A stunning record that shines with alternative warmth and wonder, Kindsight’s debut ‘Swedish Punk’ is as catchy as it is impassioned: An energetic and emotive upheaval of soaring indie rock and feverish dream pop that inspires, uplifts, and leaves us truly breathless.
for fans of Wy, Of Monsters and Men, Alvvays, Soccer Mommy
Stream: “Sun Is Always in My Eyes” – Kindsight
Radiant and charming, Kindsight’s debut album shines like a daydream come to life in sound.
A sweetly stunning collection of captivating alternative warmth and wonder, Swedish Punk is as catchy as it is impassioned: An energetic and emotive upheaval of soaring indie rock and feverish dream pop that inspires, uplifts, and leaves us truly breathless.
I’m riding to
The thrift store for people passing through
I got a 50 bucks
From the cupboard mom she leaves unlocked
Ribbons of roads, old isles, and boats
Tied up to front lawns of prickly thorns
I guess I should have left a note
Sun is in my eyes
Bus in the summertime
Can’t see a thing inside
The sun is always in my eyes
Released March 25, 2022 via Rama Lama Records, Swedish Punk is the exhilarating and intimate debut album from Copenhagen’s Kindsight. Consisting of frontwoman Nina Hyldgaard Rasmussen, guitarist Søren Svensson, bassist Anders Prip, and drummer Johannes Jacobsen, the band formally introduced themselves to the world just shy of two years ago with their debut single “Who Are You,” an earworm outpouring of emotional tenderness and sonic volatility that hits home in all the right ways.
The same can be said of Kindsight’s full-length introduction, whose eleven songs rip, roar, and stir something deep inside as the band transcends the traditional bounds of genre. Swedish Punk is the perfect coalescence of chaos and control, energy and emotion, anthems and balladry: An ambitious record that shouts as hard as it whispers, built on as much inner human strength as inner human fragility. Yet whether the music is fast or slow, loud or soft, electric or acoustic, Kindsight always pour their full selves into the moment at hand.
Speaking to Atwood Magazine, the Danish band let off a light, infectious smile as they discuss the story behind their first album.
“Well we guess every band has got to do a record at some point,” they laugh. “After we recorded our first three singles in Nina’s basement with all the uncertainties of never having recorded music together before, we felt it necessary this time to record our first album in the nicest studio we could find, along with the nice producer Adam Lilienfeldt. So nice was the whole affair, that you’d never wanna be anywhere else.”
“Up until recording this album, we had always planned excessively in our music. Everything had to be a hundred percent figured before we even dared approach the studio. This kind of attitude might work nicely if you’re Jeff Porcaro preparing for a session with Steely Dan, but in our case, it might have limited our creative output to a kind of angsty broken jukebox. Which can be cool, but maybe not so nice. Because let’s face it, none of us want anything to do with Jeff Porcaro, and every one of us played a wrong note more than once somewhere on this album.”
Kindsight describe Swedish Punk as “nostalgic, honest, and kind”: Three words that uncannily evoke the invigorating, bright sunshine and intimacy pouring out of these songs.
“We feel it’s an honest expression of being in a band,” they add. “It’s the sound of compromise you could say.” They laugh. “No, not really though. Sometimes it’s the sound of people with nice lives trying to be angry, sometimes it’s the sound of people with nice lives trying to find something to be sad about.”
The album’s title itself is a little tongue-in-cheek; a nod to the record’s visceral explorations of daily life, with the understanding that hopefully we can all let it out in song and find some form of catharsis, relief, and release.
“One day in the studio, our producer Adam described the music as being Swedish punk,” Nina Rasmussen recalls. “Meaning that when we assemble Ikea furniture, we don’t follow the manual. Or that we can urinate in public, but not in front of other people. Or maybe that we have a hard time trying to sound angry.”
I guess you could say that the thing tying all the songs together is the ethos of Swedish punk, rather than any overarching narrative.
Highlights abound throughout Swedish Punk‘s forty-one dazzling minutes as Kindsight explore everything from lost innocence and soured love, to random chance encounters with strangers, “borrowing” money from our parents’ wallets or purses, and lazing in the hot Danish summer heart. From their refreshing opener “Weekend Thieves” to the tight, churning title track “Swedish Punk,” the band invite audiences into a world brimming with colorful, soaring guitars, heated, heartfelt vocals, and limitless wide-eyed wonder. The vulnerable and softly aching “Panic Juice” is as much a standout as the dynamic single “Sun Is Always in My Eyes” and the unrelenting, emotionally and sonically charged “Hi Life.”
“I think we all feel that “Sun is Always in My Eyes” came together quite well,” Rasmussen says. “I think it might have been the easiest song we’ve ever written, something about it just plays itself. I personally feel that “Panic Juice” also was quite well done. I’ve always had a thing for short tracks like that. When I was around 14, and mercifully unaware of the un-coolness of listening to ’70s prog rock. I had the track “Cuckoo Cocoon” from the unmercifully bloated The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway playing on repeat. And while the Genesis album as a whole couldn’t be further from our music, the songs remind me a little of each other.”
As her band’s principal lyricist, Rasmussen cites the rollicking, roaring “Queen of Cowboys” as containing some of her favorite lines. “It seems like complete rambling, but it’s not! It’s also one of the only times where the album breaks free from a kind of clingy nostalgia. Here it’s just pure optimism, misplaced maybe, but still completely sincere.”
Evita was living on a corner
She had a stand
But slingin’ information didn’t warm her
All days were like shopping malls
So cold and full of things
It’s a habit to just keep moving…
– “Queen of Cowboys,” Kindsight
Swedish Punk is feverish and fun: A record that bridges the gap between the intimate and the intense, the polished and the raw.
Kindsight’s music is definitively “alternative,” and yet their sounds run the gamut from wistful dream pop to hearty shoegaze (and everything in-between. Fans of bands like Wy, Of Monsters and Men, Alvvays, and Soccer Mommy are sure to find lots to love within Kindsight’s wondrous world.
“We hope some of the warmth and fun we had recording shines through in the songs,” the band shares. “But we also hope listeners take it just the right amount of serious. And we hope that at some point, the name of each band member making noise between two songs will be a matter of public record.”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Kindsight’s Swedish Punk with Atwood Magazine as the band goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of their debut album!
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:: stream/purchase Swedish Punk here ::
Stream: ‘Swedish Punk’ – Kindsight
:: Inside Swedish Punk ::
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Weekend Thieves
A song about riding bicycles up and down the railing of a large empty water reservoir in the claustrophobic summer heat, but also about trying to get some, or steal some, depending on which day of the week were talking about. Definitely the heart of the nostalgia on this album.
Hi-Life
Very much the closest we’ve come to actually being punk, have we succeeded or failed? you’re free to decide. It also gave us the opportunity to have our very own personal “More Cowbell” debate in the studio. A song about the chaotic reality of having to brush your teeth two times a day for the rest of infinity.
Party Time
If the notion having to brush your teeth twice a day stresses you out, along with the prospect of no longer just being able to drink beer whenever you feel like. The act of releasing all that stress on one night in a preplanned debauchery of expensive cocktails, shouted conversations and endless bus stops, might not always be so fun. Or maybe the song is just about being sad.
Panic Juice
Like a pear sorbet between meals at your local 12 course French restaurant. Don’t think to hard on it. Its also hard to think when you’ve had way to many exotic beers yesterday.
Sun Is Always in My Eyes
Stealing money from your mother to buy cool shoes, under the pretense of running away from home. Haven’t we all been there? I certainly have, but of course my mother also lives in a nice big house.
Trampoline to Me
The only song with lyrics written by guitarist Søren. If you wanna know what it’s about you should give him a call on 33760300. The ending of the song is the only place on the record where its all free jazz. No boundaries. You can even hear Johannes, our drummer, turning on the siding on his snare drum if you listen closely.
Laughing Wood
Every album needs an acoustic love song apparently, I’ve read that somewhere on Pitchfork at least. In this case the love turns out quite sour though. Complete surrender don’t do you any good, when all there is to eat in the fridge is inconceivable amounts horse beans. And all you get to eat with them Is pretty flowers from the meadow.
Don’t You Grow Up
A sort of odd one out on the album. It was the first song we ever wrote back in the fall of 2018. We’ve never had the chance to record it before, so we grabbed ahold of the opportunity now. Very happy, almost to the point of psychosis.
Queen of Cowboys
A very sassy drum and bass track, if homeless people went frequently to the club. The song is an overly optimistic celebration of strange people giving you strange advice.
Terminal Daze 2
We recorded Terminal Daze in Nina’s fathers basement, but we felt it needed a second shot in the studio. In doing so we reinvented it to be maybe the most understated song on the album. Were hoping its as good a sequel as Terminator 2.
Swedish Punk
The last song we finished from the album. Based on a rhythm part we finished last minute before having to record, sort of easy going, but also quite weird. You could say, it came to us at a very strange time in our lives.
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