Alpaca Sports is a Swedish indie pop band founded in Gothenburg (SE) in 2011 by Andreas Jonsson, Amanda Åkerman and Carl Jirestedt. Their music has a cheerful yet bittersweet vibe, with catchy melodies and romantic lyrics. Influenced by twee pop and C86, they’ve released a couple of EPs and two albums: Sealed with a Kiss in 2014, through Dufflecoat Records, and From Paris With Love in 2018, on Spanish label Elefant Records, and have gradually gained a lot of fans around the world. Portland, Oregon (US) based multi-instrumentalist Lisle Mitnik (Fireflies, Tiny Fireflies, Very Truly Yours) joined Alpaca Sports in 2014 for the release of the mini album When You Need Me The Most (their first release with the Spanish record label Elefant Records,) and has since then been writing the songs together with Andreas. The group has toured worldwide, including shows in New York, London, Paris, and Madrid, been on two tours of Japan, and played several popfests around the world. Now they’re back with their third album, Another Day, once again produced by Ian Catt (Saint Etienne, The Field Mice, Trembling Blue Stars) and released by Elefant. The album’s ten songs celebrate the hazy spaces and golden hours when the day turns into night, when summer becomes fall, and all the other in-betweens in our lives that are full of fears, doubts, hopes and dreams.

What They Say: “Always On My Mind is maybe the song on the new album that transformed the most throughout the writing process. It began as a simple guitar-based song, and over time, became more and more electronic until ultimately we decided to forego live drums altogether and have most other instruments be replaced by synthesizers. The end result really highlights some of our influences like Saint Etienne, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, and Red Sleeping Beauty. The music video was filmed during two late summer days with our friend and director Jonas Börjesson in the city of Halmstad where he lives. Halmstad is a beautiful summer destination and is known for having some of the most beautiful beaches in Sweden. Using a super 8-camera, we tried to create a bittersweet video postcard that evoked the feeling of the last days of summer; the beautiful sunsets, and that uncertain feeling of not knowing what’s coming next.“

“The single for Autograph was planned to be released just a few days before the new album, and is a tribute to my favorite football team ÖIS and the team’s iconic players Sören Börjesson, Agne Simonsson and Marcus Allbäck. Sadly Sören Börjesson passed away on September 26th, so we decided to push up the single’s release in his honor. This song comes with a videoclip directed by Jonas Börjesson, in which we can see me and Sören Börjesson, just one month before his passing, playing, dribbling and talking about football and life. Autograph showcases the softer side of the new album with a gentle, almost bossa-nova-like groove, beautiful guitar play by Lisle, and intricate harmonies arranged by Ian Catt and sung by me, Amanda, Lisle, and Cristina Quesada.” (Andreas).

 “This was our first single in a very long time. The song’s music video, directed by Carl Jirestedt, features me, Andreas, in Fuerteventura and Amanda in Japan (Lisle, being located in the Western US, was of course still sleeping while we were filming). The video’s varied locales echo the song’s themes of distance (both mental and physical), loneliness, and trying to maintain optimism in a world that we don’t always recognize. Many thanks to our loyal support cast: Hampus Öhman-Frölund, Gary Olson, Carl Jirestedt, Ian Catt, and Cristina Quesada, who have continued to help us make these recordings come to life. Many thanks also to our long time collaborator Ray Kimura Illustrations who has created a beautiful illustration for the single’s cover (as well as for the following singles and for the album).“ **All trash and bottles in the video were of course picked up and recycled

Their Mixtape:

Lisles picks

ASCA – Hibari

This song was 1/2 of the inspiration for the arrangement of Tonight. I tried to create a similar kind of feeling using the plucked strings, acoustic guitar, and very light use of electric guitar….and then during the breakdown, Ian Catt and his expert vocal arrangement skills helped integrate the second half of the inspiration…

Tatsuro Yamashita – Christmas Eve

I won’t argue about this being the “best” Christmas song, but it’s certainly my favorite. I love the ridiculous vocal breakdown and was really happy we could try to create something like this in Tonight.

Bee Gees – Kilburn Towers

From their pre-disco era, this song from their album Idea has always been a low-key favorite of mine. The bittersweet lyrics perfectly with the wistful arrangement. When arranging Bluebells, I couldn’t help but think of this song, and that inspired the use of the Mellotron flutes and overall acoustic feel of the track in general.

Elliott Smith – Baby Britain

While there’s certainly a case to be made to say that this song is already a song inspired by another song (The Beatles’ Getting Better) I was thinking of both songs when writing parts for Break My Heart. The song that we sent to Ian Catt was much closer in arrangement to Baby Britain (fairly minimal, but with that same bouncy rhythm), and he took it to the next level, creating the more Beach Boys feel with all of the additional vocal layers. I suppose if Sgt Pepper was indeed inspired by Pet Sounds anyway, Ian just traced the inspiration lineage back another level. 

Andreas picks

Mt. Misery – Hey!

I remember when I heard the song Hey! from the British band Mt. Misery the first time. It was that instant feeling of “I need to know who made this” and then I got this weird feeling that I recognized the harmonies and back up vocals and kind of knew beforehand where they were going. Having lived with our producer Ian Catt’s harmonies for the last years while recording our new album, I got a big smile on my face when I later found out that Ian mixed this new Mt. Misery album! Such a fantastic song and album, the best of 2024 for me! They got their own sound, mixed with the best of bands like the Teenage Fanclub and I can even hear the Swedish 90s band Popsicle. Also the pop nerd in me loves when they sing “everything will be fine” before the outro of this song, my kind of pop hook for sure!

The Cords – Rather Not Stay

Another new band I’ve really been enjoying lately is The Cords from Scotland. When Alpaca Sports started playing live we always used to ask the DJ to put on the song Room in Your Heart by The Rosehips right before we went on stage. The Cords and this song have that similar energy to me and I love how pure and innocent the melodies and lyrics feel. Old school 80s indie but with a fresh new take! I hear they’ve been working on an album this year so I’m very much looking forward to that!

Club 8 – Nervous At Heart

One of my all time favorite bands, Club 8, recently released their new album A year with Club 8. Through the years I’ve listened to their classic album The friend I once had more times than I ever dare to admit! This album still has that unique Club 8 sound, mixed with other projects of Johan, like The Legends. Talking about pop hooks, I knew right away that I’d love this song when I heard the “dududu” vocals from Karolina in the intro. I love how this song kind of has all the answers to what I want a pop song to be. The soft and airy vocals and lyrics, careful and jangly arrangement that still feels a little unexpected, the whistle melody, the “dududus” and that all is over in two minutes leaving you wanting more! 

The Softies – Tiny Flame

I remember when I heard this beautiful song for the first time. I was sitting tired in the train going back to Gothenburg after a long day of filming the music video for Always on my mind, with our friend Jonas in the Swedish summer city Halmstad. We had just spent the night filming on a beach, experiencing a magical sunset out of this world. This song fit that experience perfectly and I was just listening to the song on repeat, over and over again. The Softies have always made the perfect music for me to escape into a dream world, where I can feel completely safe and far away from things that’s worrying me. I know it’s a cliché, but this song and this new album was truly like seeing an old good friend again. And I’m very grateful for that! 

Another Day is out now via Elefant Records. Look HERE for more information on Alpaca Sports.