{"id":757589,"date":"2025-11-28T10:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T07:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=757589"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T07:48:00","slug":"the-rise-of-swedens-post-pop-underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=757589","title":{"rendered":"The rise of Sweden\u2019s post-pop underground"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>It\u2019s Wednesday night at Stoke Newington\u2019s The Waiting Room. \u201c<\/span><em><span>Meds will keep me sane \/ \u2018Cause peace it will prevail<\/span><\/em><span>,\u201d sings <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/venusanonirl\/\"><span>Venus Anon<\/span><\/a><span>, who has flown in from Stockholm to be here. A projection of spliced-together archive footage illuminates the stage: fawns play in the snow and everything is stark and white; camels trek through the desert and the room is thrust into darkness. Soundwise, it\u2019s like Oklou by way of <\/span><em><span>Music<\/span><\/em><span>-era Madonna.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Nearly a thousand miles away in Gothenburg, Dunya Fest is taking place. It\u2019s the sophomore festival for the Gothenburg label, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/inthisdunya.online\/?hl=en\"><span>In This Dunya<\/span><\/a><span>. The lineup isn\u2019t just made up of Swedish natives, but international acts who see themselves as taking part in more of a cultural initiative than a straight festival. Last year they included Oklou and Jawnino \u2013 this year it\u2019s James Massiah. \u201cThere will always be a need for a scene that supports our kind of music,\u201d says Gothenburg born and raised\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ra5ghd\/?hl=en\"><span>Raghd<\/span><\/a><span>, one of the festival\u2019s headliners. Elsewhere, Stockholm duo Lovers Skit are taking to the stage at a pub in Brixton. They\u2019ve found their audience amongst revellers at The Windmill, champions of the post-punk strain of guitar music that Lovers Skit peddle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s really dark here and we don\u2019t have a lot to do,\u201d Venus tells me. \u201cBut that\u2019s what makes good music come alive.\u201d She\u2019s not being poetic. As the third largest exporter of music in the world, Sweden <\/span><em><span>is<\/span><\/em><span> pop. It gave the world ABBA and later down the line Robyn, Icona Pop, Lykke Li and Zara Larsson. But the country\u2019s reputation as a factory for sunny pop doesn\u2019t quite capture the reality of living there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"oV43I_adn2U\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oV43I_adn2U\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cThe times when Sweden made a lot of pop, that was a long time ago,\u201d Raghd tells me. She joins our call from a hair salon, where she\u2019s getting fresh braids ahead of Dunya Fest. \u201cWe still love that music, but Sweden doesn\u2019t look the same. The politics are different. Like, we have a different migration policy than what we did back then. Our government\u2019s more right-leaning.\u201d Despite what you might have learned in geography, Sweden isn&#8217;t actually the \u2018happiest place on Earth\u2019 and it\u2019s not just down to politics. The country\u2019s climate is brutal \u2013 nine months of grey, three months of light, as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/izzagara\/?hl=en\"><span>Izza Gara<\/span><\/a><span> puts it. \u201cI got so good at producing while living up North [in Gothenburg] because the weather was so depressing,\u201d she continues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sweden has always had an underground running parallel to the pop machine. In the early 2000s, a large chunk came from the Gothenburg label Service, who released records by indie-pop band The Embassy. Then came Yung Lean and Drain Gang, pioneering a darker, weirder sound than the twee alt-pop of the noughties. \u201cI salute my brothers that came before me,\u201d says Venus, laughing. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to have them as a part of the legacy.\u201d But as much as the scene around Drain Gang, as pbeatgirl put it, \u201cheralded a new era of electronic music,\u201d it was always something of a boys\u2019 club. \u201cI just think that [our scene] doesn&#8217;t have to be a Swedish guy singing about pain,\u201d adds Venus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That\u2019s where these artists come in, carving out a scene that\u2019s less provocative than Drain Gang\u2019s \u2018<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/magazine.032c.com\/magazine\/drain-gang\"><span>suicidal robot<\/span><\/a><span>\u2019 sounds, but no less honest. It reflects a different relationship with the internet too: less about meme-heavy irony and more about cherry-picking cultural touchstones from the recent past. Izza Gara\u2019s visuals nod to Y2K pop aesthetics; Venus Anon channels trip-hop textures, pbeatgirl favours sparse, atmospheric production; Raghd goes heavier and dancier; Lovers Skit lean into 00s grunge.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>It\u2019s all there, thriving in spite of an infrastructure that doesn\u2019t necessarily want it to. Last year, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/reset-network.eu\/budget-cuts-threaten-the-future-of-sweden-and-finlands-cultural-sector\/\"><span>Swedish government<\/span><\/a><span> introduced hefty budget cuts threatening the educational organisations and music venues which play an integral role in nurturing young talent. The motivation? A \u201cshifted focus to education that leads to \u2018real jobs\u2019.\u201d \u201cWe have had to create our own spaces, and that\u2019s what we&#8217;re standing on today,\u201d Raghd explains.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And so they have. Gothenburg\u2019s Oceanen holds over 100 events each year. Spice99 has become a hub for the scene over in Stockholm. Dunya Fest draws British acts; Venus plays North London venues. The reach goes both ways. \u201cPeople are getting a bit bored and starting to take matters into their own hands,\u201d explains Raghd. There\u2019s a certain frailty, but there\u2019s also a resilience that belies, as Izza Gara puts it, the \u201cintroverted and reserved\u201d nature of Swedish people. \u201cWe have each other\u2019s backs,\u201d she tells me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Below, we speak to five faces of this new Swedish post-pop sound.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>VENUS ANON<\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"V0oEFcos-_4\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cGothenburg is like when you smoke a blunt,\u201d singer and producer Venus Anon tells me. \u201cIf you\u2019re in a good mood, you become in an even better mood. But if I\u2019m in a bad mood and I go to Gothenburg, it\u2019s like, there is only trauma.\u201d Venus left Gothenburg for Stockholm when she was seven. There she attended Rytmus music school, did a brief stint at law school, then sacked that off for her true calling. \u201cI saw this video of myself playing live and was like, I love that. Music is what makes life worth living.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To be fair, it seems like she made the right decision. On \u201cNothing\u2019s Really Over, Not With Anyone\u201d, whimsical production transforms breakbeats into something unexpectedly melancholic. \u201c<\/span><em><span>I\u2019d rather have the occasional frog jump out of my mouth \/ Than pride the size of the Shibuya<\/span><\/em><span>,\u201d she sings, delivering siren-like vocal riffs. With \u201cCelestial\u201d, her most recent single, she\u2019s found herself a trip-hop sweet spot: it\u2019s prime All Saints via Frou Frou that\u2019s elevated by live strings which keep it from feeling like nostalgia porn. What if \u201cCelestial\u201d went viral, I ask. \u201cI\u2019d be doing heavy drugs if it was a really fast, crazy thing. It\u2019d be the end,\u201d is Anon\u2019s reply.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>RAGHD<\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"Smf5E7kU-Cs\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>While the other artists have fled Sweden\u2019s chilly North coast, Raghd is still in Gothenburg. She\u2019s glad of it. \u201cNobody lives there and I don\u2019t have a lot of peers, but I don\u2019t think I would\u2019ve wanted it any different,\u201d she tells me. \u201cIn loneliness, something else can grow.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Evidently, what\u2019s grown is a sound with a kind of metamorphic quality. Raghd\u2019s music could be rapped along to in the car or played at the club, but also left on in the background while you do very little. That mutability is played out within each track too. The jungle-esque drums that hit thirty seconds into \u201cEasy Go!\u201d catch you off guard. You don\u2019t expect bars from British-Nigerian rapper DEELA on \u201cArrest Me\u201d, but it works. The latter is a track off Raghd\u2019s latest EP, <\/span><em><span>Significant Value<\/span><\/em><span>, which takes its name from a statistics term. \u201cIt means there\u2019s a very low probability that something\u2019s occurred by chance,\u201d Raghd explains. \u201cThat\u2019s how I feel about life, basically.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>PBEATGIRL<\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html-embed\"><iframe data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/1UedKlHlCeEbwlYaRgHgf9?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cI remember being approached by a girl I\u2019d never met before, saying she was obsessed with a track that I had uploaded on SoundCloud,\u201d pbeatgirl tells me over email. \u201cThat conversation really changed my way of thinking about my own music.\u201d It\u2019s fitting. Her music feels like an ode to SoundCloud at its purest: unapologetically niche, resolutely DIY and untethered from any kind of machinery. \u201cI\u2019m getting more comfortable with the idea of doing genreless music in my own little corner of the world,\u201d she adds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For three years, that corner was a Gothenburg harbour flat surrounded by heavy machinery. \u201cIt\u2019s probably my most insane housing situation to date,\u201d she writes. She\u2019s since returned to Stockholm, though the music has remained the same: hard to pin down. While a track like \u201cDrown it out\u201d is downtempo and ambient, \u201cText Me When You Get Home\u201d \u2013 where she links up with Magnus Larsson and DJ Beverage \u2013 sounds like it could\u2019ve soundtracked a cutscene in a Danny Boyle film. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a scene bubbling, but it feels very eclectic and free,\u201d she continues. \u201cEveryone is doing their thing but with the support of everyone else. It\u2019s so much fun performing live knowing we\u2019re all gonna be there, hyping each other up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>IZZA GARA<\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"YC-kQxdsDUQ \"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Watch the video for Izza Gara\u2019s \u201cFavour\u201d and you\u2019d assume she\u2019s straight pop: choreographed routines, vocals that have been processed until they shimmer and earworm-y hooks. \u201c<\/span><em><span>Would you want me in your speaker babe<\/span><\/em><span>,\u201d she repeats. But beneath the gloss, things tilt sideways. Izza came up through Gothenburg\u2019s hip-hop dance scene. \u201cIt\u2019s more left field than Stockholm,\u201d she tells me. \u201cI started dancing after I saw the video for \u2018Work It\u2019 by Missy Elliott. I like her music. It can be weird, but it\u2019s still got that pop structure that makes you feel comfortable.\u201d That tension runs through Izza Gara\u2019s work \u2013 she plays with the pop facade. \u201cLove Me\u201d cracks at the edges with off-kilter rhythms, then \u201c3000\u201d abandons it entirely. London-based rapper Miso Extra joins her, rapping in Japanese over darker textures that feel worlds away from \u201cFavour\u201d. On \u201cOVU\u201d, the jangly percussion feels like a nod to her heritage. \u201cMy mom\u2019s also Turkish, so I was around a lot of that music,\u201d she says of her eclectic influences. \u201cAnd I used to listen to a lot of battle music with weird beats. That\u2019s been a big part of it all.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Being able to keep that weirdness alive is exactly why Izza refuses to sign to a label. She compares it to her painting days: once she got a commission and money changed hands, the work stopped being hers. \u201cIt became an anxiety-inducing thing to do,\u201d she explains. \u201cI felt pressured.\u201d I ask if she sees that happening with music. \u201cNo, because I haven\u2019t signed anything,\u201d she replies, laughing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><strong>LOVER<span>\u2019<\/span>S SKIT<\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"wEHFKdjRFhg\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cA scene doesn\u2019t really exist until you say that it does,\u201d says Ove Jerndal, one half of Stockholm duo Lover\u2019s Skit. He and vocalist Nathalia Ar\u00e1nguiz are half-joking. They know they\u2019re part of something, but defining it feels slippery. Sometimes they\u2019re an offshoot of guitar music, other times it\u2019s breakbeat at their core. \u201cWe have a clique in Stockholm where we\u2019re leaning into jungle music and stuff like that,\u201d says Nathalia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The duo formed during the pandemic, making music in their bedrooms before hitting Stockholm\u2019s nightlife once lockdowns were lifted. \u201cAfter the pandemic, we turned 18 and got to see the club,\u201d Nathalia tells me. \u201cThat really influenced our music. It made it more dance-y, more hip-hop and rap.\u201d Elsewhere, the Stockholm influence arrives uninvited. \u201cIt was taken in the middle of the summer at a dinner party, but it\u2019s still dark,\u201d says Nathalia of their artwork for <\/span><em><span>All Rights Reserved<\/span><\/em><span>. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to not get that in your aesthetics when that\u2019s how it looks here.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Anything I\u2019ve missed, I ask \u2013 any shoutouts? The duo credit Sonic Erection, a Stockholm collective that\u2019s running clubs, booking acts and even getting involved in the visuals. \u201cThey did our first music video. They\u2019re keeping a lot of it alive,\u201d Nathalia adds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> Source URL: https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69144\/1\/the-rise-of-swedens-post-pop-underground-gothenburg-venus-anon-lovers-skit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Wednesday night at Stoke Newington\u2019s The Waiting Room. \u201cMeds will keep me sane \/ \u2018Cause peace it will prevail,\u201d sings Venus Anon, who has flown in from Stockholm to be here. A projection of spliced-together archive footage illuminates the stage: fawns play in the snow and everything is stark and white; camels trek through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-757589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=757589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/757590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=757589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=757589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=757589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}