Wy are a band strongest at their most vulnerable. The Malmö indie duo, Ebba and Michel Gustafsson Ågren, have showcased their musical skills across two albums, 2017’s Okay and 2019’s Softie which gained them recognition from KEXP, Line of Best Fit, NBHAP, Tonspion, CLASH and more as well as tours in Germany, Scandinavia and the UK. But what makes them stand out as a band is the raw, brutal emotion they capture in their music. A Wy song at their best sounds like opening it all up, and letting the feelings flow where they will, letting the pain, anger, fear, hope and love steer the song. Those emotions are spun into the band’s skyscaping, cinematic sound, and turned into music that has a force behind it, a power that hits you, even when it's at its softest. And that power that illuminates the band’s songs is more present than ever on their new album Marriage which is out on May 7th, Come Here is the first single and comes out on January 20th.



Marriage is the first record since signing to Rama Lama Records (Melby, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes, Chez Ali etc.) and the sound of Wy moving forward and backwards at once. Leaving the more produced style of last album Softie behind, it turns to the simpler sound of their earlier work for music that’s rawer and sharper. On both the indie-rock and the pop songs of this album, there’s less between the listener and the heart of the song - this is music that’s very direct, both in theme and sound, with melodies that hit cleanly and leave nothing even trying to hide. It’s the work of a band that have grown into themselves and what they do, and making the strongest songs of their career.



That album, in a way, begins with a wedding. Ebba and Michel have been together since their schooldays, but a couple of years ago they tied the knot. The songs on Marriage have all been made since their wedding, and so in that sense the timing made it a natural title for a record that’s something of a scrapbook from the first two years of that marriage. But there’s also a deeper sense to it. Both in sound and theme, Marriage is more of a conceptual record than their earlier work. Ebba writes the band’s lyrics, and on the previous albums her themes were specific to her. But on this album, their relationship is at the heart of the songs. The lyrics have come from the experiences they’ve shared together, which they’ve then worked together into what they want to say, to each other and to everyone else. “I have always written the lyrics”, says Ebba. “But this time they feel like our lyrics, and not just my diary set to our music. We've talked a lot with each other about what we want to say. About who we are and where we can find our place in the world. The title has been in place since we started, and that was because a lot of the songs revolved around our relationship since we got married. Not so much the relationship between us, but more about the internal conflicts that appear when you’re in a long-term, safe relationship, where you’re really sure about each other, but you’re not sure about yourself”.



The journey to the record has been a difficult one. The band started work on Marriage not intending to make an album. They went into the studio with the idea of making an EP, wrote some songs, but couldn’t quite nail what they were going for - the songs didn’t quite feel right together. So they went into overdrive, wrote a bunch more songs, and suddenly found themselves with over 20, and within those 20 what they realised was an album.



Part of the reason it took them longer to find their footing on this album was that the band’s record contract finished after Softie, so they started this process without a label. That left them without any plans but their own for what they were writing towards, which made it harder to decide where they were going. But in the end, that turned out to be an advantage. As the process dragged on, they decided to keep recording and writing at home to give them as much time as they needed to make what they were making. So they kept Marriage to themselves as they made it, barely even showing it to friends, with only their own ideas and beliefs steering where it would go. “ We didn’t have a contract or a set plan”, says Ebba, “so we just went where the music wanted to go, and would decide what we were gonna do with it when it was done. It felt exciting and freeing. I think we did a lot of things we wouldn’t have done if we were continuing to show the process to people like we did before. There was a point where the vibe of the album suddenly changed, and became what it is now, and it’s quite different to what it was when we started writing it”.



In many ways, Marriage is Wy at their purest. These songs, kept between Michel and Ebba as they made them, and with Michel and Ebba at their centre, sound like the band at home in themselves, more sure of who they are and getting closer than ever to what they're reaching for. For the band, it’s their fans that have helped them along the way. “We’ve kind of never realised that we actually have ‘real’ fans. So when we played last year, and saw people singing along to the lyrics” says Michel, “it made us realise we shouldn’t be ashamed of where we were taking things”. “You can’t make everyone understand you, you just have to do what you think is true” says Ebba. “To appreciate the people that understand it. And not give a shit about the rest”. Marriage is an album that proves that if you give a shit about the people and things that matter to you, you don’t need to worry about the rest.