photo by Charlie Wedin
Swedish gothgaze / alt-rock trio Spunsugar have a long history forged in the heady whirlwind of youth. Cordelia Moreau and Elin Ramstedt met at the very start of their teen years. Both were into their own types of music, Cordelia from twee-pop to grunge and Elin, metal, hardcore and post punk. At fifteen they started a four piece band, Elin on lead vocals and rhythm guitar and Cordelia on drums. Each inspired the other to make and after the band broke up they each continued writing. After drifting apart they both found each other in Malmö at the same post upper secondary school. Though they hadn't written or played together for 5 years, they recorded two lo-fi songs in Cordelia’s student apartment again inspired by each others musical ideas. A rehearsal space followed, then recording a demo. Eventually, Cordelia brought in a university classmate she had bonded with over music, Felix Sjöström as a bass player filling out the sound and sharing in the inspirations.
Following on from the release of their breakthrough debut EP ‘Mouth Full Of You’ last year, Spunsugar are set to release their highly-anticipated debut album ‘Drive-Through Chapel’, dropping October 2nd (2020) via Adrian Recordings. The track Run with the strident guitars, double time beat, pulse pounding bass lines and Elin's captivating croon is a shoegaze-esque post punk juggernaut. The interweaving guitar and bass lines amid hard pushing downbeats highlighted during the musical breaks roll over your senses. I feel an absolute wondrous onslaught of sounds like a car crash of Interpol, Pixies, Lolita Pop and Sonic Youth.
The lyrics spin in interesting ways sprinkling with references to suffocation of religion or maybe general small mindedness and the pull to run away from places that don't support your ideas or who you are period.
Yea, though I walk in the valley of
Scripture paper cuts and smokers cough
psalms sung through a baleful voice
I have my runners and I have a choice
If my palms bleed
It’s cause I slipped and fell
That’s why I run now
Before it’s hard to tell
Still running away
Still running away
Still running away
Still running away
“We call ourselves an alternative rock band with shoegaze influences. Sound wise, imagine if Alternative Nation on MTV 1997 and a drum machine fall into a cotton candy machine. The cotton candy wheel breaks and derails. We grew up farmer offsprings, bible belt kids of fundamentalists and trailer trash in small towns of Sweden. These are our references and this shapes our sound.” – Spunsugar
Spunsugar is a band on the rise garnering garnering support from Steve Lamacq at BBC 6Music and a bevy of fans after their debut EP. I look forward to "Drive- Through Chapel".
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician-Band/Spunsugar-1954664354594177/
https://www.instagram.com/spunsugarmusic/
https://soundcloud.com/spunsugarmusic
https://spunsugar.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2NDWJvRwXGTFBngWiSNLu9?si=J8i_Vw-HSUuXxE6m9_sP3w
Two out of three members of the trio Spunsugar, Cordelia Moreau and Elin Ramstedt, befriended one another in a small town outsider clique at age thirteen. Their individual music tastes, Cordelia’s twee-pop, jangle and grunge and Elin’s metal, hardcore and post-rock blended into a mutual love for shoegaze, noise rock and dream pop. At age fifteen they started a four piece band, Elin on lead vocals and rhythm guitar and Cordelia on drums. They discovered that they thrived when writing music together. But even when the band split up, they continued to write songs.
Fast forward to post upper secondary school. After months of hardly speaking to each other, they both ended up in Malmö. After not writing music together for five years they recorded two lo-fi songs in Cordelia’s student apartment and it was as if no time had passed. They looked for a rehearsal space and within weeks they recorded a demo. But they wanted a real live bass player. Cordelia had recently bonded with a university classmate over guitars and they decided to send him a copy of the demo and asked if he would like to come play with them. Felix Sjöström became an intrinsic part of the project immediately. With his influence, their sound became more distinguished, all of them bringing different inspirations to the songs. Now they all have prominent roles within the band but they are also, fundamentally, friends.
Spunsugar are works at a faster paced than a lot of their shoegaze peers and accompanied by electronic drums. They are more often compared to Curve, Swervedriver or Ringo Deathstarr rather than the likes of Cocteau Twins or Slowdive. Although heavy on effects, nothing is hidden within the music, including the lyrics. The lyrics are heavy with pop cultural references, stemming from Cordelia’s love for obscure genre films. Often driven by riffs rather than soundscapes, they focus equally on having a prominent bass as well as prominent guitars.
They spent roughly a year juggling writing songs, rehearsing and playing gigs before collaborating with Adrian Recordings. Sometimes they played just for their friends or at parties and sometimes at venues, once opening for Nothing, a band they all loved for a long time. The unjustified hybris from this in combination with being self-deprecating fueled the writing of a plethora of new songs. It also pushed them to release their first single "I Shouldn’t Care".
No comments:
Post a Comment