ShitKid

Under the name ShitKid, Swedish anti-pop vocalist/songwriter Åsa Söderqvist uses elements of lo-fi, synth pop, and garage-punk to make abrasive but engaging music that confuses the boundaries of chaos and pop. ShitKid spent five busy years making music nonstop before abruptly announcing the end of the project in 2020. Before closing the doors forever, Söderqvist readied final album Sort Stjerne!, a collection of unreleased material from various phases of the project.
A native of Kramfors, Söderqvist left her home in the north of Sweden at age 16, heading to Gothenburg where she made her first lo-fi recordings. She played in a feminist post-punk band for a while, though on-stage she frequently suffered from bouts of anxiety and often resorted to self-medicating with alcohol. In 2015, she uploaded a handful of solo tracks she’d recorded at home on cobbled-together gear and an old computer rig. Self-released as ShitKid, Söderqvist’s songs were alternately raw, witty, and oddly captivating, made up of scruffy drum machine beats, guitars, bass, and whatever was at hand. The songs found a wider audience and encouraged Söderqvist to reach out to Stockholm label PNKSLM Records, which released her debut single, “Oh Please Be a Cocky Cool Kid,” and her eponymous debut EP. Finding her footing as a performer, Söderqvist spent the remainder of 2016 on tour in Europe. Early 2017 saw the release of both her second EP, 2, and her full-length debut, Fish. A third EP, This Is It, arrived in 2018 and was followed over the next year by a handful of singles including “SuMmEr BrEaK” and “RoMaNcE.” With the addition of bassist Lina Ericsson, ShitKid became a duo and in 2019, they recorded the 2019 EP Detention. While on tour in the U.S., Söderqvist and Ericsson spent time in Los Angeles and Austin recording what essentially became a double EP. Released in January of 2020, the eight-track Duo Limbo​/​Mellan Himmel å Helvete consisted of four new songs recorded in both English and Swedish. 2020 would prove to be a big year for ShitKid, with a nonstop flood of new releases that included full-length album 20/20 ShitKid and the soundtrack album for the film Always Amber. A U.S. tour was scheduled but canceled due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic; Söderqvist announced that she was ending ShitKid. Though she asserted that there would be no brand-new music from the project, final collection Sort Stjerne! drew unreleased material from various points in ShitKid’s development. The double album was released in June of 2021. ~ Liam Martin