4AD

Born in the mid-nineties, Thea Gustafsson was raised in Örebro, a small city in the middle of Sweden. Her musician father – proficient in accordian, piano and flute –immersed her in music from infancy, playing jazz and soul records at home. Gustafsson’s musical education become more formalised when she picked up the violin at age 7, leading her to perform in orchestras and master classical arrangement and composition.

Thea Gustafsson — who kickstarted her musical career as Becky and the Birds in 2016 after taking on production with sheer self-determination and a vision — began laying the groundwork for her upcoming album, Only Music Makes Me Cry Now, in 2021. At that time, her creative process was largely informed by a wide array of sources, including: insight from past collaborations with Dijon, Seinabo Sey, and Lapsley; obscure Bandcamp deep-dives; visits to live sets at clubs and dive bars across her two homes at that time, London and her native Stockholm; a variety of media fixations (including Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine, Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, and Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth); and the crushing vortex of emotions she had been encountering in the aftermath of a life-altering breakup. During that time, she needed to “let it all out to take it all in,” motivating her to return to the studio as a means to wipe the slate completely clean and fully process everything she was experiencing. The songs she crafted during this period, which later became OMMMCN, therefore allow listeners to follow her through that time of intense healing, with the record’s exploratory, desperate, passionate, romantic, and heart-wrenchingly vulnerable lyrical backbone supported by a varied collection of sampled audio-bites from her everyday life (from old demos and phone recordings to natural city noise).

Releases

ALBUMS

Only Music Makes Me Cry Now
Nov 15, 2024

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SINGLES & EPS

'Trasslig'
Jul 24, 2020

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Compilations

Bills & Aches & Blues
Jul 23, 2021

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News

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Videos

Tour Dates

Foreword

2020

Another busy year at 4AD, in unprecedented times, saw fantastic new releases from the likes of Grimes, Future Islands and Adrianne Lenker, whilst...