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Jan 20, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Mattias Jeppson Badlands

It has been a long time since we’ve heard from Swedish producer, composer, and sound designer Catharina Jaunviksna, a.k.a. Badlands. After drawing acclaim for her 2016 solo debut, Locus, Badlands remained mostly quiet for several years. Jaunviksna first started teasing towards a new release in 2020 with a handful of singles and she’s now approaching the release of her long-awaited follow-up, Djinn, due out March 5 on Jauviksna’s self-run label, RITE. Her newest record comes in the wake of the loss of her mother, with each song approaching the difficult prospect of letting go from a different angle. She has also shared her newest single, “Southbound Call,” premiering a day early with Under the Radar.

“Southbound Call” should be immediately familiar to fans of Badlands’ lush synth textures and rich soundscapes. Yet, where her previous single “Hearts” had a darker melancholy edge, Badland’s newest work feels freeing, full of expansive dream pop bliss. The song’s warm synths and percussive beat give it a lavish pop poignancy, sometimes recalling the hazy beauty of The Radio Dept, unsurprisingly given Jaunviksna also plays keys with the band on tour.

The track feels like a moment of boundless possibility and rich promise, an element also captured in the accompanying video. The video features colorful overlaid footage from the surf movie Leave A Message. As Jauviksna explains, “Despite the much darker personal circumstances at the time of making the track, we’re all prisoners of a pandemic right now…and to me, the ocean represents hope, a metaphor for freedom, something that we all need at this moment in time. So to make the Southbound video be about the ocean and surfing was a given.”

Jaunviska also expands on the track saying, “‘Southbound Call’ is about laughing in the face of danger. To live and to last, against all odds. It’s a track about finding a sanctuary for the mind in times when life is hard; a place where you’re in the moment, forgetting about everything going on in life. But it’s also about always getting up, to never feel sorry for yourself. To stick with the stuff that makes you feel good and the people who lift you, and let go of the ones who don’t. To never let anybody else set the boundaries for who you are and what you can do.” Check out the song and video below and watch for Djinn, coming March 5 via RITE.