Today, June 14th, marks the release of Foam, the debut EP from Stockholm-based artist waterbaby, available on all DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop.
The five-song collection which features the gorgeous new single “Wishing well,” along with the acclaimed standouts “Airforce blue” and “911,” were written by waterbaby and Marcus White, executive produced and mixed by White, and mastered by Johan Åkerström at Cosmos Mastering, all in Stockholm, Sweden.
waterbaby’s hypnotic and evocative technopastoral songs has led to international acclaim, including the cover of Sweden’s music magazine GAFFA, along with the New York Times, The Guardian, NME, Stereogum, The FADER, Brooklyn Vegan, PASTE, The FACE, and CLASH, and major radio support in Sweden from P3 and in the UK from BBC Radio 1.
What people are saying about waterbaby: “The emergency number in Stockholm, the home of the songwriter who calls herself waterbaby, is 112. But in this drowsily understated bedroom-pop song, she clearly has an eye on an American audience: “Call me when you need someone/I could be your 911,” she sings, adding “we-ooh, we-ooh” like a two-note emergency siren. It’s a tentative, guarded offer of affection — “Maybe we could go somewhere/Maybe we could be something” — sung breathily and hesitantly, trying to keep expectations modest.” “The Playlist” - THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Under the gaze of auto-tuned vocals and alt-rock textures, waterbaby has forged something wholly original and swing.” [“911”] - PASTE
“I was a big fan of ‘Airforce blue,’ the indie-pop-ish, R&B-ish Stockholm singer waterbaby’s first single for Sub Pop. I’m an even bigger fan of the next one. “911,” out today, heralds the impending arrival of waterbaby’s Foam EP. It’s a low-key love song built around a cozy little acoustic guitar figure that plays as a nest for waterbaby’s soft, digitally affected vocals.” - STEREOGUM
“The intoxicating meeting point of Beabadoobee, SZA, and Outkast, Stockholm-based Sub-Pop signee Waterbaby has made an impressive introduction as an artist of subtle flourishes, capturing the quiet intensity of love and heartbreak through lead single ‘Airforce Blue’, and now, ‘911’” “45’s of the Week” - THE FORTY-FIVE
“Airforce blue” flips waterbaby’s indie R&B into an electrified, auto-tuned collage with an easy intimacy.” - BROOKLYN VEGAN
“An unguarded DIY R&B moment coming out of the Swedish capital. (“Airforce blue”)” - THE FADER
“‘Airforce blue,’ waterbaby’s first single for Sub Pop, wouldn’t sound out of place on SZA’s genre-jumping S.O.S., but like many SZA songs it doesn’t really scan as R&B. It’s like a more lo-fi, chillwavey cousin to Post Malone’s soft-rocking ‘Circles,’ as if filtered through Clairo’s bedroom indie-pop, with a trace of hyperpop in her Auto-Tuned voice. The result is something slightly uncanny yet tender and personal. Good song.” - STEREOGUM
“Bedroom pop at a cosmic scale: documenting the aftermath of a breakup, the Stockholm artist’s Sub Pop debut has the offbeat and genre-warped charm of Frank Ocean and SZA.” “Playlist” - THE GUARDIAN
“‘Airforce blue’ flips waterbaby’s indie R&B into an electrified, auto-tuned collage with an easy intimacy.” - BROOKLYN VEGAN
”[‘Airforce blue’] is a real jewel, a thrilling and evocative slice of future-facing pop.” “Track of the Day” - CLASH
waterbaby Foam EP
Tracklisting: 1. Airforce blue 2. My luv 3. 911 4. Born too late 5. Wishing well
Following the well-received single and official video for “Airforce blue,” Stockholm-based artist waterbaby is announcing the release of the Foam EP, out June 14th on all DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop.
Foam’s five tracks were written by waterbaby and Marcus White, executive produced and mixed by White, and mastered by Johan Åkerström at Cosmos Mastering, all in Stockholm, Sweden.
Foam’s new single “911” – with the whee-oo whee-oos – moves with a doleful indulgence. “Call me when you need someone / I could be your 911,” she sings, like a lovelorn operator on the other end of the line. She gets it: loneliness and love aren’t mutually exclusive ideas– they’re sometimes part of the same thrust of feeling.
The “911” single is accompanied by a visualizer edited by Erik Pousette, with skateboarding footage from Love Ohling and Sean Christensen, here.
waterbaby’s “Airforce blue,” and its charming, firework-laden video, which introduced her hypnotic and evocative approach to music, led to coverage internationally from the likes of The FADER, The Guardian, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, and CLASH, and radio support in the UK from BBC6 Music and Sweden’s P3.
More on waterbaby: Artists have always had a knack for understanding the strange psychological sorcery that comes with crushing on someone. Stockholm-based artist waterbaby - intimately knows the tiny nuances between love – which is to say, the bond between two people – and the one-sided, up-and-down feelings of infatuation: the plaintive longing, the shifty wanting and the not-wanting, and all the luxuriously intrusive thoughts that come with them. If you’re at all familiar with the patterns of this (il)logic, you’ll find a welcome home in the world of waterbaby’s rhapsodic, technopastoral crush songs.
With the Foam EP, her Sub Pop debut, waterbaby’s auto-tunelets work like this: there’s the confessional of sisterly, guitar-assisted warmth infused with humane, sticky lyrics that surface in your head like bubbles floating to the top of an aquarium. Along with producer and collaborator Marcus White, waterbaby creates a mystic sort of blend – the songs feel spell-like, but they honor the feelings of what it’s like to love, or at least to want to feel loved.
The chief love in waterbaby’s life has always been music, of course. It’s infused in her blood: her great-grandad was a jazz pianist; her uncle worked in clubs and arranged concerts, and that Stockholmian syndrome of preternaturally knowing how to craft the perfect song – it’s a part of her that’s palpable in everything she writes or touches.
It could be because she’s got a choir-school upbringing that’s done something to her voice – made it familiar with Pythagorean melodies and spare, delicate ideas that sound simple at first but really get into the spiritual in their own way. “My parents hated the music I listened to,” she laughs, talking about her private love of the megastars of R&B that she’d sainted as paragons of sounds and feelings that accessed the full range of emotions that she was getting familiar with.
On Foam, those emotions range from sad to empathetic, from hopeful to cocky, from doleful to ecstatic. “Airforce blue,” with its tones as liquidly bright as a fish whipping through the ocean, gives form to the feel of the latter sort of pain. “I still miss you” goes the chorus over and over again, if that’s any help. Crushes and longing seem to map her life over with meaning and joy.
“911” – with the whee-oo whee-oos – moves with an even more doleful indulgence. “Call me when you need someone / I could be your 911,” she sings, like a lovelorn operator on the other end of the line.
On the glistening “Wishing well,” swirling vocal effects, and lyrics of unrequited love – “Yeah, we tried to feel it all, wanted to see it all / Wanted to be it all / So why don’t you need my love? / I-want-you-to-need-my-love” – ride waves of piano arpeggios that swell and break and crash into themselves.
With Foam, waterbaby gets it: loneliness and love aren’t mutually exclusive ideas– they’re sometimes part of the same thrust of feeling. Believing in that idea seems to be her governing motive. Because like faith, like a crush, her music is a quick and deep way of reaching beyond yourself.
---------------------------------------
Foam, featuring the singles “911,” “Airforce blue,” and “Wishing well,” was written by waterbaby and Marcus White, executive produced and mixed by White, and mastered by Johan Åkerström at Cosmos Mastering, all in Stockholm, Sweden.
What people are saying about waterbaby: “‘Airforce blue,’ waterbaby’s first single for Sub Pop, wouldn’t sound out of place on SZA’s genre-jumping S.O.S., but like many SZA songs it doesn’t really scan as R&B. It’s like a more lo-fi, chillwavey cousin to Post Malone’s soft-rocking ‘Circles,’ as if filtered through Clairo’s bedroom indie-pop, with a trace of hyperpop in her Auto-Tuned voice. The result is something slightly uncanny yet tender and personal. Good song.” - Stereogum
“Bedroom pop at a cosmic scale: documenting the aftermath of a breakup, the Stockholm artist’s Sub Pop debut has the offbeat and genre-warped charm of Frank Ocean and SZA.” “Playlist” - The Guardian
“Airforce blue” flips waterbaby’s indie R&B into an electrified, auto-tuned collage with an easy intimacy.” - Brooklyn Vegan
“…a real jewel, a thrilling and evocative slice of future-facing pop.” “Track of the Day” - CLASH
“Thick layers of autotune do little to disguise the sweetness of her voice as she sings about first kisses and taking big risks. The overriding emotion is not excitement but vulnerability. “Do you remember?” she asks her crush over the preppy beat, caught somewhere between synth pop and R&B, “Because I do.” - The FADER
Today, Stockholm-based artist waterbaby has signed to Sub Pop worldwide and is sharing her first single “Airforce blue,” and its charming, firework-laden video, which introduces her hypnotic and evocative approach to music. “Airforce blue,” is available today worldwide on all DSPs.
“Airforce blue” is a swirling autotuned hymnal that distills the dizzying multitudes and nuances of crushing on someone. The song was created by waterbaby, Marcus White, and Anton Fernandez in Stockholm, Sweden. The video, also directed by her main collaborator White, underpins this unknowable evocative feeling, placing waterbaby amidst the backdrop of New Year’s Eve fireworks in Stockholm.
The FADERcalls the track “An unguarded DIY R&B moment coming out of the Swedish capital (see March 29th news post).”
More on waterbaby: Artists have always had a knack for understanding the strange psychological sorcery that comes with crushing on someone. waterbaby - intimately knows the tiny nuances between love – which is to say, the bond between two people – and the one-sided, up-and-down feelings of infatuation: the plaintive longing, the shifty wanting and the not-wanting, and all the luxuriously intrusive thoughts that come with them. If you’re at all familiar with the patterns of this (il)logic, you’ll find a welcome home in the world of waterbaby’s rhapsodic, technopastoral crush songs.
waterbaby’s auto-tunelets work like this: there’s the confessional of sisterly, guitar-assisted warmth infused with humane, sticky lyrics that surface in your head like bubbles floating to the top of an aquarium. waterbaby, along with executive producer and collaborator Marcus White, creates a mystic sort of blend – the songs feel spell-like, but they honor the feelings of what it’s like to love, or at least to want to feel loved.
The chief love in waterbaby’s life has always been music, of course. It’s infused in her blood: her great-grandad was a jazz pianist; her uncle worked in clubs and arranged concerts, and that Stockholmian syndrome of preternaturally knowing how to craft the perfect song – it’s a part of her that’s palpable in everything she writes or touches.
It could be because she’s got a choir-school upbringing that’s done something to her voice – made it familiar with Pythagorean melodies and spare, delicate ideas that sound simple at first but really get into the spiritual in their own way. “My parents hated my music,” she laughs, talking about her private love of the megastars of R&B that she’d sainted as paragons of sounds and feelings that accessed the full range of emotions she was getting familiar with.
Those emotions range from sad to empathetic, from hopeful to cocky, from doleful to ecstatic. “Airforce blue,” her first single, with tones as liquidly bright as a fish whipping through the ocean, gives form to the feel of the latter sort of pain. “I still miss you” goes the chorus over and over again, if that’s any help. Crushes and longing seem to map her life over with meaning and joy.
