The fourth studio album from Blues Pills titled ‘Birthday’ was released on August 2nd, four years after their last release ‘Holy Moly!’ that dropped in 2020. The album took just ten days to record and captures the band in its purest form as they are when performing live and in a more care-free element. Frontwoman Elin Larsson explained how much of this was captured in the song “Bad Choices.” Frontwoman Elin Larsson explained, “I think Kribba (Kristoffer Schander – bassist) was hungover and we were discussing his bad choices in life…” Elin laughs, “and that’s how it started. Kribba started to then play some bass grooves and our producer started on the piano then I got the hook, you know? Bad choices! He may have been hungover, but he had soulful vibes in that bass groove. Basically, it’s a ‘do whatever the fck you want with your life’ song. People are going to have opinions, but you need to say ‘fck it!’” The Swedish hard rock band has carved out a notable reputation as electric and engaging live performers, having toured for over a decade and performed at many festivals across Europe. The live element was another aspect of the recording that the band wanted to capture as well, “Our style of music is able to cross boundaries a little bit,” says co-writer and guitarist Zack Anderson. “Within very short time we went from being a band that no-one had heard of to playing giant festivals and bigger shows than we could have imagined. We were quite young so that came with a lot of pressure. Now that we’re older it’s easier to see that you should just do music for yourself. And it’s a blessing that we grew up in a time before all the technology totally took off. When we first started – when we recorded our first songs – it was with one of those Tascam cassette recorders – so you couldn’t fix anything. So, the only way to do it was to actually perform the thing for real. That’s where we started off from. I guess that set the tone for the rest of our career.” The album title reflects Larsson’s pregnancy during the recording process and was a natural title for the project. Larsson stated that the band’s time in the studio saw the birth of more than just a record. “During the recordings of the album I discovered I was pregnant,” she says. “It wasn’t planned so I was a bit overwhelmed, but it actually made it easier for me to write for this album. It should be natural to be both a mother and an artist, and I want my son Loui to be on that journey with me.”
Download ‘Birthday’ by Blues Pills here!
Lead singer/songwriter Elin Larsson spoke with B-Sides host Pete Mar about the recording process of ‘Birthday’, how the darkness of the long winter nights/days in Sweden affect her approach to songwriting, motherhood and more.
