Clutter is the project of Swedish 20-year-olds Hilda Ander (vocals/guitar/bass), Emma French, Ove Jerndal (guitar/keys) and Ville Scott (drums/keys).
With a cacophonous sound that mirrors their name they eagerly channel the spirit of grunge and post-hardcore through surfing distorted guitars, urgent percussive lines and playful vocal interplay, nodding to elements of shoe gaze, Britpop and alt rock of the 1990s and stirring it into a brew that sounds refreshing and youthful.
Reflecting the existential struggles and mini moments of triumph that come from growing up. A band that comes close to chaos but just holds on, Clutter’s kinetic energy is created through a tight bond and is forged around their own crackling potential.
Fleshing out the quartet’s sonic world, their forthcoming six track debut EP, Clutter Loves You out on PNKSLM recordings on the 11th of April, fuses existential lyrical ideas, post-hardcore guitars, and feisty, punk-spirited calls to arms. Just finishing a support tour with Hinds in the UK, we caught up with the band to find out more.
Hey how are you?
Hi, we’re good thank you! Excited to get on with writing some new music now that we’re home from our UK support tour with Hinds.
How did Clutter form?
We became friends during high school. Emma and Ove became friends first since they were in the same class, and we asked Hilda to play in a band with us as she seemed very cool. We played for some months without a drummer but when we booked our first gig Ove asked Ville to join, they’re childhood friends and had played together in a band before.
What’s the music scene like in Sweden?
It’s really good at the moment. We have some really nice emerging acts here in Stockholm, and some new venues we really like. I don’t know, we can only really speak for Stockholm but it feels exciting right now. It feels as if we’re part of a music scene right now haha, together with some other alternative bands from Stockholm and around Sweden (and other art forms as well, people make fanzine magazines and DJ a lot). and though it’s a small scene everyone is very encouraging and friendly towards each other, going to each other’s gigs and taking inspiration!
How would you describe your music in five words?
Fuzzy, heartfelt, cluttered, distorted and youthful.
What bands do you share a love of?
There are so many. A lot of Britpop and shoegaze bands such as Pulp and Lush. But also some Swedish indie bands like Broder Daniel and Hurula.. Wilco and Magnetic Fields are also great ones, Big Black and The Smiths etc.
I love the balance between the edge and rawness of your sound and the melodic interplay between your vocals, Is it something you work hard on to find?
Thank you! Not really, so far most of our music has come very naturally. I think we’d like to be more specific about how we create music and what sounds we make in the future, but creating this EP was very spontaneous and relaxed.
Tell us about your new EP?
Overall it has a kind of ‘DIY’ feeling to it that stays throughout the project, everything from the sound of the music to the music videos that comes along with it. As it’s our first EP we never felt any pressure while writing, nothing to compare it to. It feels very playful and easy in that sense.
You say ‘Kraut’ captures a feeling of adolescence we all will undoubtedly lose; does that feeling give you an urgency to make a mark?
The idea of making art is really compelling, the feeling of making an idea come alive and then showing it to other people. So in many ways we’ve already left marks, because people are responding to what we’re creating. But yeah, being young is always an attribute people look for and sometimes it feels stressful to “make it” while you still have that feeling/look. We’re very ambitious and have big dreams, the idea of not fulfilling those is quite scary.
‘Jesus’ is really cool. What’s it about? The riff feels like it’s teetering on the edge; it reminds me of acts like Breeders or Sonic Youth in that way.
Thank you, we love both those bands! Jesus is about a lot and nothing. The lyrics are quite existential but the subject changes a lot. It’s about finding a meaning in everyday life, making normal and boring things holy even though we’re not religious. Emma wrote the lyrics, in many ways they can mean whatever you need them to.
‘Brideshead’ has a bit more of a shoegazey even britpop feel, I love the guitar fuzz and different parts, how did it come together? You say it’s based on the book by Evelyn Waugh how so?
‘Brideshead; is one of those songs that just happened and came together very fast. It started out with the music, and we had talked about making a song where Emma and Hilda both sing. The music felt almost like a conversation, the fast and hectic bits in relationship to the calmer ones.
The lyrics are inspired by the book and that wasn’t really thought through. It just happened as we both really like the book. We both read it quite close to each other in the beginning of our friendship, so it was nice to reconnect with that as well. The characters are fun to write about and it’s an eccentric, almost existential story. The writing process was silly and playful.
You recently toured with Hinds how was that?
It was a really cool experience, we had a lot of fun and we learned a lot from it. Playing live night after night, going around in a van and meeting a lot of different people. For Clutter it’s the first tour ever and we’re very thankful to do it together with such a professional band as ‘Hinds’. Our bond as a band also improved from it, it’s a strange thing to share such a big experience. We spent almost every second of the tour together and don’t hate each other yet haha.
Are there any bands you would recommend from Sweden?
We actually really like the bands on the PNKSLM label, many of which we were fans of before. Shitkid, Kerosene Kream, and Sibille Attar, to name some. Our friends in Cockhouse and Lover’s Skit are also awesome.
What’s on your playlist?
Right now it’s a lot of Yung Lean and Bladee and KNEECAP.
What are your future plans?
We’re releasing the EP next month! So one release gig in Stockholm and then one at the Lexington in London (16th of April). The main focus after that is to write new music as we are very excited and got a lot of new inspiration after the tour! Hopefully more gigs during the summer too, we’d love to play some festivals.
