Flying the Nest with Becky and the Birds

Shedding her shell, and leaving the nest once again, Thea Gustafsson aka Becky and the Birds is gearing up to release her comeback album, Only Music Makes Me Cry Now. Four years after her last project “Trasslig,” Gustafsson describes that she’s “Excited about releasing, there’s no anxiety or pressure on myself. It feels good and it feels authentic.”

If you haven’t stumbled upon Becky and the Birds, Gustafsson is a nest of talent. With years of musical background, she somehow articulates and combines different genres, methods of production, and raw, cathartic feelings into her tracks. Her music is hard to pin down, it's the experimental sounds of FKA Twigs that meet the softness of Tia Blake and shakes hands with Wet’s full walls of noise. Often feeling very liminal, yet grounded, Gustafsson knows how to produce, and makes her sound unique and experimental. She lays on this border that you can’t quite get across.

Born in Sweden, Gustafsson grew up with music oozing out of her footsteps. She started as a violin player and then was influenced by her older sister’s love of R&B. Eventually her ears followed pop music, and during her time at music school in Stockholm she interned with Avicii. All these different offshoots of influences reflect strongly in Gustafsson’s sound. Yet, she creates her own symphony and conducts it too. 

Only Music Makes Me Cry Now will be the first work that she’s had help on from other artists. Gustafsson explained, “It was so important for me in the beginning to be the only producer because I had been in so many situations before that when I had co-produced something and everyone would just often turn to find the man that I was working with.” After years of proving to herself producing is something she could accomplish strictly on her own, she loosened the reins. We joked about the terrifying thought of letting someone else be in control of your art, but now Gustafsson is at peace with it, finding joy in letting someone else in the studio. 

“To actually open up that door and let go of a little bit of control, which, I'm not going to lie, was really scary, but I chose people that I knew, that I trusted, I trusted their vision, I trusted their faith...It helped me broaden my views a little bit, and also it helped me get out of my head, which is the biggest part…To say, ‘Okay, maybe we should let this go.’” 

Gustafsson’s last project “Trasslig” translates into “Tangled” or messy. This project reflected a part of femininity that she wanted to highlight. Being a woman that’s messy, a bundle of contradictions, threads loose and untied. Now, this new album reveals a darker, shadowy side to femininity. Gustafsson explains that Only Music Makes Me Cry Now, “Portrays a different side of womanhood. It’s not just the pretty and vulnerable, but also the rageful, angry side…Even though it’s vulnerable it comes with a bit more maturity.” 

Vulnerability oozes out of the two singles currently released, “I made my baby cry” and “When she holds me.” “When she holds me” was especially vulnerable for Gustafsson. “That was definitely a turning point for me, in the sense of singing about a woman, because it was at the same time as I was starting to come out to my family…It just brought all of the things that I was feeling--anxiety and a little nervousness, and turning it into something beautiful.” This album rides on the release and uncomfort in truly feeling. There are moments of love and frustration, of shame and guilt. It’s all there for the listener to step into and to place onto their experience. 

The recording process of the album was a total stream of consciousness and catharsis from Gustafsson. She says, “I started the whole process with me just sitting by the piano or another instrument…I would record myself for the longest time; so I would have hundreds of samples of me singing for like, 20 minutes. I kept all of those because whatever I was singing was something that I was feeling in the moment. I didn't try to make it perfect, I didn't try to make it something, I just improvised. Naturally, when you improvise, whatever you're feeling just comes out…I took all those samples, and I kind of resampled them, and I let those samples lead the way.” Only Music Makes Me Cry Now collages and collides the experiences she had at the moment, the ones that led Gustafsson to let Becky and the Birds fly again. 

Gustafsson almost surrenders herself to her music, letting her feelings and thoughts run through her through producing, like a second voice that reminds her where she is and where she’s going. “Capture all those moments when you’re letting go of your thoughts, letting this stream lead the way…It can be life changing I think,” Gustafsson explains. 

In terms of touring, it might be a while before people in the US catch Becky and the Birds in action, but if you can catch a plane or a train, I would recommend seeing her show. Gustafsson wants to bring viewers into the album process, making her sets act almost as a performance piece. Gustafsson outlined her vision as, “Being very improvised, which is scary, and it's putting me in a quite difficult position…I want the whole live set to be free and very creative…I want to take whatever I'm doing in the studio onto the stage and try to make it entertaining too.” This idea of letting the audience into an almost collaborative space came after Gustafsson watched the movie Aftersun. “I really love how it left the audience to interpret whatever they're feeling, incorporate what they're feeling into the movie…I want people to feel that with the album, too. I want to leave a place for people to bring in their own emotions and to bring their own feelings into it, their own thoughts.” It’s experimental, it’s fun, and it parallels her album, getting listeners to really sit in it and face the music (literally). 

Only Music Makes Me Cry Now will be released on November 15, 2024. Until then, make a mental list of what to bring to your journal. This album will make you dust off that notebook and finally scribble out everything that's been running through your mind. Gustafsson has a way of making her voice sound and feel like ink bleeding through the paper, smudges of black on your hand. You’ll end up with a couple of ink splotches too, just wait till November.

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