The latest release “Birthday” by Swedish alt-pop group The Magnettes at their finest and fiercest, merges their breezy melancholia with hard-hitting electronic drum beats, pulsating arpeggios, fiery guitar chords and howling synth pads in a do-or-die escapist anthem.

Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/track/4A4tYamkZHln1O4ZmEu9rw

Released and promoted by K51 Records and Warner Music Sweden, this track offers a taste of their upcoming sophomore album, kicking off a new year of live shows including stops at in UK, Canada, Czech Republic and Scandinavia.

The Magnettes hail from Pajala, Sweden, and have toured in 20 countries including performances at SXSW, Summerfest, Euro Pride, Golden Melody Awards, Canadian Music Week, Glasontonbury, Eurosonic, and The Great Escape.

Their debut album ”Ugly Youth” dropped in 2017 and featured the singles ”Sad Girls Club”, featured on Netflix’s ”Elite”, and ”Young And Wild”, and one of the top-ten most played Swedish tracks on national radio that year. “Pajala State of Mind” has been used in countless programs on Swedish television. The band toured Europe, North America, and Asia with the album 2018, and 2019.

Album number two was starting to progress in 2020 when COVID hit. The band went into the studio during the COVID years and developed their sound. Two singles were released during these years. “Shakes” and ”American”. Both were in radio rotation on many big international stations over Europe and Canada. 2022 The band was picked up by K51 and released the single “Monster” at the end of the pandemic. At the same time, the full movie documentary “The Magnettes” was released with great reviews.

Pop music is one of Sweden’s major cultural exports and over the years it has given us a wide diversity of talented artists such as Robyn, ABBA, The Knife Lykke Li, Icona Pop, The Cardigans, Swedish House Mafia and Zara Larsson. Ten hours from the hit-making hub of Stockholm, above the Arctic Circle where the sun doesn’t rise during winter, lies the sleepy town of Pajala, home to 2000 residents…and The Magnettes, a fearless 21st Century fuck-pop trio who think ugly and weird is cool and that the patriarchy needs to be crushed. Right now.

This remote region has a minority language called Meänkieli, a language that was forbidden in Sweden until 1957 and today only spoken around 50 000 people. The Magnettes celebrate their roots and incorporate Meänkieli and the area’s old folk music into their infectious and inimitable glitter punk-pop. The band is Rebecka Digervall, Sanna Kalla and Tomas Backlund who’s mission is the right to be as you want to be.

The Magnettes’ founders and co-vocalists Rebecka and Sanna describe themselves as ‘non-normative’, ‘witches’, ‘Tornedalingar’ (which translates as natives of the Torne Valley, a Swedish minority) and ‘Sisters of the Ugly Youth’ and this subversion is evident in their spellbinding songs. “We’re reclaiming the word ‘ugly’” declares Sanna “Why does beautiful have to be the standard? We have no regrets. We’re saying exactly what we want to say”.

“There’s some sort of Northern rebellion” adds guitarist, keyboardist, and producer Tomas Backlund. “We don’t want to be your average singing self-obsessed diary entries. We aim to do something bigger but we want to do it without moving to Stockholm, London or LA and writing songs about beaches and being super fit because what’s interesting about that?”

The seeds of rebellion were planted when Rebecka and Sanna met at school aged six-years-old. By 14, Rebecka had written a plethora of songs for the duo. In 2012, they released their first official song “Paper Cut” and performed a series of shows across Europe and Russia. By 2014 Tomas joined and the duo became a trio, the current line-up of The Magnettes.

The Magnettes describe the themes of their music being “mainly about adolescence and identity, coming to terms with who you are and finding your place in the world. It’s also about friends, fucking, fighting, and drinking. One pretty central theme is the idea of an alternate universe where the tables were turned, the freaks had taken over, the goths were cheerleaders and cool kids, and were being weird was just normal.” And there you’d find plenty of Magnettes fans… who the band says ‘like things that are kind of leftfield yet straightforward and tend to get into a lot of heated arguments about, for instance, social issues and gender norms. They could be punks or indie-fans, but could just as well be into hip-hop or mainstream shiny pop. For us, it’s pretty much the same, because when it’s good it’s simple, like a splash of red on something black-and-white, or a punch to the face.”

And now, post-COVID, The Magnettes are back in full swing. They got the dream booking to play at Glastonbury Festival and 9 other festivals during that summer. At the end of the year, they took a leap forward when K51 started a collaboration with Warner where the new double A-side single “Karma Baby / Costa Rica” was released in November.

The latest release, “Birthday” released on the K51 label and distributed byADA Warner Music leaves no doubt The Magnettes have delivered yet another hit song and video. Check it out here:

For more visit: themagnettes.com/