Becky and the Birds, the project of Swedish musician Thea Gustafsson, is notable for the way the artist uses her own voice: warping the pitch, cutting it up, scattering it throughout her nocturnal, hypnotic songs.

Having started the project as a way of learning to produce herself, Gustafsson has employed this process from the beginning: recording herself singing countless vocal and melodic ideas, and then reworking that audio in new creations.

"It was always with me from the beginning that I wanted to work around my own recordings, and my own samples, and see wherever that would take me," she says.

"I definitely think it adds a deeper meaning. [Using different vocal forms] is a way of portraying somebody else, or a different part of me, or a different scenario... It's a way of pretending to be someone else, [not] just a part of the production. It means a lot to me. It speaks to me."

Talking on the International Pop Underground with Anthony Carew, Gustafsson talks about her beginnings as Becky and the Birds, her debut LP Only Music Makes Me Cry Now, and having to battle against gender inequality when learning production.

Feature image: Oscar Lindqvist