New single and EP closer ‘I’m in’ finds Bo Milli in the heat of an argument. Questioning from the offset “do people change?” to a backdrop of subtle atmospheric production flourishes, the floodgates then open as the song swings into its crushing indie-rock chorus, with Milli smartly capturing the essence of the feud “When we last spoke, we fought / I blew it up / But believe it or not / What I said, I said it for us”.

Again working alongside frequent collaborator Odd Martin (Sigrid, Sløtface) on production, and co-written with Albin Eidhagen and Tore Bojsten of Stockholm band Sötnos, Bo Milli discussed the creation of the song and its lyrical meaning:

“I wrote the song with Tore and Albin in Stockholm, starting with a nylon acoustic through some pedals. It was getting quite late when we came up with a chorus we really liked but realised it didn’t work at the tempo we had set. We tried to speed everything up, but that didn’t work for the verse. That’s how this track ended up with a couple of switch-ups in tempo: I love the energy it brings into the choruses. It’s about saying something very hurtful but true in the heat of an argument and regretting how it was said but knowing that it couldn’t remain unsaid. If we can work through this, then I’m in.”

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Blending richly textured dream-pop with surging indie rock, ‘Come After Me’ is adorned with an irresistibly youthful edge. “I’m on my own / overthinking” Milli cries in the track’s exhilarating chorus; punctuated by crushing guitar strums and propelled forward by a zestful rhythm section.

Co-produced by Odd Martin (Sigrid, Sløtface) and co-written with Henrik Michelsen (Maisie Peters, Little Mix), ‘Come After Me’ is again emotionally fuelled by the cold Bergen night life – a recurring theme across her debut EP – with Bo Milli this time specifically overthinking on her journey home from a party…

Speaking more on ‘Come After Me’, Bo Milli said: “I’m fantasising about a big romantic gesture from someone I’m worried might not be that interested. I’m walking home from a party they’re still at, overthinking the whole night and feeling that if they come after me, that’ll somehow prove we’re on the same page. Although I haven’t told them how I feel, I hope they’ll know to leave the party and run after me like in the movies.”

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Re-creating the chaos and indiscipline of nights out in Bergen, ‘Making Friends’ tracks the expectations, contradictions and drama of nocturnal social interactions through a haze of tumultuous indie-rock.

Co-produced by Odd Martin (Sigrid, Sløtface) and Magnus Skylstad (AURORA), ‘Making Friends’ opens with a rumbling bass line, with Bo Milli recalling precise moments of discourse amidst the cold Bergen night life: “I’ve been wondering when it will get under my skin / I bet you’re waiting for it to kick in”.

Speaking more on the inspiration behind ‘Making Friends’, Bo Milli said: “The song is about a yearning to connect with people and have some sort of meaningful experience motivating a night out. It’s about a shallow but euphoric feeling after a certain amount of drinks that every stranger in the room is my friend, all the while I’ve lost track of the friends I actually wanted to get to know better.”

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“I turn on the TV / I see people doing pretty much the same as me” – Bo Milli offers in the opening verse to ‘Good Kid’ – surmising a collective apathy toward the environmental crisis. The laid-back guitar strums and her delicate, curious vocals then open up to the track’s titular choral refrain “I’m a good kid / I’m not meant to change the world”.

“The lines in the chorus are essentially what I’m tempted to say to myself when I want to throw in the towel and see everything play out”, Bo Milli says. “It’s a logic that’s difficult to argue with, but nevertheless, I think it’s the wrong conclusion. It’s an attitude that disregards my responsibility, and it doesn’t feel good to live like that.”

Within the song’s lilting verses and its crushing indie-rock chorus, there’s an uncanny level of nuance and stoic consideration in Milli’s often self-critical assessment of the situation we face. Speaking more on the inspiration behind ‘Good Kid’, Bo Milli said:

“My parents’ reaction to my own civil disobedience has pretty much been: ‘you’re a good kid, you don’t have to change the world’. They grew up in a different reality. I think younger people implicitly live as if that world still exists — if I get some kind of education, I’ll land a steady job, at some point I’ll settle down, I’ll grow old and have a pension. But I think, if we interrogate these presumptions, this future doesn’t add up.

“When I imagine the year 2100, given I could technically still be alive by then, we’re looking at a 3-degree warmer world. In that world, it’s unlikely I’ll have a steady pension and my (future) grandkids definitely will be living in a much scarier world. And that seems very unfair.

“No matter what I do we’re probably fucked – so whatever I do (or don’t do) regarding the climate crisis doesn’t impact whether I’m a good kid. This is the kind of reassurance I think I look for on some level during the many bleak conversations I have about our future. The fact of the matter is, very powerful systems are pushing us towards the point of no return, possibly we’ve already passed that. This is a gut punch, but maybe it excuses me from responsibility…”

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‘FOMO’ brings together hyper-self aware and at times self-deprecating lyricism, with shrewd observations of her digital-obsessed generation. From its opening salvo [“you make me feel dumb / waiting for you to text first / I did five days ago / I counted”], Bo Milli expertly captures the surreality of young adulthood, atop a bed of eclectic surging indie rock.

Speaking more on the track, Bo Milli said: “I like writing lyrics that sketch out what someone would say to another person if they were actually honest. In that vein, ‘FOMO’ is about the breaking point in a casual relationship where I lose my cool — in a very literal sense: while that other person is out partying with cool people, I’m unable to hide my true feelings on the matter, unable to stay emotionally distant and hard-to-get. It’s about losing a game you’ve been engaged in with someone, because you care more. And it’s about the ‘fear of missing out’ that constant digital insight into other peoples life has fostered.”

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‘How It Is’ grew out of an attempt at writing a “proper riff” according to Bo Milli, “something bold and power-chordy and maybe a bit dumb”. Lyrically the track proposes an interesting juxtaposition between apathy and youthful determination, seeing her lament procrastination, admit to being on the verge of tears for days at a time and recount thinking she might die on the 10-hour bus ride home.

Speaking more on the original conception of the song and its lyrical inspiration, Bo Milli said: “Originally the chorus was this tiny bit where I say “you know how it is” — a sort of anti-chorus undermining the idea of a thesis statement. This song is mainly made up of lines gesturing towards a vague dissatisfaction everyone seems to relate to, without really saying much outright. The second verse briefly references how this feeling and this way of writing seems to have been pervasive for a good while, as “that strokes hit” plays at some party. They debuted in 2001 with an album that I feel sums up this mode that a lot of music still operates within. Odd Martin came back to me suggesting the song have an actual chorus and when I messed around I found a riff I really liked, something kind of “big” in line with the original idea. I added a couple of lines I’d written while feeling horrible on a very long bus trip.”

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