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"Prayer" teases a full-length titled The Afterparty and the song is intended as a deliberate beginning for her new era. "It's exactly what the title suggests,” says Styrke. “It carries a sense of hope and anticipation. It’s the opening track of the forthcoming album, and the only logical place to begin telling this story.”
The new material follows a period of personal and professional change for the 33-year-old Umeå-born artist, during which she became a mother, studied biodynamic gardening, and took a leading role in a Stockholm production of David Bowie’s Lazarus musical. “Becoming a mother has meant a really powerful shift in my life,” Styrke notes. “I honestly don’t care what anybody but my daughter thinks about me anymore. It’s freeing."
She also connected her recent horticultural studies to her music: “I’ve spent the past few years studying to become a biodynamic gardener. I honestly feel like gardening, my reconnection with nature and parenthood have all influenced this music as much as any piece of art or music ever did.”
"Prayer" features a distinct palette of analogue synthesisers from the 1970s and 1980s and like every sound on new record, was created using analogue machines or recorded live in the room, with no digital samples used. Styrke worked with a small, local Swedish team, co-producing the album herself, including producer and co-writer Magnus Larsson, drummer and producer Joel Kiviaho from Boko Yout, and songwriter Linnéa Martinsson (aka Lune). The album’s thematic core examines contemporary life: “It feels like we’re living in the afterparty phase of our time,” she explains. “The album reflects on what that does to a person, told through the lens of an actual afterparty.”
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