own artistic journey?
Peer Lebrecht: To be fully honest – there hasn´t been one so far. Every step I took, be it on- or off-track brought me to where I am now and I have to confess I´m feeling quite fine there.
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