BLUES PILLS return with kick-ass new album and single (“Birthday”). “Birthday” will be released on August 2nd, 2024. The title track out now.
Firebrand Swedish rockers BLUES PILLS return with a long-awaited kick-ass new album ‘BIRTHDAY’ to be released August 2nd, 2024 on Throwdown Entertainment / BMG.
The title track ‘Birthday’ is out today as a single on streaming platforms. The single will also be released as a limited edition 12” vinyl for Record Store Day this 20th April 2024.
The song ‘Birthday’ tells the tale of an incident that took place on tour in Mexico on singer Elin Larsson’s birthday. She invited the whole band and crew out to celebrate her birthday and things turned sour when a waiter decided to ruin her birthday. Elin recalls: “I don’t know what the f**k this guy was thinking or doing, but he took liberties and crossed personal boundaries acting in a very disrespectful way.”
When the band got home, they wrote the new single ‘Birthday’. “It has some humour to it”, states Elin “The first verse of the song is written from the perspective of the aggressor, but this is not a song to feel like a victim to, this is a shit-kicker of a tune with a f**k you attitude to get wild to”.
About the new album – also named “Birthday” – Blues Pills say this: “With this album we truly let ourselves be free, leaving all the boundaries and expectations behind to write music we love. We wanted to capture the raw and authentic feeling from when we play live on an album yet pushing ourselves to create and write the best work we’ve ever done. Elin was pregnant during the recordings, and what isn’t more rock’n’roll than that? To create human life and music.”
Elin found out she was pregnant while writing this album, recording the songs often feeling like she was gifted more energy and a new sense of freedom by her growing son inside her, as she laid the vocal tracks down. Furthermore, it strengthened Blues Pills as a whole in their conception of being a feminist band, firmly grounded in mutual respect and standing up for themselves and each other.
As Elin puts it: “I need to do this for myself and for other mothers, so they don’t abandon their own passions after becoming mums. It’s going to take time to combine the two worlds I love, but I can only think it will do my son Loui good to experience other cultures, countries and music. I really think it’s important that I can do this. To empower other women, and to meet this new state proudly and enjoy.”
The band’s feminist stance has also been a natural progression, drawing on the lived experience of the band online and while touring. Adds Elin: “A lot of the years I’ve been taking shit for being a woman in rock’n’roll. Zack sees it all first hand and it gives a new perspective. For everyone in the band it’s a constant driver.” And Zack stresses: “We support each other. It’s always been, since the beginning 12 years ago Zack & Elin. We’ve seen it all”.
The unassuming Swedes may seem softly spoken, laid back even nerdy at home, curating their vinyl collection or walking in rural Sweden’s snowy landscapes with their dogs. But on stage the band erupt into modern rock magma. Increasingly known for the strength of their powerful live show guitarist Zack Anderson notes: “There’s been a natural progression with us levelling up our stage presence, Elin is fearless now, jumping around, powerstances, crowdsurfing, full of fire.”
Sometimes Brody Dalle other times more Janis Joplin, Elin Larsson delivers raw, effortless charisma with stellar rich vocals throughout the new record. Accompanied by Zack Anderson on guitar, André Kvarnström on drums and Kristoffer Schander on bass supplying infectious grooves that just won’t quit. The band let the melody and Elin’s vocals shine, while encouraging the jumbo-sized hooks to thread through the eleven tracks, mainly produced by Grammy-nominated Freddy Alexander, creating a career defining record full of beauty, fire and swagger.
BIRTHDAY – Tracklist:
1. Birthday
2. Don’t You Love it
3. Bad Choices
4. Top Of The Sky
5. Like A Drug
6. Piggyback Ride
7. Holding Me Back
8. Somebody Better
9. Shadows
10. I Don’t Wanna Get Back On That Horse Again
11. What Has This Life Done To You
