Following their fierce live appearances in 2022 with only a handful of released singles, Swedish four-piece newcomers
Girl Scout are here with their debut EP Real Life Human Garbage and they have arrived with a thrill that is rare, authentic and honestly, a lot of fun. Heading into the footsteps of like-minded DIY novices such as Wet Leg, Porridge Radio or Coach Party, the quartet met “at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm”, where Emma Jansson (guitar, vocals), Evelina Arvidsson Eklind (bass, vocals), Per Lindberg (drums) und Viktor Spasov (guitar) studied jazz music. “It just happened”, they reflect on the beginnings, first earning money as a two-piece, covering The Beatles and Burt Bacharach, before teaming up as a four-piece, writing their own material. “It was immediately clear to us that we are a band. Our collaboration feels totally natural”.
“The thread that has pulled us through has been our communal inability to be functioning humans from time to time. Oh, and also our obsession and love for songwriting. The music that Girl Scout makes is very much directed at other people who also sometimes forget how to be humans.”
“How To Be A Garbage Human”
The title speaks for its own entirely and unfolds the notion of being and feeling different in these strange times we live in. And as sincere and essential as that message reveals itself in these days, Girl Scout are bold enough to toy around with the idea in the most playful and high-spirited guise. Pairing existential undercurrents with hyped rhythms and distorted guitars, Real Life Human Garbage feels like coming-of-age curb poetry against a throbbing Brit-Pop surface. As sweeping and thrilling and stirring as the whole five-track-journey might seem, the dread of coping with life breathes through every fibre of it and that is the beauty of it all, as the prototypical Weirdo demonstrates: “To tell you the truth / I ain’t doing well / Fits like a glove / in the casing of a shell”.
“Real Life Human Garbage is best appreciated if taken as a guide in how to be a garbage human. It’s your guidebook for drinking 35 Peronis, missing the subway and then, when it finally arrives, dropping your phone in that tiiiiny gap between the train and the platform.”
As noisy and to the bone as the whole EP turns out to be, as inward-turning and subtle is the closing track Attenborough Beach, which delivers a decent close to the five tracks. Starting off with the calm voice of front singer Emma Jansson, the track unfolds its sea-sprinkled and melancholic mood, before eventually roaring into the guitar-fused chorus: “I’m afraid of the ocean / To have the waves come crashing down on me / Still I find myself longing for the way things used to be / Attenborough Beach”.
“Attenborough Beach is about two friends who used to be very close but got separated as life passed by. It’s a song about how the unknown is a huge part of life when we are younger, and then we grow up and start pretending that we have things under control. I suppose it rounds off the EP because it’s a song that asks more questions than it answers, but honestly don’t know. It just sounded nice as the final song.”
Real Life Human Garbage is out now via Made Records.
Every Monday, the NBHAP staff brings an exciting new artist to your attention alongside a 30-track-strong Introducing Playlist on Spotify. Feel invited to follow the playlist and give these talents a spin.
This time, we curated the playlist together with Girl Scout. Along with tracks from their debut EP, this week’s update includes Fazerdaze, Andy Shauf, Fenne Lily and more. Tune in below.