Indie artists have long figured out the formula to sustaining a career in the wilds of the music industry: donât slow down. Keep cranking out new material at the most fevered pace you can manage and playing as many shows as your schedule will allow. If they canât avoid you, they might start paying attention.
Itâs a precept that the Swedish pop group Hater have held to since forming in 2016. In just over three years, the quartet has released a wealth of material, including last yearâs sumptuous full-length Siesta and a bevy of singles and EPs, and used up all their vacation days playing concerts around the EU and their current tour of the US, which stops tonight at Holocene.
âThat was something we really wanted to happen,â says guitarist MĂ„ns Leonartsson, âto write stuff quick and record it and put it out. Itâs always really frustrating to play in bands that take a long time, putting out songs one-and-a-half years after recording them. By that time, you donât really feel like playing it anymore.â
Thomassonâs comment might be a small dig at Kust, the band that he and his three bandmates were all members of before forming Hater. Both the music and the output of their former group moved at a much slower pace, resulting in a fine, if slim discography of turbulent post-punk punctuated by booming drums and bellowing vocals. Hater is, in every way, a much different animal. The quartetâs output has been deliriously melodic, pushing off from their shoegaze influences into more jangly waters and making great use of the gleaming vocals of guitarist Caroline Landahl.
âAt first I was super scared because I was convinced I couldnât sing,â she remembers. âLukas [Thomasson, Haterâs drummer] talked me into it. âBe fierce! Sing something!â Then I got some courage. And itâs fun, so why not do it?â
âFunâ is not a word that often gets floated when people talk about Hater. Critics and some fans tend to focus on the downcast tone of songs like âAll That Your Dreams Taught Meâ and âI Wish I Gave You More Time Because I Love You,â which picks at the wounds of fizzled relationships and the mistakes made in them. To their credit, the members of the band donât push back against those assertions of Hater being a bunch of Swedish sad sacks.
âI think itâs really hard to write something thatâs really happy,â Landahl says. âIt doesnât come naturally. Iâd have to be a bit off to make it really happy. Otherwise, itâs just boring. Maybe we should try harder and see where we land. Maybe weâll write one happy song on the next record.â
Haterâs next record will likely come soon. They already have a pair of new singles floating around the Internet, including the exquisite âItâs a Messâ and have designs on writing their third full-length before the year is out.
The only struggle at this point seems to be how much time the members of Hater can devote to the band. All four have day jobs, with Landahl working in a thrift store and Leonartsson employed by a film festival in the bandâs hometown of Malmö.
âI think we manage it well, but itâs really tough,â Leonartsson says. âBut this is also too much fun not to do. We all agree on that. Of course, itâs not always fun, but itâs also important to do because we can and we want to.â
(Hater, Wed Sept 11, 8pm, Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, $10-12, w/Sonoda, Starship Infinity)