Miynt Finds a Tropical Escape on “A bite of papaya”

Papayas aren’t typically synonymous with Sweden. As Miynt was reflecting on how to cope with hardship, the fleshy tropical melon was the the only thing the Stockholm-based artist thought of when writing “A bite of papaya.”

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Along with previous single ”Give me palm trees and inner peace” / “Lovesong,” Miynt is weaving together a collection of songs documenting her life, love, isolation, and dreaming up different escapes. Shifting instrumentation from heavier electronics to interspersing more guitar, pandemic or not, Miynt is in the middle of orchestrating the next chapter of her music.

“They all came from a pretty restless place wanting something more, I don’t know exactly what “more” that is but it seems like my Swedish subconscious wants something tropical,” says Miynt. “The songs are pretty different sound-wise unless, disco-grunge is a thing. If so, they are very cohesive.”

Written following 2019 release Stay On Your Mind, and pre-Covid, Miynt—who managed to perform “Give me palm trees and inner peace” live last winter prior to lockdown—says “A bite of papaya” initially started as a joke.

“I was supposed to change that word [papaya], but then when I walked around listening to the demos of the track it kind of felt like it was supposed to be there and that it actually made sense,” says Miynt, who admits the song was a result of a “slow disco jam and too much fruit.”

“You walk around living your life, falling in and out of love and walking in and out of different situations and thoughts,” she says, “and maybe once in a while you have a bite of papaya, and then it all continues.”

Co-produced by Miynt, with additional production by Karl Hovmark and mastering by Pete Lyman (St. Vincent, Halsey, Best Coast) “A bite of papaya,” is an powerful spell of psychedelic disco pop, mixed with Miynt’s own cynicism around life (and papayas) that somehow made perfect sense at the time.

“I bought a very expensive papaya the other day to remind myself how it actually tastes before the release,” says Miynt. “Now I’m questioning the title again, because it tasted really weird.”

After taking a psychology course, which heavily inspired Stay On Your Mind, Miynt says her new songs don’t linger around much psychoanalysis, but gravitate more around human interaction.

“I will always be interested and fascinated by the human mind, but as far as my new music it’s not inspired by the psychology course,” says Miynt. “Although my lyrics are often linked to relationships in some way, not necessarily romantic ones but more about how people interact with others and with the world, so in that way it sort of has a psychological root.”

Arrangements and melodies will typically come at the same time for Miynt when writing. Working out the music on piano or guitar, she’ll often sing gibberish melodies until something formulates.

“The lyrics come last, but I mostly have an understanding of what the story will be pretty early on in the process,” says Miynt. “I need that in order to understand what the song is. If I work too hard on the instrumental part before writing lyrics, it’s often harder for me to write. I like when the instrumental and the melodies and text come together kind of at the same time.”

Too well-produced can make Miynt anxious about her writing, so everything has to happen organically.

Now, when recording Miynt also wants a sound that will naturally transition from album to stage. “Shifting to a more analog approach in music making was a natural step for me, because I wanted it to feel more natural playing live with my band,” says Miynt. “I don’t like backtracks and stuff. I want to be able to play whatever I release with my band and make it sound kind of what it sounds like on the record.”

Through visions of palm trees, papayas and beyond, Miynt finds herself more relaxed and confident about writing music now.

“In the beginning, I cared more about how the listener interprets the songs,” says Miynt. “Today I see it more like an art project, which is organic and fluid and dependent on what I enjoy doing at the moment. I’m just letting whatever coming out of me happen and am not too concerned about breaking genres or people not liking what I do.”

“It’s all about exploration,” she adds, “not fitting into a specific genre for the artist.” 

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