miamipanic – das sind die schwedischen Elektrokünstler Donald Linderyd und Roger Lindqvist. Auf der Suche nach schwer greifbaren Melodien, starken Konzepten und Klängen, die berühren, kreiert das Duo einen vielseitigen, emotional aufgeladenen Sound. In Kürze erscheint der Titeltrack ihrer Debüt-EP “stuck in my head“ – ein passender Moment, endlich mehr über miamipanic zu erfahren.
Im Interview sprechen Donald und Roger über ihre gemeinsame musikalische Reise, ihre Einflüsse und darüber, was sie antreibt. Ein Gespräch über Klang als Sprache, kreative Freiheit – und ein Debüt, das garantiert in Erinnerung bleibt.
Who is behind miamipanic? What made you decide to start the project?
miamipanic is just us, Donald and Roger, a Swedish duo. We handle everything ourselves; the writing, production, mixing, mastering, marketing, PR, and all the visuals. After years of making music together in various forms, miamipanic was born from a shared drive to create something truly focused and dedicated. We wanted a project where we could explore our specific musical ideas without compromise, taking full control of every aspect of the creative process.
Can you tell us a few things about the connection between you two and your journey into music?
We go way back, having grown up in the same town in Sweden. And even if we haven’t lived in the same city or even the same country for long periods, music has always been the strong thread connecting us. We’ve collaborated on various musical projects over the years, constantly writing and producing together, but miamipanic is where we truly found our shared, focused vision. While we both work across the entire creative process, we often approach tasks from slightly different musical perspectives. Donald tends to bring more pop-oriented influences, while Roger might lean towards less chart-focused sources. We believe this unique blend of our individual tastes is precisely what adds layers, variation, and depth to the miamipanic sound, and it’s a dynamic that continuously drives us to develop and explore.
If you had to describe your music in terms of not Music, what would you say?
It is an intersection between the common and the awkward, the juxtaposition of pain and uplift, and is really driven by the comfort of only being happy when you’re down.
What are you looking for in music? What are the boundaries that you look to explore with music?
We’re always exploring the intersections of synth, pop and rock, but beyond genres, we’re searching for those elusive melodies, compelling concepts, and unique sounds that genuinely move us. Our process is a constant quest to craft what feels like ‚the perfect song‘ in that moment, yet, paradoxically, we hope we never actually achieve absolute perfection. The thrill is in the pursuit, the exploration, and the belief that there’s always something new to discover and express. Perfection might mean the end of the journey.
What are your first musical memories? When did you first fall in love with sound?
Like for so many others, they come from our parents‘ record collection, a mix that included everything from Abba and Boney M to Elvis and Tchaikovsky. That’s really where our journey began. But the moment we truly fell in love with sound itself was perhaps hearing that iconic synth bass in the intro to Kim Wilde’s ‚Kids in America‘, the distinctive melody of ‚Popcorn‘, and the transformative experience of tweaking the filter on a Roland SH-101 synthesizer for the very first time. Those specific sounds were like the ‚entry drugs‘ that got us hooked on electronic music and the fascinating world of sound design and the realisation that we can do this. We can create something really inspiring out of nothing.
Which person, artist, or incident inspired you when you first started making music?
Our key inspiration, perhaps unsurprisingly, came from electronic pioneers like Kraftwerk, The Human League, and Depeche Mode. They were foundational to our early sound. As we’ve evolved, however, our influences have expanded dramatically, and today, we draw from a really broad spectrum. While our roots are firmly electronic, we’ve learned so much by studying artists seemingly outside that world. For example, Taylor Swift’s songwriting and production, especially Jack Antonoff’s work on Midnights, has been a significant source of inspiration. Similarly, The Weeknd’s skill in blending sounds from the past into a modern context, or the powerful rawness in Chvrches‘ approach, constantly inspires us. We’re also influenced by how a band like Editors channels raw, driving energy, and how Tove Lo manages to craft melodies that are both vulnerable and incredibly strong. Listening to these artists and many more from a range of genres has fundamentally reshaped how we approach writing, structuring, and producing our own songs, showing us countless ways to achieve emotional impact. So we constantly listen with open minds, finding inspiration in unexpected places across genres. Nothing is really off limits.
What impact do your surroundings have on your art?
It significantly impacts our art through constant immersion in the world of music. We actively discuss music trends and events, and make a deliberate effort to draw inspiration from a very wide spectrum of genres and artists. A key part of this is attending a lot of gigs, from the biggest shows to the smallest acts and venues. We find ourselves constantly inspired by what both new and old artists are creating. This continuous engagement with the musical landscape is a powerful trigger for us. It makes us want to create new material, try different things in our own music, and always challenge ourselves artistically.
What themes are you currently drawn to in your work?
We find ourselves consistently drawn to themes of darkness, melancholy, and a sense of brokenness. It’s genuinely challenging for us to write about subjects that don’t resonate with these deeper, often heavier emotions. For us, the most compelling music needs to be genuinely moving, perhaps feel a little disjointed or awkward in places, because it’s in that tension and vulnerability that we find true meaning and the space for authentic expression.
“stuck in my head“ is your debut EP. How does the birth of a new composition happen for you? How does your compositional process work?
We don’t follow a single, strict formula; our compositional process is quite fluid, often starting from different points for each new idea. It could be a captivating chord progression, an interesting rhythm, a melody fragment, a lyrical line, a specific sound, or a driving beat. Anything that sparks that initial excitement.
For example, our recent track “coming down from you,“ released in May, actually began with Roger playing and tweaking an arpeggio in real-time on the Dave Smith Pro 2. That specific arpeggio sequence immediately triggered the vocal melody. While we sometimes fall into recurring patterns, like improvising vocal melodies over a chord progression, we also frequently build outwards from a killer sample or a memorable vocal line, just like that arpeggio triggered the idea for “coming down from you.“
Over time, our overall process has evolved significantly. For this debut EP, “stuck in my head,“ we deliberately embraced very open, boundary-less jam sessions to explore as many different songwriting avenues as possible, making an effort to use a new technique almost every time. This approach generated an incredible volume of initial ideas. We then went back to further develop the most promising ones, sometimes finding that removing a core element, like we eventually did with the arpeggio in “coming down from you“ except for the post-chorus, was what finally made the track click. It became a sort of „funnel process“, narrowing down that wealth of ideas to select the tracks that not only best fit our vision for electronic Nordic noir pop but, most importantly, were the ones we absolutely loved and could listen to on repeat, which we’ve certainly done.
What artistic influences, outside of music, have had a significant influence on how you approach your art?
While music is our primary language, we draw significant inspiration from visual arts, particularly photography and film. We’re fascinated by how a single image or a cinematic sequence can instantly convey a powerful feeling or a specific state of mind. This pursuit of capturing and translating emotion is something we aim for in our music. Photographers like Anton Corbijn, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Melissa Rodwell, and Mario Testino, many known for their work in fashion, have profoundly influenced our aesthetic sensibilities and how we frame our perspective on the world. This visual inspiration often informs the mood and atmosphere we try to create sonically and lyrically.
What’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to?
We’re really excited about the upcoming release of the final track from our debut EP, which is also the title track, “stuck in my head,“ scheduled for 13th June. It’s a track we’re particularly proud of. It’s an intriguing blend of our styles and definitely one of the more danceable moments on the EP.
But we’re not resting! We’re already into the process of producing our next EP. It’s still taking shape, and while the final track list isn’t set, it may be darker and potentially a bit more organic sonically. We’re hoping to start sharing new music from this next project later this year.
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