MAGGOT HEART
EX-THE OATH GUITARIST SEEKS NEW HORIZONS
Both a rebirth and an act of restoration for its founder, Linnéa Olsson, Maggot Heart sees the former The Oath and Beastmilk/Grave Pleasures guitarist returning to her punk roots – not as a retrogressive act but as a means for seeking out new, personal horizons. Recorded with former In Solitude members Uno Bruniusson and Gottfrid Åhman, her debut EP, City Girls, also sees her taking up vocals for the first time, her sleepless, nocturnal drawl navigating restless travelogues as they seek a way out of their own sense of claustrophobia.
“I never had any sort of desire to front a band,” Linnéa admits. “It was more out of necessity. Also, it was a way to challenge myself and do something new, to feel like I’m moving forward instead of standing still.”
City Girls sounds like a new beginning, not just in the raw texture of the four songs, but in the way its drama unfolds gradually in real time. Songs feel their way in the dark until they start to expand, from the sloshing post-punk riffs of Razorhead through No Light In You’s feverish stomp to Neuromancer’s turbo-charged, Motörhead-ravaged intro, which branches out into the kind of spindly, exploratory breaks that have become Linnéa’s signature guitar tone.
“I’ve played heavy metal but I never quite identified with that,” she say of her musical roots. “I was always more of a minimalist. I like riffs and I like rhythm and simple melodies, So punk was the first type of music that
I fell in love with, so for me it’s very natural to go back into that direction.”
Maggot Heart is a different beast to The Oath, less explicitly occult, and although feverish, haunted by more tangible forces, but it’s still very much a product of Linnéa’s relocation from Stockholm to Berlin. There’s a feeling of uprootedness, anxiety and tantalising yet daunting opportunity for adventure running a dynamic course throughout the EP’s four tracks.
“The city as a state of mind is something that is thematically close to my heart,” says Linnéa. “I think these songs are about a sense of escapism and of wanting to reach further, to grasp something exciting and dangerous. We all relate to that feeling of growing up in a small city, listening to music and wanting to go to a bigger and more exciting place. But then there’s the flipside of that, and the city can be a monster in itself. You go there because of the darkness, and then you might end up being swallowed by it. So a lot of the stuff that I write circles around that; the excitement, but also the danger of it.
“Berlin represents freedom in so many ways,” she say of her adopted home. “You feel so unrestricted here, and for me that’s the holy grail. Then of course you also realise that the thing you did in the beginning to be free, the partying, chasing some sort of fire, can also be very destructive in the end. And then you realise that the things that can set you free can also be enslaving. Regardless of where you are, you’re always going to be stuck with yourself!”