Tag: Mayflower Madame Swallow

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mayflower Madame Shares Brooding and Anthemic “A Foretold Ecstasy”

Rising Oslo-based post-punk outfit Mayflower Madame — Trond Fagernes (vocals, guitar, bass) and Ola J. Kyrkjeeide (drums) along with Kenneth Eknes (synths), who joins the band in the studio — can trace their origins back to 2011. Their hazy and smoky sound was conceived and inspired by the band’s gritty surroundings: Their first rehearsal space was a desolate, industrial building, which they shared with a local carwash company. After their formation, they quickly recorded a four-track demo, which led to the band being named “Unsigned Band of the Week” on one of Norway’s biggest radio stations.

Shortly after their four-track demo, the band then spent the next few years touring and playing shows across Scandinavia, carefully honing their sound along the way. The band’s full-length debut, 2016’s eight track Observed in a Dream was brooding and icy psych rock rooted in dark romanticism. Based on the success of their full-length debut, the Oslo-based outfit toured across North America and Europe to support the album.

Building upon a growing profile nationally and internationally, the Norwegian band released, the four-song Premonition EP, which they supposed with more touring, including stops across the European festival circuit. Because of the band’s relentless touring they’ve shared stages with an impressive and growing array of artists including Killing Joke, Moon Duo, Night Beats, Psychic Ills, Froth, The Underground Youth, Crocodiles, Cosmonauts and La Femme.

The Norwegian JOVM mainstays’ sophomore album, 2020’s Prepared for a Nightmare saw the band further developing a blend of psych-noir and post with elements of shoegaze and noise rock — and featured “Vultures” “Swallow” and “Sacred Core,” tracks that to my ears, channeled The Black Angels and Chain of Flowers.

Since the release of Prepared for a Nightmare, the Oslo-based JOVM mainstays have been busy: They spent 2022 touring across the UK and Europe. And last year, they released Prepared for a Nightmare Deluxe, which featured five previously unreleased tracks from the album’s recording sessions while working on new material.

Mayflower Madame’s highly-anticipated third album is slated for release later this year digitally through Norwegian label Night Cult Records, on CD through French label Icy Cold Records and on vinyl through French label Only Lovers Records and British label Up In Her Room. The album was mixed by renowned Italian engineer Maurizio Baggio, who has worked with the likes of The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher and JOVM mainstays The Vacant Lots.

The forthcoming album’s first single “A Foretold Ecstasy” sees the band refining their sound: The song is built around a forceful, motorik-like pulse, atmospheric synths, reverb-drenched shimmering guitar stabs and anthemic hooks and choruses serving as post-punk-inspired soundscape for Trond Fagernes’ yearning and uneasy delivery. The result is a song that simultaneously feels dark, brooding and somehow euphoric.

The band’s Fagernes explains that the song is about “constantly chasing ome elation or intoxicating sensation to relieve one’s inner turmoil, while still being aware that it’s just a passing state followed by an inevitable downfall.”

The accompanying video features a trippy array of images that pulse and undulate with the song’s relentless motorik-like groove.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Oslo-based Psych Rock Act Mayflower Madame Releases a Menacing Visual for Shimmering “Swallow”

Over the past couple of years of this site’s almost ten year history, I’ve managed to write a bit about the rising Oslo Norway-based psych rock/post-punk act Mayflower Madame — Trond Fagernes (vocals, guitar, bass), Havard Haga (guitar) and Ola J. Kyrkjeeide (drums). Formed back in 2011, the band’s hazy and smoky sound was conceived in and inspired by their gritty surroundings: they first rehearsed in a desolate, industrial building, where they shared space with a local carwash company. Shortly after their formation, they recorded a four-track demo, which lead to them being named “Unsigned Band of the Week” on one of Norway’s biggest radio stations.

The band then spent several years touring and playing shows across Scandinavia, carefully honing their sound along the way. The band’s full-length debut, 2016’s Observed in a Dream featured eight tracks of psych rock/shoegaze paired with dark romanticism in a way that was icy, brooding and hauntingly majestic. The Norwegian psych act toured across North America and Europe, followed by 2018’s Premonition EP — four songs of apocalyptic love songs.

Building upon a growing profile, Mayflower Madame supported Premonition EP with more touring and appearances across the European festival circuit with stops in France, Germany, the UK and Eastern Europe. So far, the band has shared stages with the likes of Killing Joke, Moon Duo, Night Beats, Psychic Ills, Froth, The Underground Youth, Crocodiles, Cosmonauts and La Femme. Most of this occurred between recording sessions for their forthcoming sophomore album.

Slated for a March 27, 2020 release through a collaboration between French label Only Lovers Records, Portland‘s Little Cloud Records and Parisian label Icy Cold Records, Prepared for a Nightmare reportedly finds the members of Mayflower Madame further developing their unique blend of psych-noir and post punk with elements of shoegaze and noise rock.  “Vultures,” the album’s menacing and propulsive first single manages to recall The Black Angels, My Gold Mask, and Chain of Flowers, as its centered around forceful drumming, shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars and rousing hooks and an enormous sound. The album’s latest single “Swallow” continues in a similar vein as its immediate predecessor: shimmering reverb-drenched guitars, atmospheric synths, a gentle seemingly Texan twang, an enormous hook and a deeply menacing and uneasy vibe. And in some way, the song seems to evoke the feelings of dread and despair that many of us are starting to feel now. 

Continuing an ongoing collaboration with Astrid Serck, the recently released video features a stylistic and hypnotic array of trippy visuals that further emphasizes the song’s sense of menace and unease seen in blood red backgrounds.