GAUPA: The Lynx Lets Loose

“I just thought it was cool name,” states vocalist Emma Näslund when discussing the band’s name. Gaupa is the Jämtska Swedish dialect word for Lynx, and just like this mysterious animal GAUPA have captured the hearts and imaginations of heavy rock and psychedelic fans all over Europe.

The band from Falun, Sweden stormed onto the scene with a high intensity live show, surreal lyrics, big riffs and a mesmeric sound. With a plethora of musical influences surrounding them, ranging from legendary prog metal band OPETH to the distinct vocal tones of QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE’s Mark Lanegan. The band’s sophomore album Myriad sees them take a bold, confident and powerful step forward, streamlining their experimentalism and as a result packing a significant punch. We get to know more about GAUPA, with plenty of laughs and dry humour the wonderful and strange stories behind Myriad are told. Alongside this was drummer Jimmy Hurtig‘s experience of being an impressive bearded man; “all the kids always call me Santa when they see me. Yeah, I’m his younger brother. That’s the thing with a large beard”.

As a band on the ascendency, when asked about how they would describe GAUPA to someone who has not heard them, Emma states, “we all sum it up and say that it’s like heavy rock. Because it’s kind of a musical huge umbrella, in which a lot of things can fit underneath.” Followed up by Jimmy, “I know, myself, I really want to like categorise everything I’m listening to. So let them do it. All of us say heavy rock. We know it’s a lot of influences.” 

With this cohesion and shared direction amongst all its members GAUPA have managed to create a distinct sound. Seamlessly meshing all their influences together in a vast variety of ways. Even with that in mind Jimmy made it known about his admiration for OPETH. “I mostly listen to progressive stuff. My favourite band is OPETH, I really love PORCUPINE TREE and that kind of music. Melancholic stuff is my go to, that’s what makes me happy and happy music makes me melancholic, so it’s a bit of a switch around.” Whereas Emma opted for 1970s progressive rock icons GENTLE GIANT amongst others. “Me and David [Rosberg, guitars], we found ourselves having being fascinated by GENTLE GIANT. Some of us can also agree that MESHUGGAH is a good band. For me, when I want to listen to something that kind of echoes or it matches how I feel, so I often listen to RADIOHEAD or MARK LANEGAN.”

The band recently signed to Nuclear Blast Records, a label known for housing Swedish greats like the previously mentioned OPETH, alongside fellow Falun natives SABATON. “Well, specifically to be signed with Nuclear Blast has been my dream of mine since I was a teenager. It was one of the biggest things that I wanted to do with a band. And now it has happened. I really didn’t think too much about the other bands, but it’s really amazing, to be on the same label as your favourite bands. So it’s great. But it was for me. I was more excited to specifically be signed to Nuclear Blast because I think they are great and have great taste in music,” Jimmy states passionately. In what has been a great development for GAUPA, Emma discusses their input. “They have been really good to us as well. Because when you get signed to a label, you’re always afraid that are they going to change our music are everything, but they have not. They have been really keen to preserve what comes naturally from us, so we’ve been really, really lucky to have such a great team supporting us.”

One of the more interesting elements on Myriad is Emma’s use of an ancient Swedish herding call technique called Kulning. “I had the one lesson when I was in high school with Swedish folk singer who taught me about kulning,” she explains. “I collect sounds, so I’m very interested in sounds that you can make with your vocal cords. And this is a very fun sound that kind of cuts through most things. It’s this one technique that I really enjoy, because of its huge sound. Although I don’t do it properly, because if you were to talk with vocalist who’s been out on the mountains calling cows home, they will tell you I don’t do it right.”

One of the stand out songs on Myriad is Elden, yet is meaning isn’t all as it seems. “When people talk about our folk music influence, I categorise it as the Swedish folk music where you’re kind of up on a hill and you’re calling your cows home, or you’re in the desert, and you’re riding a camel. This is more desert sort of song,” Emma explains. “The working name for the song was the Dream Of The Camel, but in Swedish, so I thought I would write a lyric about the dreams that the camel would have,” she continues “At first I could not see how this would be anything and then it turned out awesome. So this is one of the strengths of writing together.”

With Myriad, GAUPA embraced a new found confidence. Whereas their debut album Feberdröm was more expansive and experimental, Myriad saw a more streamlined approach that delivers a significant impact. “We experimented a lot on Feberdröm. We wanted to try everything. And I really, really liked the album, but I think Myriad is this the best thing we have come up with so far,” Jimmy states. The band were more prepared, which enabled this confidence to shine through, as Emma explains. “There was a huge difference this time We did pre-production with the songs. We do a lot of producing when we write the songs anyway, so it’s the production is sort of set in a way. For me, it was the first time I entered the studio when I had all the lyrics done, and also, sort of all the vocals I was going to lay down. Of course, there’s always a certain amount of improvisation in the studio, for all of us, it’s not set in stone in any way but we had a general idea of what we wanted to do.”

Myriad is a beautifully eclectic album with wonderfully eclectic musicians behind it. GAUPA capture the imagination like the Lynx itself and with slot at Desertfest 2023, they are a band you really don’t want to miss.

Myriad is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.

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