Ordering disorder with newcomers Clutter

Clutter recently disembarked from their UK tour with Hinds, and with their debut EP out this month, I hop on a call with the band – Ove from his now-London residence, and Hilde, Emma, and Ville huddled together in a cafe in Stockholm. Discussing live performances, they explain they want their stage presence to be as “cluttery” as possible, with Ove expanding, “It’s just got to be very us; if you listen to our EP you’ll get a better picture of the message, and what we’re going to deliver.” Emma adds, “It’s being true to yourself – that’s what Hinds do so well. The music we write is personal and it’s such a personal thing to be on stage and perform that music.”

Before their recent tour supporting Hinds, Clutter had only played concerts in their home country, the first of which featured only two songs – “Kraut” and an unreleased narrative wherein Hilde details moving home (with Ville noting its sonic similarities to “Smells Like Teen Spirit”) – and had never been to the UK (bar London).

Detailing the experience as exciting, fun, but a little scary, Emma explains that the Stockholm gig scene is different to the UK’s, especially the tumultuous nature of support slots. If you go to a concert in Sweden, it’s with purpose – you know the band and their discography, whereas “playing in London, there were a lot of people who just had no clue what or who they were going to see. When we play Stockholm, a lot of our friends and family are there, and people who have listened to our music before. But when you’re a support band, maybe people have listened to us, but many have never heard of us – so it was a very new experience to play in front of an audience with no pre-expectations. It was fun, but a bit more scary than playing for friends.”

Despite the anxieties, Clutter still had fun, and learnt a lot from Hinds in the process, primarily from their infectious stage presence and unwavering consistency. “There was an industrial area in Birmingham, and even there they got the crowd going – they never let them down,” Ville confirms.

Another inspiration for their on-stage aura is Kathleen Hanna. Not necessarily wanting to mimic Bikini Kill’s sound, but instead idolising her charisma. “We just like her confidence and we have to be brave enough to stand on stage, and we have that vision of Kathleen Hanna,” Emma says. Ove adds: “We grew up on that kind of music in a way. We were teenagers and it’s become our backbone.” Not limited to just experimental rock, such as their beloved Sonic Youth, Ville shares that his music taste expands more into noise rock – “there’s a Mötley Crüe song that inspired us a lot, and we name the Jesus Lizard as one of our heavier influences” – whereas Emma notes that her music taste differs wildly and all of their inclinations find themselves weaved into their EP.

When it comes to writing and performing itself, the band share a lot of the roles, one of the most notable being that when performing live, Emma and Hilde often swap instruments, and take turns leading the vocals. “We don’t really see Clutter as having a frontperson – the whole band is a part of it. We write loads together and we keep it very equal on who gets to sing,” Emma says. “We saw the band Julie this weekend,” Ville chimes in, “and they perform with everyone at the front, in a line together, and that was really inspiring.”

Clutter’s latest project is their debut EP, Loves You, a six-track homage to their fans and their love of hard rock. Luckily, Ove’s move to London followed the recording of the EP, so cross-country creations are a task they’re yet to tackle. “We haven’t gotten to that part yet; we’re going to find out in the next couple of weeks. We can send stuff between ourselves and make notes, and we’ll add Ove’s guitars – he’s recorded and produced all the stuff we’ve released so far,” Hilde explains. Clutter are excited for the EP to see the world, given it had such a long gestation period, some tracks having been “stuck” with them for many years, waiting for a record to call home. In all, Loves You is “Clutter in a shell,” and the EP that follows will be Clutter “breaking that shell.”

The first track to be released from the EP was “Jesus”, paired with the equally divinely inclined B-side “Holy Brother”. “Jesus” set the tone for the writing of the rest of the EP, and the first track they penned after taking a brief hiatus as a band. Described by the band as “static” and “fun,” the high-octane cut features insistent guitars and teeters on the edge of shoegaze and psychedelia.

“Holy Brother”, however, didn’t manage to secure a place on the EP: “Some of the tracks are older and have been modernised, and we wanted to get those ones out. We wanted to have an EP of just six songs, and we really wanted ‘Brainiac’ and ‘Pretty’ to be on there” – ultimately, it didn’t make the cut.

The most recent teaser to be released is the literature-influenced “Brideshead”. “I remember Emma recommending me the book [by Evelyn Waugh],” Hilde recounts. “We weren’t really that good friends yet, and I really wanted to impress her, so I read it super fast. I was like, ‘Emma, I’ve actually read this book you suggested, isn’t that cool? Should we be friends?” Emma adds, “We wanted to write a song together, and have a song where we sing at the same time. The two characters are very good together in that book and it was fun to write from someone else’s perspective – it was very experimental and exciting.” “Brideshead” was born from love, giddiness, and being a “nerd” for prose, and that translates perfectly into the succinct and layered post-punk cut.

Turning to discuss their roots, despite being Swedish, the band don’t have any current plans to release music in their native tongue. With the rise of K-pop and artists such as Little Simz, Sabrina Carpenter, and even Billie Eilish including non-native languages in their music and track titles, the ubiquity of non-English music is on a steady incline. They reason this with the fact that the music they grew up on, and the large majority of their influences, are English-speaking bands, and that Swedish can be limiting in certain ways.

Emma expands: “Something happens when I write in Swedish. I write poems and diary entries in Swedish but then the tone changes. And I think that happens with all languages – they just have a different tone – and I really like our music combined with the English tone, because that’s what we’ve been inspired by.” However, they do note that this could change in the future, and they’re open to considering including Swedish in their discography, even if it’s a short snippet or subtle sample.

One line of inquiry that lights up Clutter is suggestions of Swedish bands to listen to – La La Superstar, Breach, Cock House, Broder Daniel, Kerosene Kream, and ShitKid were among those mentioned (alongside their label Punk Slime), with Hilde adding that the best discovery method is to check out their Instagram for any bands they’ve shared a stage with – “because all of them are really nice.”

It’s the woozy and experimental sound of Clutter that demands attention, but it’s clearly their down-to-earth demeanour that’s winning the love of fans across Europe. And this is only just the beginning.