The album is changing: whether it's weekly SoundCloud drops or Drake's curated mixtapes, new artists no longer stick to traditional release schedules. So when Swedish singer-songwriter MY - aka My Helmner - set about creating her debut album, she recorded more than 80 tracks. "I think we're about to lose the album format," she says. "I would like the industry to capture bigger concepts."
MY's music mixes punk with modern pop, experimenting with both genres. "I like to work with a noise and distort something like crazy, or play with sounds that you wouldn't normally put in a pop song," says Helmner. "I want to feel like there are no boundaries."
Growing up in the Swedish coastal city of Oskarshamn, she began recording music at the age of seven. Now 25, she records on the move using GarageBand, Pro Tools and her iPhone to create heady vocals and hooks, while integrating guitars with harmonies and other elements that wouldn't necessarily fit on a regular pop album. Her Red-era Taylor Swift style is infused with the Scandi lilt of Mø's electro-pop.
MY's album, due later in 2017, will showcase her prolific output. Helmner knows that she represents a new breed of artist for whom the output isn't limited to occasional releases, but rather a constant stream. So what should we expect next? "We're still in the experimental stage of our sound," she says. "We'd like to go a bit more extreme."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
