Kallsup: “It Has to Burn and Rub a Little”

For those who have not discovered you yet: who are Kallsup, and how would you describe the band yourselves?

Edwin: Like a scab that feels good to scratch.
Carl: We are close friends who enjoy playing and writing songs together. Lots of reverb, distortion and anxiety.
Eline: We are an Örebro-based band, but no one in the band is from Örebro.

If you were to sum up Kallsup for someone who has never heard you before – what three words would you choose?

Edwin: Desperate, hopeful, brave.. can we say three each or do we have to agree?
Eline: Noise, nostalgia and teenage hope.

There are six of you in the band. How did you find each other, and when did you feel that “this is Kallsup”?

Edwin: I posted an ad in one of those local band Facebook groups. I was thirsting for cool people who played music in this town. Through the noise of metal and cover bands, my ad found Carl and Uffe. The three of us became friends with Elin when we saw her wearing a cool leather jacket in Skytteparken. We found Eline through a Tinder ad. Eline knew Joakim. It may all seem pretty random, but there are not many parallel universes where we do not find each other in one way or another.
Eline: Hmm, I do not know if we knew each other, me and Jocke? We had met at Gyllene hörnan once before he went to Brazil, and then we saw each other again at the School of Music. That was when he asked if we needed a drummer for the shoegazing. Unfortunately, it was not relevant at the time, but later, when it was, he popped up in my memory!

You have just released your new single ”Kino”. What can you tell us about the song?

Edwin: I think it has a pretty good lifespan. It feels tireless and fun to play live.
Eline: The lyrics are written from thoughts and feelings about growing up in a place and then, many years later, going back to that exact place to experience nostalgia, only to find empty houses staring back at you. About getting older and losing a little of that damn-go-getter feeling you had before. About now longing for a home that is not at all what it used to be.

Why did ”Kino” become the first taste of the upcoming album ”Alldeles för nära”?

Carl: I think we felt quite early on that it could be a single. The pulse and the mood were there.. the theme with the music video.. It clicked.
Edwin: Yes, so cinematic with that popcorn-scented intro synth. For me, Kino is probably the best representative of the record.

The song is described as fast, direct and guitar-twisting. How was it born – did it come from a riff, a lyric idea or something else entirely?

Edwin: It started when Uffe sent a demo of the guitar line together with the chords in our group chat, and then we put it together at the next rehearsal. We found chords for the chorus, Eline found a really nice, hooky melody very quickly, and that was it. It was a little tricky to get right but also damn fun, so it still came together fairly quickly. What took the longest was deciding how it should end — we had two different outros that we were going back and forth between. We were just about to go out and play pool to settle it when we found a third way, which is what you hear on the record, some kind of compromise. Kino was actually the last song we wrote for the record. We had a structure for 8-9 songs and were wondering a bit whether we needed one more for the album before going into the studio, when Uffe came in with this one. As soon as we put it together, it felt like some kind of theme song for the whole record.
Eline: Exactly! I could not help letting the vocal melody follow along with the fast guitar melody. It needed to be something that could hook into it while still having something of its own. Sometimes I need help from the rest of the band not to scrap melodies that come to me quickly. I get very self-critical and think I need to polish them more.

How does ”Kino” differ from what you have done before?

Carl: It is probably a little special. Faster than our other songs. A slightly more direct feeling. The synth has a certain ‘’whammy bar effect’’ that makes it move around in the soundscape; maybe you are otherwise used to a guitar doing that. It is fun.
Eline: Yes, but it still sounds like us! It has a fun form and a bit of Värmland-style Swenglish in it.

This autumn you are releasing the album ”Alldeles för nära”. What can you reveal about the record already?

Edwin: It is good. We rock just enough.
Eline: It is a pick-and-mix bag! It has something for everyone!

The album title sounds both intimate and a little uncomfortable. What does ”Alldeles för nära” mean to you?

Edwin: It IS intimate and uncomfortable. It is about crossing boundaries and only noticing it afterwards. The mirage that looks beautiful from a distance can fuck you up when you get close.
Eline: Yes, I agree, Edwin! And that it flirts both with a line from one of the songs on this album and also from the previous album.

How have you developed since the debut album ”En sista räddning”?

Eline: This time we have worked more within a time frame; the first album was gradually developed over several years.
Edwin: We have listened to the tipsy people who yell ”play faster” at our concerts.

Has working on the new album felt more obvious, more difficult, or just different compared to the debut?

Uffe: Different in many ways. The debut album had songs (Blå, Stilla havet, among others) that we had had in the pipeline since we basically started the band almost six years ago. A mix of old and new. On this record, it is pretty much only new songs, written by present-day minds! In many ways, making record number two is scary and difficult, but at the same time we have developed a lot as a group.

What does a typical songwriting process look like in Kallsup?

Uffe: Most of the time, someone brings a melody or chord progression that we then work on together, and then it becomes very jam-based. There has been the occasional time when one person has brought in an almost finished song that we just jam through, and that has worked well too. But we like the jam.
Edwin: Yes, we really like the jam. The so-called ”finished” songs usually still have plenty of room to explore in rehearsal. What is certain is that everyone has put their mark on the song before it is finished.

When do you feel that a song has truly become a Kallsup song?

Uffe: It probably varies. We have written quite a few songs and then realised they are way too poppy. And then the song is usually finished once we have turned the pop down a notch and replaced it with something else. Sometimes it is the opposite.
Eline: I agree!

How important is it to you that the songs feel alive and a little raw, rather than too polished?

Uffe: Super important. Maybe the most important thing? It feels like something that is reflected in everything we touch as a band, not just the music.
Edwin: Absolutely! We dislike everything that is too clean and pretty and smooth. It has to burn and chafe a little.

2025 seems to have been an intense year for you, with shows in places like Örebro, Stockholm and at a sold-out Slaktkyrkan as support for Svart Ridå. What do you take with you from that year?

Uffe: Above all, we take with us many new friends! Svart Ridå and Agent Blå are bands we spent extra time with, and that has been fantastic. In general, I think we take a lot of energy into 2026. We have probably become a much stronger group together too, a stable unit.
Edwin: You should not underestimate the fact that we lived in a bus down to Germany and back for 10 days when summing up 2025!! What we take from the year is probably that it is possible to do this. It is possible to release a record, it is possible to sell physical records, it is possible to play in front of people, both in Sweden and abroad.

What happens to Kallsup’s songs when they meet an audience?

Carl: What people say is that the sound is harder on stage. More noise and energy, which of course you cannot experience anywhere other than live. Eline headbangs until her neck hurts.
Edwin: The live debut is the confirmation ceremony. But for us more than for the song: are we good enough to do it justice?

What is the biggest difference between Kallsup in the studio and Kallsup on stage?

Edwin: That everything can go to hell live.
Eline: Hmm, the feeling! Sure, it feels safe that we have worked out a song that we then take into the studio, but I get such a rush when I meet the audience. I really take the audience’s energy with me when I am on stage, and I want to give them a really good experience! I also want to show that I am having so damn much fun on stage with my friends.
Joakim: Live is the most important thing because that, I feel, is what leads to Kallsup’s sound and identity. The music lives on its own, which is what should be allowed to happen live.

What is the strength of being a six-piece band?

Carl: Our sound is built a lot on that.. above all, it is a strength live.
Edwin: You often have an excuse to say no to things you do not want to do anyway. Sorry, we cannot play that, three out of six are away.
Carl: Was it Bob Hund who talked about absolute democracy? That every decision is slow and that no one fully gets their way.
Uffe: Hahah, yes. Like the democratic process is complete when no one is satisfied.

Who in the band usually comes up with the most unexpected ideas?

Edwin: Mostly Eline and Jocke, but they are usually so crazy that the rest of us do not dare.
Carl: I think we all come up with unexpected ideas every now and then, but generally Uffe has an aura of being the most mischievous. Some kind of ‘’bass fork’’ can appear when you least expect it.

Is there anyone in the band who always wants to do “one more time” when everyone else thinks rehearsal is over?

Uffe: We usually say that when Edwin sits down behind the drums, it is probably time to go home. But many good ideas and jams have actually come from that too! Otherwise, I think we all want to play for about the same amount of time. We rehearse late and people have to go to work the next day..
Edwin: Yes, and when I sit down behind the drums, I usually want to play for another hour..

What happens after the single release – more music, more shows, or anything else you can tell us about?

Uffe: We have a lot of fun things on the horizon, not least for the autumn! There will be more new music this summer, at least!
Edwin: It will probably be calm this weekend..

If you look one year ahead, where do you hope Kallsup will be then?

Carl: We land after an amazing autumn and spring tour with a new record in the bag.
Edwin: If we answered honestly, you would think we had delusions of grandeur.

You feel like a band standing right on the edge of something bigger at the moment. Do you feel that yourselves too?

Uffe: Yes, absolutely! At the same time, I do not think we often look at stages of indie success. We put time and energy into the band all the time, and in the same way, the band is always moving steadily forward. We may not always stop to smell the flowers, but we get an incredible amount of energy from kind words and good responses!
Edwin: Exactly! I think we can all be a little bad at stopping and being grateful; it is always the next hill. To quote Mario Balotelli: ”Does the mailman celebrate when he delivers a letter?” After we have played our best show or written our best song, we just ask ourselves how we can do it even better next time.
Eline: I agree! And it is insanely fun that you get to play music together with really good friends.