By Kieran Webber
ShitKid is the project of 23-year-old Åsa Söderqvist based in Gothenburg in the south of Sweden. Born in 1992 and growing up in the northern part of Sweden, Åsa was a shy kid and in 2008 she moved away from home to study music, guitar and singing, for high school. Struggling with shyness and blackouts whenever she tried to perform in front of an audience, she turned away from music in favour of partying and boys.
After having her heart broken she returned to music 16 years old, singing in a local band and self-medicating with beers before every performance. After high school they moved to Gothenburg and the band fell apart, at the same time as she discovered feminism. Soon she had started a feminist punk band with two friends, playing in front of audiences in Gothenburg, but at the same time Åsa had also started to record on her own at home.
Recording on a half-broken computer while trying to learn her way around Garageband, she spent two months recording what would become her first recordings as ShitKid. Using vocal effects to record guitar solo, and with tracks purely consisting of vocals and drums, Åsa shared her works on Soundcloud in June 2015. As soon as the music was online, she turned away from it, focusing on acting and making the music for a short-film series named Stargazer by Linda Hedström.
Later she reached out to Stockholm label PNKSLM Recordings who snapped her up and the first fruit of their collaborative labour is ‘Oh Please Be A Cocky Cool Kid’ which is now available, with a follow up EP later this month.
‘Oh Please Be A Cocky Cool Kid’ is a shining example of Söderqvist’s aim to push the boundary of what pop sounds like with a mesmerizing result.
Listen here: