“As soon as I learnt how to produce, everything fell into place. it just felt very natural and fun.” So says Thea Gustafsson who, as Becky & The Birds, not only writes and performs sumptuous neo-soul songs, but arranges and produces them too, overseeing every aspect of her work.
Born in Örebro, Sweden, Thea’s life has always been steeped in music, whether that’s listening to traditional Swedish folk songs; following her father’s career as an accordionist or his passion for jazz and soul; her sister’s love of 90s R&B and hip-hop; or through her own experiences playing violin as a child and composing pieces for orchestras. It’s little surprise she has absorbed all she’s been exposed to but it takes a rare talent to channel all of this in to a striking EP of lush, polished songs.
Thea uses Becky & The Birds as her outlet for songs about complex women — strong, independent, sensitive and romantic women. The title track, Trasslig, which loosely translates as “tangled or messy and knotted” is, as Thea explains, “basically a feminist anthem — how people are scared of women who could be both powerful and vulnerable at the same time, and there’s no space for that. But it is OK to be trasslig. to be all the parts of yourself.” After writing it as a poem, she searched for the perfect voice actor to record it, before realising she was best placed to narrate it herself. It’s read in her native Swedish, ensuring her roots remain an integral part of her identity and performance.
Lead single, Wondering, was written while grieving for her grandmother. The poignant lyrics are accompanied by harmonies that share the same cut-glass beauty as those of Thea’s favourite singer, Mariah Carey. Musically inspired by soul, old school hip-hop, Thea states that once she had found that sound, “the other songs kind of followed that lead”.
Perhaps most intriguing is Paris, a song that was almost lost after Thea dropped her external hard drive in 2018, damaging it beyond repair and losing years’ worth of compositions, including a full EP she’d written. Scrolling back through text messages with a friend, she discovered an early take of Paris that she’d sent them and fell back in love with it, realising it was perfect to include here.
While the songs alone would be enough, Thea has turned her talents to everything — even down to the styling and art direction of her EP cover. Set against her beloved blue skies, there’s more to the photo than immediately meets the eye. At first glance, it’s a delicate soft focus portrait, but look closer and Thea’s outfit is decorated with emblems of uncompromising femininity — from eyelash curlers to erotica. It sums up the sounds within perfectly, as Thea says: “Soft and beautiful things but the detail is raw. There’s an edge.” Thea is as multi-faceted as the women she sings about and, she hopes, sings for.
