We've long been a fan of the Sally Shapiro project - so it's with a heavy heart to say that Sally Shapiro are calling it a day with the release of their new single If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind. It'll be released ten years to the day since their first ever release, I'll Be By Your Side. A retrospective compilation is in the pipeline for later in the year on Paper Bag Records.
This is it. Thanks for everything. We did the best we could. Everything came from the heart. Everything was in stereo.
Sally Shapiro
The name “Sally Shapiro” refers to both the Swedish duo, consisting of the producer Johan Agebjörn and an anonymous singer, as well as the pseudonym of the singer herself. In December 2004 Johan discovered Shapiro’s gentle and beautiful voice while the two were singing Christmas carols together. Their first track, I'll Be By Your Side, was released as a 12" single on May 12th, 2006, on the Austrian label Diskokaine (run by DJ/producer Wolfram Eckert).
Sally Shapiro’s debut album, Disco Romance, was a nostalgic trip back to romantic italo disco of 1984. The album was revered by the press, nominated as “dance/electronic album of the year” at the U.S. Plug Awards and was given a spot in Pitchfork’s Top 50 albums of 2007. The tracks on the album were subsequently remixed by Lindstrøm, Tensnake, Junior Boys, CFCF, and Juan MacLean.
Sally Shapiro is known for her shyness: she does not reveal her real name, will not even let Johan into the studio when she sings, and has never performed her songs live. After a handful of DJ dates in 2008, she decided to never ever stand on stage again. However, the duo released two more studio albums, My Guilty Pleasure in 2009 and Somewhere Else in 2013.
Apart from a collaboration single with Tommy '86 - Why Did I Say Goodbye - and a few appearances on Johan's solo album Notes in 2015, Sally Shapiro has been silent since the last album. The new two-track single is scheduled for a release on the 10th anniversary of I'll Be By Your Side - May 12th - and will be the last recorded piece of music by Sally Shapiro.
They explain why: ”Our musical tastes don't overlap that much anymore. Johan is more into 90s-style electronica these days, and Sally is into non-electronic pop. In three years, we've only managed to record these two songs as Sally Shapiro, so with this single we have decided to call our musical project a day, and we would like to thank everyone who followed us on this journey.”
The A-side, If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind, was co-written by longtime collaborator Roger Gunnarsson and co-produced by Mitch Murder (Kung Fury OST). The B-side, Dangerous, is an acoustic interpretation of the David Guetta hit, with guitar played by Johan's cousin, Jonas Agebjörn. The digital editions of the single come with two remixes by French synthwave artist Tommy '86 as well as UK nu-disco producer Ben Macklin.
Pre-order the white 7" single from the Fika Recordings shop.
Victoria and Jacob are yet another new signing to Fika Recordings! We first came across them around this time last year when they sent us some sublime demos from their upcoming album. The frantic nature of running a record label alongside a full time day job took its toll, and that particular email slipped down the list of important-things-to-get-done-when-I-get_home-from-work, slightly forgotten. Roll on a few months and to an East London pub, sitting enjoying a few drinks with Trev from Oddbox Records, Darren Hayman and John from WIAIWYA, while we discussed ideas (ridiculous and not-so) and tinkered with Darren's Excel spreadsheets, talk turned to demos received and demos that had slipped through the net from bands that went on to Bigger Things... Several pints later, John and I had decided that we'd be working together on the Victoria and Jacob, having both fallen in love with those early demos tracks and neither of us quite having had time to do anything about it yet!
