As part of Music Is To Blame’s What’s to Blame? interview series, Clutter talk us through their love of 90's bands, 'Loves You', and their not-so-guilty pleasures.
Hi Clutter - how are you?
Hello Music Is To Blame! We're all good thank you, still a bit overwhelmed with excitement over our UK tour supporting Hinds last month. It was such a cool experience and a big opportunity for us as a band that we’re very thankful for. But it’s also good to be home again, writing some new music.
Talk to us about your band name - who or what’s to blame for its inception?
Hilda made a long list of band-name-suggestions and we all agreed on “Clutter”. Actually it may have been the only reasonable name on the list as most of them were a bit crazy. Still we liked the shortness of it and it alludes in some way to all the British 90s bands we love, such as Pulp, Lush and Elastica. The name “Clutter” and the music we make feels very connected, inspired by each other.
You’re a Stockholm-based band but sing in English - can you talk to us more about this
Depending on what language you write in it sets a certain tone to the song. Clutter as a band feels destined to be all in English, as most of our musical influences are English speaking and the sound of the language somehow goes together well with the distorted guitars and heavier drums. There’s also a vulnerability and honesty in using a second language in songwriting. One of our favourite Swedish bands from the 90s is Broder Daniel, the simplicity and repetitiveness in Henrik Berggren’s vocals makes the songs heartbreakingly straight-forward which feels very inspiring.
Your debut EP ‘Loves You’ is due out soon, what’s your favourite track off it?
We've all had different favourites throughout the project and all of the songs are meaningful in some way or another. Whereas ‘Brideshead’ has been a favourite from the start, ‘Brainiac’ has been growing on us after playing it live every night during the tour. Ahh but still ‘Kraut’ is special as it’s one of the first songs we wrote, and ‘Jesus’ set the tone for the whole ‘Loves You’ EP. Haha, could we pick all of them?
My favourite track off the EP is ‘Geeks’, what can you tell us about the writing and recording process?
‘Geeks’ is the newest song from the bunch and lyrically Hilda was inspired by the Julie Ruin song ‘Girls Like Us’. The writing process was quite fast cause we felt very inspired, especially as the music went so well together with the lyrics. ‘Geeks’ will be released together with a music video, alongside the full EP. It was a really fun video to make and it really accents Hilda's lyrics as we all recognise ourselves in her words.
You were recently played on BBC Radio Six - how big was this for you?
Ahhh it feels so big! We’ve all listened a lot to BBC Radio Six, as there’s no Swedish radio station for indie music at all. It was a really weird experience to hear Tom Ravenscroft talk about us after they played ‘Kraut’, listening to it live from our homes in Stockholm.
What or who would you say is to blame for your music career?
Music has always been a big part of all our lives. Ville and Ove played in a band together in their teenage years and Hilda with some other girls, all of us learning instruments in different ways. It’s amazing how music comes and goes in your life.
Things we listened to when we were younger (such as the Swedish artists Veronica Maggio and Linda Pira) feels outdated in relation to the music we make now, but has still been important for us at some point.
Who are the biggest musical inspirations for the sound you’ve curated?
We all have similar musical influences and we actually got friends bonding over everything from Jarvis Cocker and Broder Daniel to My Bloody Valentine, as well as the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Ville’s drums are inspired by bands such as The Jesus Lizards, while Emma and Hilda’s songwriting is very influenced by Bikini Kill and X-Ray Spex.
Do you have any guilty pleasure artists that you like to listen to?
Hilda said 'The Muppets Soundtrack' but she's not very guilty about it (and we can all agree it's a fantastic soundtrack). Emma listens to ‘I love it’ by Icona Pop on repeat sometimes, like a hundred times in a row non-stop.
Lucas Marshall
Image: Rachel Lipsitz
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