Skövde, Sweden-based indie outfit The Background World was founded by primary songwriters Martin Platan (lead guitar0 and Hanna Leijon (vocals) back in 2017. As the duo quickly began to amass a collection of songs, they started playing live shows together. But they realized that the material they had been writing, needed to be further fleshed out to fulfill their vision. Platan and Leijon first recruited Marcus Helmmer (keys). They then recruited Oscar Hjerpe (guitar) and Mikel Åkerman (drums) old friends, who the band’s founding members had collaborated with in several different projects over the years. The last additions to the band were high school friends Edwin Muratovic (bass) and Tove Håkansson (backing vocal).
As a newly-minted septet, The Background World recorded a live session on YouTube and a live EP, which was released on all the DSPs. Whether as a duo or as a septet, the band’s material thematically touches upon addition, mental health, searching for something better and even just the simple things in everyday life.
The members of The Background World are working on their full-length debut, which will feature last year’s “Why” and the Swedish band’s latest single “Love Ends.” Built around shimmering guitars, Leijon’s achingly plaintive vocals and enormous hooks and choruses, the new single is a lived-in anthem about the heartache of being in a relationship that’s petering to an inevitable breakup that sonically recalls Til Tuesday‘s “Voices Carry” and JOVM mainstays FRANKIIE.
Directed by Oskar Andersson, the accompanying video for “Love Ends” stars the band’s primary songwriting pair as a couple on the verve of a disastrous and heart-wrenching breakup: Platan’s character is a catatonic and disinterested. And at points, if you pay close attention, you see Platan blink in and then out of the frame. Leijon’s character is desperately trying to hold on to the relationship — and perhaps her own sanity. Is their relationship real or a simulation? That’s up to you to decide. The video ends with Leijoin’s character noticing something being off, waking up to see that her man has left her in the middle of the night. But the video pulls out into her real world, suggesting that her video game and life have imitated each other.