Girl Scout: The Swedish Band On the Brink

WE CAUGHT UP WITH GIRL SCOUT AT THE START OF THEIR EU/UK HEADLINE TOUR TO CHAT ABOUT WRITING SONGS LIKE DIARY ENTRIES AND THE EXISTENTIAL ENERGY RUNNING THROUGH THEIR DEBUT ALBUM. FROM FIRST REHEARSALS TO RECORDING DURING THE ISOLATION OF COVID, THE STOCKHOLM-BASED BAND BUILT THEIR SOUND THROUGH INSTINCT RATHER THAN STRATEGY.

IN THIS CONVERSATION LEAD SINGER EMMA REFLECTS ON THEIR JAZZ SCHOOL

ROOTS, THE EMOTIONAL SWINGS THAT SHAPE THEIR MUSIC, AND WHY MAKING EP’S FIRST HELPED THEM FIGURE OUT WHAT A GIRL SCOUT RECORD SHOULD REALLY FEEL LIKE, JUST IN TIME TO TAKE IT ON THE ROAD.

@GIRLSCOUTTHEBAND

ANOMIE Hi Emma! You’ve said that Girl Scout formed very naturally. Do you remember the

moment when it clicked that this might be something special?

EMMA: I think honestly during the first rehearsal we all kind of felt that this was something that we wanted to do and something we believed in. We went into that initial rehearsal and had two ideas for tracks, and by the end we had five or six formed songs. It was really high tempo. We tried a bunch of stuff and things kind of just fell into place, I think we all felt that it was special from that first rehearsal.

ANOMIE: The whole band met while studying jazz at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. How did that background shape the way you approach writing music together?

EMMA: From a songwriting standpoint, I don't think it's influenced us that much. Maybe it did on a technical level. All of us came from playing in high school and grew up listening to bands, so we were all kind of inspired by alternative bands. I do think the Royal College helped us out on a technical level because everyone had played their instrument for a number of years and you get a lot of practice when it comes to understanding each other and the arrangements.

ANOMIE: Congrats on the release of your debut album Brink, so exciting! The album feels very confident and fully realised for a debut. Did releasing EPs and singles first help you figure out what kind of sound you wanted beforehand?

EMMA: Oh yeah, definitely. I think it probably would have sounded different if we hadn't

released Headache, our third EP, beforehand. I think producing that EP was really helpful for us to get the opportunity to test our wings a little bit because we'd only ever worked with producers before then. We learned a lot through the EPs about what we like and what we needed to be particular about. I think it was helpful releasing a lot of smaller releases before doing the album and kind of going through the recording process several times to understand the possibilities with recording.

With the album, we were a lot more patient with the process. We laid the groundwork for a lot of the tracks, recording drums and bass and guitar in the studio, and then we listened back and were like “I don't think this is what we want it to sound like”. Then we’d go back and re-record some stuff until we were happy and felt like we were doing the song justice. I think that we were a lot more open-minded about it being a non-linear process, and we were willing to experiment a bit more and test the songs while recording. It probably was crucial to have made those EPs before the album. It just made things clearer for us regarding what we wanted the music to feel like.

ANOMIE: The record moves between really light moments and darker, more anxious ones. Was that sort of emotional contrast something you consciously wanted to capture when you were writing the album? Or did that sort of just come through naturally?

EMMA: I think it was a bit of both. I tend to write pretty intuitively, so for this album I didn't really map out themes or anything beforehand. I was writing from whatever place I was in, and I do think that the emotional core of the record, like you said, kind of darts back and forth between highs and lows. I think that's the inevitable result of me writing lyrics sort of like a diary. I tend to go back and forth a lot. I pivot a lot emotionally, I'm kind of like an up and down person. So I think the record definitely depicts a certain era in our lives, and the emotional ups and downs of it all. Pretty early on while we were making the record, we were kind of zooming out to see what it was. It made sense in the context of being almost 30 and kind of panicking a little bit. I think that on certain days, it's fine, and then other days, you have a bit of a meltdown. But like, that's probably how it's meant to feel. In certain aspects the whole album is kind of just an existential crisis.

ANOMIE: Honestly, very real. You've mentioned that the band originally bonded over artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Elliott Smith. Do you think that those early influences still feel present in Brink? Or do you think your sound has moved somewhere new?

EMMA: For this record, I don't think we had any specific artists or albums that were direct

references. We talked a lot about what makes a good album in terms of its energy, narrative,

emotional range, and how to build it overall. We talked a lot about that and what we wanted the energy level to feel like, as well as the intensity of the record. We didn't have any specific

albums to reference, because we didn’t want to get too heavily influenced by someone else's

work, we wanted to kind of do this intuitively. We were just excited to play it by ear and see what came out.

ANOMIE: Songs like Keeper feel like they push the band into slightly new territory sonically.

Was experimentation something you were deliberately exploring on this album?

EMMA: I think it was pretty intuitive. When we started making Keeper, it started out with Kevin’s bass line and we just added a drum sample off his computer to it. I didn't want to make it too melodic because I felt like it just didn't really fit the tone of the song, as it doesn't sound like a super cheerful song in and of itself. I wanted to do something a little more focused on the lyrics rather than the melody, so as to not overcrowd the song or shift the tone too much. We were kind of just jumping around in our rehearsal room and looping things because we wanted to build an atmosphere around the drums, bass, and vocals, rather than add a bunch of extras. We had our friend Kalle Johansson sit by the piano and play a couple takes, just to see whatever felt right.

ANOMIE: At Anomie we’re really interested in artists who shape the sound of their local scenes. What does the Stockholm scene feel like right now, and where do you see Girl Scout within it?

EMMA: There's definitely a band scene that's on the rise in Sweden, and a lot of it is in Swedish. We didn't really form within any sort of scene, and I think that's kind of cemented us to always be a little bit on the outside, to be honest. That being said, we have friends that are in Swedish bands that are really, really good. We’ve released two songs with a Swedish band called TERRA, which we've become really close friends with and they’re really so good, they're an incredible band. Bands are having a huge comeback in Sweden now in 2026, but I think that when we started back in 2020 that wasn’t the case as much. It just stemmed from the feeling of like, damn, “we should start a band, we haven’t heard of any new bands in so long” . We formed during COVID so there was nowhere to play. So, for the first year that we existed, we would meet up in our rehearsal room and we record demos because we didn't have shows. For the first couple of years, we were kind of on our own there for a bit.

ANOMIE: You’re about to start your European tour in Oslo and it eventually brings you to Amsterdam for a show at Paradiso. What are you most excited about when you finally get to play these new songs live?

EMMA: It's been a while since we had a headline tour. I think this was the first time we've had

the opportunity to have full control over the set list, and we're at a point where we've been able to kind of upscale everything. We've played a lot of shows and had a few years to kind of test the waters. We have a completely new set list, a bigger band, and I think we're just locked in at this point. We're super excited to play live again and feeling confident and I think it's just going to be a good time!

CHECK OUT GIRL SCOUT'S DEBUT ALBUM BRINK, OUT NOW