beabadoobee with Nina Persson (The Cardigans)

This week on the Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got one of those fun conversations where the reverence is on full display from the get-go. When we asked singer-songwriter Beabadoobee who she’d be interested in speaking with for the podcast, she immediately responded Nina Persson of The Cardigans—one of her heroes, as you’ll hear.

For those unfamiliar with Beabadoobee, she was born in the Philippines, raised in London, and found fame over the past couple of years via social media platforms like TikTok. Canadian rapper Powfu built his song “Death Bed” around Bea’s song “Coffee,” giving her a huge hit with what was essentially the first song she ever wrote. She followed that with a string of really strong EPs, and then dropped her proper debut album, called Fake It Flowers, in October of last year. It’s a fantastic set of fuzzy pop songs that clearly found a ton of inspiration in the music of the 1990s—bands like The Sundays, Pavement, Belly, and even Daniel Johnston have bandied about in reviews. Beabadoobee is hitting the road this year with her fantastic labelmates Blackstar Kids; you can see all the tour dates down below.

And maybe if you’re listening closely you’ll hear a little bit of the Cardigans in there as well, another band that found fame in those alternative-nation days. The Swedish band had a huge hit in 1996 with the song “Lovefool,” whose chorus was imprinted on a generation, and released a string of excellent albums right up through 2005, when they went into a sort of semi-retirement, emerging occasionally to play shows. At the front of the band was charming lead singer Persson, who went on to form a band called A Camp, as well as release a solo album. She’s also, admiringly, enjoying not being all that busy. She plays the occasional show but also teaches and does pottery. Sounds nice.

Bea and Nina had a really lively cross-generational conversation: You can hear the admiration in Bea’s voice, and the real interest from Nina about how things are different as a twentysomething woman in the music business now versus when she was topping the charts. They also talk about social media, Nina’s favorite moments from the Cardigans catalog, red pandas, and gross hotel rooms with shag carpet, sperm, and toenails. Yuck. Enjoy.

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Nina and Bea for chatting. If you like what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platforms and social channels, and don’t forget to check out all the great written content at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!