NME’s latest star of The Cover, Sassy 009, has created an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The experimental pop artist is on this week’s (December 15) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read Sassy 009’s profile here, written by Laura Molloy and featuring photography by Furmaan Ahmed.
Alongside her The Cover story, Sassy 009 – real name Sunniva Lindgård – has curated an exclusive playlist, titled ‘Dreaming In A New City’. Among her picks are tracks from Gorillaz, Smerz, King Krule, Boards Of Canada and more. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
Since Sassy 009 debuted in 2017 – first as a trio, and then as a solo project – Lindgård has received acclaim for her experimental, enigmatic brand of techno pop. Her musical journey could have been very different, though, with both her parents being classical musicians. “I think a part of me resisted, on one hand, my parents, but also their world and that very narrow frame that classical music is to begin with,” she reasons now. “You’re not supposed to stretch out your arms and be like, ‘Here’s me and my signature,’ you know? But I wanted to do that immediately, so I was so frustrated.”
Instead of classical symphonies, it was the discovery of early EDM – its colour and brashness – that she recalls inspiring her initially. “That’s a space that I think my parents would never understand,” she grins.
Now, Lindgård is preparing to release her debut album ‘Dreamer+’, which features collaborations with Blood Orange, BEA1991 and Yunè Pinku. “Originally, I didn’t want to have features, almost as a principle of ‘this is my debut album, and it’s me and not anyone else’,” she explains. “But then I was becoming more and more frustrated with not being finished, and it felt like those tracks needed something that I, myself, couldn’t imagine. They needed someone else’s voice.”
Read Sassy 009’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.