The Mary Onettes

Highlighted by ringing guitars and reverbed vocals, the Mary Onettes formed in Jönköping, Sweden in 2000. The band — Philip Ekström (vocals, guitar), Henrik Ekström (bass), Petter Agurén (guitar), and Simon Fransson (drums) — experienced false starts in the music industry, as it first lost a record deal and then released an EP through Sony in spring 2005 before parting ways with the label. The group was about to self-release all future recordings until a demo wound up with respectable Swedish indie Labrador, which released an EP in 2006 and a self-titled full-length in 2007. After a difficult recording process that included a truly modern glitch (first someone stole the hard drive that held all the music the band had recorded, then the backup hard drive failed), the band’s second LP, Islands, appeared in late 2009. The Ekström brothers’ next move was to take a break from the band and form a new group called Det Vackra Livet. They played a very similar stye of music, but sung entirely in Swedish. Their self-titled album was released by Labrador in 2011. After reconvening with the rest of the band, and bringing in producer Dan Lissvik of STUDIO, they began work on a new album. Hit the Waves was issued in early 2013. Inspired by the results, they forged ahead and quickly (for them) released an EP, Portico, in early 2014.~ Kenyon Hopkin