Promise And The Monster

Where there was once ruin from the impact of an earthbound meteor, a small village in the north of Sweden called Delsbo thrives. Surrounded by gallant mountains, dense greenery and the encompassing babble of folk music, this is the birthplace of gothic pop extraordinaire Billie Lindahl, otherwise known as Promise and the Monster. Now residing in Stockholm, Billie is inspired by the discord between urban and rural. Promise and the Monster balances raw instrumentation with ethereal soundscapes, a pinpoint of a harmonious sonic rendezvous. 

Billie released her first album and acoustic odyssey in 2007, Transparent Knives, which garnered the attention and support of music giant Pitchfork. In the following years, her second full-length Red Tide was unleashed, celebrating the organic union of woman plus guitar and delivering again her established sound of goosebump-inducing incantations.

Then in 2016, Billie unleashed her second album, Feed The Fire. Having signed to the dynamic label Bella Union, Feed The Fire became a landmark of her career, with her music more progressive, experimental and somehow even more bewitching. 

Recently signed to Icons Creating Evil Art, her most recent endeavours show an evolution of Promise and the Monster. She now works alongside Love Martinsen who she calls, “the invisible other half Promise and the Monster.” The two write and record together, tilting towards a more electronic bias which can be heard in the latest tracks ‘Beating Heart’ and ‘Closed My Eyes’. 

Both tracks are part of Promise and the Monster’s upcoming EP, Chewing Gum. Whilst ‘Beating Heart’ covers a chaotic dynamic between two sisters and ‘Closed My Eyes’ an ambiguous requiem for fallen women, title-track ‘Chewing Gum was the starting point of the EP that she describes as a “paranoid coming of age song”.