Stockholm four-piece Magic Potion have made their name with their sugar-sweet fuzz pop tunes. Their debut full-length, Pink Gum, is released on May 27, and they celebrate its release with a gig and release party at Debaser Strand on the same day.
For those who might not have heard your music, what should they expect from Pink Gum?
Gustaf: That’s a hard question, but you can expect some similarities to the EP, in the vibes and in the sound. I think it’s like ten pop nuggets, that we’re really proud of. There are a couple of songs from the EP so it’s basically a continuation of that.
Andreas: I think you can expect to hear a broader spectrum of sounds, compared to the EP. We expand the music to different places.
In a previous interview, you described pop songs as being ‘Yummy and don’t last very long’. Would that description work as a philosophy for how you want your music to sound?
Gustaf: The philosophy we had for this record was that when we write pop music, it’s not a science or an attempt to do mind-bending stuff. We tried to put at least one funny thing in every song. So every song has at least one element or point where something strange happens. So with one, we just took the tape recorder and dropped the speed, on another we threw in some weird synth sounds, just to keep it refreshing to ourselves.
One thing I really like about your music is the lyrics. There’s one I’m going to pick out, the line ‘Only the ripples in the coffee, only the garbage by the door’ from ‘Deep Web’. There’s really something there that people can pick out and connect to. So I was wondering if that’s the vibe you focus on in your lyrics, because there are certain bands that go for dramatics, hugely over the top themes, but yours are more grounded and natural.
Gustaf: Yeah, we try to avoid that sense of big, over the top feelings.
It’s a nice ability to pick out little moments, and I think that really connects.
Gustaf: It’s not so much of a thought-out thing, but yeah I guess.
Andreas: It’s funny about that line you picked out. We got a Facebook message from some guy a while ago who wanted to get a tattoo of that line. But he had gotten the line wrong. He thought it was ‘Only the ripples in her coffee’. He wrote to us to check if he had gotten the line right.
Gustaf: What does that even mean? ‘Only the ripples in her coffee’? That’s a different song. For the next album maybe.
Did you tell him to go for it, does that guy now have the tattoo?
Gustaf: We told him to send us a picture when it’s done.
Andreas: He was a guitarist from Manchester I think, so I hope he becomes famous.
You record all your music onto tape. Do you do that with the aesthetics of tape in mind, or was it just what you had to hand at the time?
Gustaf: It’s partially because we like the sound, compared to digital recording, which can sometimes be very harsh. But it’s also because you don’t have a lot of options (with tape). We have eight tracks, and the limitations of that can help when creating songs. It’s not that we would never record digitally, but it’s something we like now.
Less serious stuff now: When you announced the ‘Deep Web’/’Boored’ single you gave a shout-out to Dido. Any reason for that?
Andreas: I think the reason for that was that it was her birthday on Christmas Eve, so we gave a shout-out to Jesus, Santa and Dido, they’re like the holy trinity of Christmas.
Last one to wrap up: What should we expect from your release party?
Andreas: Some kind of art performance. Angelic Milk and Boys will be supporting and PNKSLM will DJ, and we’ll have some other DJs as well. There will be free gum.
Kristoffer: Some of the gum will be free. And they’ll be pink.
Gustaf: It’s going to be really nice. We’re really looking forward to playing, we haven’t played in a while now and it’ll be our first show since the album. It’s going to be great. We’re working on getting Dido to come.
Johan: If Dido comes we’ll play a cover.
Will Dido get free gum if she arrives?
Gustaf: She gets all the free gum in the world.
Magic Potion’s debut album Pink Gum is out on PNKSLM on May 27. They play Debaser Strand on Friday, May 27.
