Becky and the Birds, the moniker of Swedish songwriter and producer Thea Gustafsson, returns with the release of new single and video ‘When She Holds Me’. The new track is a first look at new material from Becky and the Birds and points towards a debut 4AD album due to arrive later this year.
Finding inspiration in the early work of Bon Iver, the ‘For Emma’ intimacy blossoms into lush harmonies and atmospheric soundscapes; the rich instrumentation references previous collaborators Dijon and Lapsley via soft-spoken harmonies and plucked strings. As described by Pitchfork, the sonic world she creates is propelled forward by “a singular, cosmopolitan pop mood that’s at once stylish and vulnerable.”
As Gustafsson described of the track: “I wrote this song to the first girl I fell in love with. Everything about her reminded me of summer, and this song is her anthem. And an anthem and ode to all women and their ethereal beauty and love.”
The single is accompanied by a video created by Tiffi Malmgren, Simone Beyene (Nothing Yet) and Morris Malmgren (Push Visuals). The visual reflects the soft, layered complexities of Becky and the Birds’ sound and the warmth with which Gustafsson opens her heart to a relationship in the song.
Becky and the Birds – ‘When She Holds Me’
Praise for Becky and the Birds
“Conjures up the sparse, acoustic moments on Frank Ocean’s Blonde” – Pitchfork
“Resplendent” – Gorilla vs Bear
“A hazy mix of pitched-up vocals, rangey bass, and angelic, compressed woodwind” – The Fader
“You’d do well to find a better debut”- The Line of Best Fit
“Stunning, soulful debut submerges us in an atmosphere of layered synths and bird-like vocals that are careful, yet hit with chilling intensity” – Vinyl Me Please
“A contemplative and tranquil look at all the complexities that come when you allow yourself to be vulnerable to your own emotions” – Pitchfork
About Becky and the Birds
Thea Gustafsson — who writes, records, and produces under the moniker Becky and the Birds — is a disciplined person by nature, with her formal musical education at Musikmakarna Songwriters Academy of Sweden and avid violin-playing as a child inspiring her unending need for perfectionism. Armed with the skills of pop songcraft and production, Becky and the Birds came to life in 2016 in reaction to frustrating and fruitless encounters with male producers and songwriters, which took form in 2018’s self-released EP Becky and the Birds. With the release of her debut 4AD EP, Trasslig, in 2020, Gustafsson used Becky and the Birds as an outlet for songs about complex women – strong, independent, sensitive and romantic women that are both powerful and vulnerable at the same time and who are ‘trasslig’ (Swedish for ‘entangled, messy, intricate’).
Following this, Gustafsson was nominated in the Breakthrough of the Year category at the Swedish Music Publishers Association Awards, the equivalent of the GRAMMYs for songwriters and composers in Sweden. She has also collaborated with the likes of Dijon, Seinabo Sey, and Lapsley, among others, and in 2021, Gustafsson then released the single ‘With You’ as an exclusive for Spotify’s Studio Oyster. With her most recent single, ‘When She Holds Me’, Becky and the Birds returns with the same innovative and distinct production style, but here presents herself in advanced and contemplative form via her ethereal, erratic, heavy-hitting, and hypnotic new material.
BECKY AND THE BIRDS ONLINE
