Pushy Parents

Pushy Parents’ Amanda Aldervall: Pre-Popfest Interview

How excited for Popfest are y’all? It’s only about two weeks away! Totally crazy. Have you listened to the Swedish pop-sensation, Pushy Parents’ EP a million times yet? Because I definitely have. And I had the wonderful opportunity to ask Ms. Amanda Aldervall of Pushy Parents (also of The Andersen Tapes and formerly of Free Loan Investments) a few questions about their upcoming performance, stage fright and those pleas for them to play the Ellen Degeneres show (I think she wouldreally like them).

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the story behind Pushy Parents?

Amanda: Roger Gunnarsson and I have been making music together for a while, starting up Free Loan Investments. Both Roger and I have had different collaborations and projects since then, but always have great fun writing songs together, and sometime’s just doing it randomly, without any real aim. We had a song that we really liked, Roger knew this super producer Johan Emmoth from previous collaborations, and also the amazing guitarist Daniel Jansson, and “Secret Secret” became what it is today. We recorded some more songs together and Elefant liked them. Pushy Parents was born!

Q: I’ve read that you originally had no plans to to bring Pushy Parents to the stage. What changed your mind?

A: Maz (Popfest organizer) emailed and asked if any of my bands/projects would be interested in playing. I was really happy he asked and started dreaming of a trip to New York in may, I’ve always wanted to be there for the Popfest, but never had the chance to go. Writing songs with Pushy Parents is the most recent, and fun thing I am doing right now. I find it a bit boring to perform songs I wrote ages ago, as would be with FLI or the Andersen Tapes, and asked Pushy Parents if they could make an exception for the studio-only thing for NY Popfest, just for fun. The studio gang could not travel for different reasons, so I will go with a bunch of friends to perform the PP-songs.

Q: Are there are any plans for a Pushy Parents full-length?

A: Our next release will be a 10″ with 6 songs on Elefant. It’s coming along quite nicely. A full-length would be great, but first this 10″

Q: Who are you most looking forward to seeing at NYC Popfest?

A: Oh, all of them! It will surely be some great shows. Today I think I am looking forward to Burning Hearts the most.

Q: What record is an essential listen for you?

A: Didn’t think this would be so difficult to answer.. I am more of a one song-person these days, I listen a lot to older power pop-stuff, such as the Db’s and Marshall Crenshaw.

I have it on good authority that this is also not a photo of the band.

Q: That’s totally not the real Pushy Parents in that “Secret Secret” video, right? I am pretty sure everyone I sent the video to was like “These kids are geniuses!”

A: Haha! There are some great comments on that video like: “You should perform on the Ellen DeGeneres-show!” We had an idea that it would be cool to have some kids playing us in the videos, and Elefant organized the whole thing in Madrid. Good for us, less work, and I am really not interested in being in videos and on record covers. I really don’t enjoy stage that much either, it always scare the hell out of me, so this playing Popfests-thing will not become a habit I think.

Q: What are the chances that Pushy Parents might play a Free Loan Investments or The Andersen Tapes song? (If you’re taking requests, I’d love to hear “Bomb the Bourgeoisie”)

A: Haha, we’ll see about that…

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me Amanda! See y’all at Popfest!