NME’s latest star of The Cover, Waterbaby, has created an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The Swedish alt-R&B star is on this week’s (February 9) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read Waterbaby’s profile here, written by Cordelia Lam and featuring photography by Nina Andersson Voigt.
To mark her appearance on The Cover, Waterbaby has also curated an exclusive playlist, titled ‘Wake up, yearn.’ The collection features songs by artists including Todd Rundgren, Björn Isfält, Vashti Bunyan, Chronixx and more. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
Waterbaby’s Cover story arrives a month before the release of her debut album, ‘Memory Be A Blade’. It’s a record which came together “sporadically” over two years, and was written and recorded with her longtime collaborator Marcus White between Sweden and Los Angeles.
“At first, it took a while for me to accept that we were making an album instead of an EP or mixtape,” Waterbaby tells NME. “I always had this idea that you need to be ‘ready’ to release your debut album, in every single part of your life. But the music just kept growing in our hands as we were making it, until I could no longer doubt it anymore.”
During the making of the record, the musician felt herself “open up in a lot of ways” – something that’s reflected in her broader life, not just her creative work. “In my late twenties now, being untrue to myself hurts me in a tangible way,” she reveals. “People have always told me I’m too nice, but I’ve learned that as a people pleaser, no one was actually pleased with me. I was just making myself smaller and easier to deal with to avoid friction. Whereas now, the friction is from suppressing myself in the ways I used to.”
Read Waterbaby’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.
Every year, NME produces 50 Cover stories, showcasing the future of music via in-depth profiles and exclusive photoshoots. Check out our coffee table book NME The Cover 2024-2025, which features the likes of Kneecap, Lola Young, Amaarae, LE SSERAFIM, Oklou and many more.