After effortlessly stirring up a storm with their tremendous live shows while only having three songs out, it is time for Girl Scout's debut EP. Here comes Real Life Human Garbage.
The first body of work by the Swedish Quartet contains all singles so far and two new tracks. "It's a collection of songs about the turmoils of being human;" says the band. "About feeling lost, out of place and stuck in your awkward phase. The songs represent our early days, when we had no idea what the band would be and every song came out of the pure excitement of having a band. It encapsulates when we realised the true magic and joy of songwriting."
The EP features their break out track 'Do You Remember Sally Moore?', a grunge rock swirl about a high school sweetheart you never forgot, the anxiety hymn 'All The Time And Everywhere' as well as 'Weirdo', a call for embracing ones weirdness that came with a music video featuring legendary UK actor and comedian Mark Williams.
"Girl Scout are the best new band in the world." - Paste Magazine
New track 'Run Me Over With Your Car', a laid back brit pop cut, deals with the fomo of watching everyone around you seemingly achieve things while you feel like you're stuck: "The song is kind of tongue in cheek – asking your friend to run you over is pretty melodramatic but it adds some humor to the pity party that the verses wallow in."
'Attenborough Beach' finishes the EP off. "I had a friend once who was quite annoying and never really knew when to stop talking, but he could do a killer David Attenborough impression. The whole idea of Attenborough Beach builds on a scene where two people lie on a beach and, while watching birds, one of them points up at the sky and starts narrating in the voice of David Attenborough. Afterwards, they decide to name that place Attenborough Beach," recalls guitarist Viktor Spasov the story behind the gazey dream-rock number, "I’m kind of fascinated with the idea of sharing emotional experiences in seemingly ordinary places, and through memories of those experiences creating almost a mythical, magical connection to that location. Like something from a movie or a fairytale, a fantasy which is based in reality but at the same time only exists in the heads of those who experienced it. As a kid I realized that I had a need for processing the world in this way, creating stories around places or people that meant something to me, and it always made me feel a bit weird and different."
The theme of being different, feeling weird and alien runs through the five songs - and it resonates with people. From their home turf Scandinavia, where they landed playlists on P3 Sweden, P13 Norway, P6 Denmark, as well as features in Dagens Nyheter and the biggest music magazine of the North, Gaffa, to Germany and the UK where the songs got featured on numerous radio stations like BBC1, BBC6, Amazing Radio, FluxFM or egoFM while receiving praise from the likes of The Guardian, The Times, Dork, Clash, diffus, Visions and many more – everyone seems to agree this four piece is on to something. Even the US is hooked, where there's glowing first reviews from Billboard, Atwood, Flood, Consequence of Sound and MTV.
Listen to Real Life Human Garbage.
None of this occured to Girl Scout when they met at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm not too long ago. Emma Jansson (guitar, vocals), Evelina Arvidsson Eklind (bass, vocals), Per Lindberg (drums) and Viktor Spasov (guitar) studied Jazz. They didn't really set out to play in a band, it was an accident. The only real way that cool things happen. First two of our friends "formed a duo in an attempt to earn money, playing mostly evergreens and covering anything from the Beatles to Burt Bacharach at cocktail events and openings", but soon enough, after they started performing original songs, their enthusiasm got contagious and they became a four piece. "It was clear from the first time the band played together. There is a natural collaboration between us, where everyone's musical contribution naturally gels together and forms our collective sound," they say.
"Real Life Human Garbage is an accurate introduction to us as a group because it is our earliest material, quite literally the raw foundation of what makes up this band. These songs were written for ourselves; they stem from the joy of creating and expressing the intangible. Now it’s time we pass them on to you. Hopefully they’ll give you the same comfort we found in making them."