Sadnecessary is german duo Milky Chance's debut album.

"Think of it as the singer-songwriter spirit mixed with electronic beats. Somehow, it's always a little bit melancholy, but there's a positive spin. You can dance to most of it too! Melancholy is something that I carry within me. I write the best songs when this mood catches me.”

In order to capture that, the duo built a tiny studio in the quiet house Clemens grew up in. Over the course of two weeks in 2013, they cut their full-length debut, Sadnecessary, on a minimalist setup, spending hours getting the settings just right. They didn't need anything more than a rudimentary interface, microphone, and computer. That's why Sadnecessary sizzles so much.

“There was never a plan,” Clemens goes on. “We only played two shows before we decided to make the album. We never bought expensive studio equipment or even hired a producer. We did what we wanted to and what felt good at the moment. We just wanted to record our music. We never thought it would go further than that.”

However, it went a lot further than that. After cutting the tracks, Clemens and Philipp uploaded the first single “Stolen Dance” to YouTube. With its bright handclaps, plaintive acoustic guitars, and his own gravelly smooth delivery, the song became a viral sensation, eventually racking up over 30 million-plus YouTube views and made them the “most blogged about act” on Hype Machine for that month.

About the song, he says, “It's less of a story than a feeling. The feeling in the song refers to a certain moment I wanted to hold on to. It's the sentiment you experience when you miss somebody you really like and just can't spend time with that person. You're sad the other person isn't there, but you're also happy for the beautiful moments you've spent together.”