4 To Watch For: The Concretes

“For the first time in my life, I was completely star-struck,” says Lisa Milberg, drummer of Swedish indie-pop band, The Concretes. Milberg ventured to Manchester for Morrissey’s first hometown gig in 12 years this past May and found herself in awe. “I thought I was going to die. I had to sit down for three hours because my legs were shaking. He’s just the most fantastic thing.”

The Concretes, a pretty fantastic indie-pop octet in their own right, consists of Milberg, Martin Hansson (bass), Daniel Värjö (guitar), Maria Eriksson (guitar), Victoria Bergsman (vocals), Per Nyström (organ), Ulrik Karlsson (trumpet) and Ludvig Rylander (saxophone). Together, they form a caravan hailing from Stockholm and their fashionably quaint pop sound has more to do with Mazzy Star, Camera Obscura and The Raveonettes than anything ABBA, Ace of Base and Roxette ever released.

“I don’t think that we sound like a girl group exclusively,” says Bergsman. “I guess we have a lot of influences from that time, depending on what we want to express. There are eight people in the band, so there are eight different record collections.”

“Probably my favorite song of all time is ‘Be My Baby’ by The Ronettes,” adds Milberg. “It’s definitely one of the influences, but I think we sound like we’ve always wanted. People say we sound like different bands, but the thing we want to do is sound like us. All the bands we’ve always loved have this unique kind of thing. Like Morrissey, no one has sounded like him since.”

The Concretes follow up their 2000 EP Boyoubetterunow with a self-titled full-length on Astralwerks Records. The delightful, modernized spotlight on ’60s pop, indie rock and quirky art rock is precisely orchestrated thanks to The Concretes’ strict eight-piece form. Songs like “Lonely As Can Be” and “Say Something New” capture an eclectic allure without grandeur.

“There were three of us in the beginning—me, Lisa and Maria,” Bergsman says. “We’re so full now! We can’t take in anymore!”

“It’s like we’re the Swedish Earth, Wind and Fire,” laughs Milberg. “I know that if just one person left, it wouldn’t sound the same. We need to be eight. When we’re out walking around, it’s like being out with a kindergarten class. There’s always someone missing or someone leaving a bag behind. We always have to count whenever we get into a cab.”