When we first spoke to Menderbug in April, Marcus and Jonas had spent most of their lives playing instruments but had barely produced music themselves. Four months later, the Swedish duo are approaching 70 songs written, producing more of their stuff together and already mixing a third EP before the second one has come out. They have also spent enough time and money promoting their own music to get a much clearer idea of where that effort actually goes.
Their latest single, “Where the Silence Grew”, came out in August and opens the run towards “Fading Signs“, Menderbug’s second EP.
The drums keep the song moving beneath several layers of guitar, with shoegaze and alternative rock at the centre and some post-punk in the way the rhythm pushes forward. It is a hazier, more melancholic part of what Marcus and Jonas have been writing.
The song itself is older. They wrote it in September 2025, and the first idea survived almost unchanged through to the finished version.
“It’s about missing something that has disappeared but somehow remains inside you,” they said.
That can mean an old connection with somebody, though Marcus and Jonas were also thinking about the stranger feeling of missing a feeling itself. They talk about remembering a time when spontaneous joy or a sense of meaning came more easily.
“A friend can have a profound influence on who we become, even after that person is no longer part of our lives.”
Marcus and Jonas recorded, produced and mixed “Where the Silence Grew” themselves. Paul Linde of Linde Mastering handled the master, while Sonja Perander made the artwork and will continue working with them through the third EP.
The technical side has changed quite a bit since spring, even if they are still careful about how good they think they have become.
“We’ve played instruments for most of our lives, but we had never really produced music ourselves, recording, mixing and everything around that. Back then we were amateurs at it. We’re still amateurs, but we feel that we’re slowly getting better, and that’s actually a big part of what Menderbug is about.”
There are plenty of people they could hire to do a technically cleaner job. They want to keep learning how to do it themselves.
The release schedule has given them plenty of practice. Menderbug put out a single in April, another in May and the “Falling Voices” EP in June. Then they stopped for a couple of months. They had noticed that releasing too close together could pull attention away from their own previous songs, and summer holidays slowed things down anyway.
August brought “Where the Silence Grew”. The next single, “The Face is Gone”, arrives on October 2, followed by “Fading Signs” on November 6.
Writing never really stopped during that break. Marcus and Jonas are getting close to 70 songs now, usually starting with something happening around them: mental health, stress, love, politics or simply a feeling they cannot shake. They write a lot and then spend their time on the songs that still seem relevant.
“If a song doesn’t work, we simply throw it away.”
That pace is still central to how Menderbug work.
“We don’t work quickly because we’re rushing. We work at a certain pace because we want to preserve a feeling of spontaneity and, most importantly, keep the joy in making the music.”
They have become more willing to bin things elsewhere too. A song, a vocal take or a production decision can go if neither of them is happy with it. They no longer want to settle just because something is technically finished.
“We’ve learned not to settle just because something is ‘good enough’. At the same time, we still want to keep that slightly undone quality that has always been part of Menderbug.”
The songs that make it out are often the ones that came together without weeks of trying to force them into shape. The basic idea behind Menderbug has stayed pretty much where it was when we spoke in April. The difference is that Marcus and Jonas now have several more months of doing the whole thing themselves behind them.
Promotion has probably taught them the roughest lessons.
Neither enjoys being on camera. Marcus and Jonas say it genuinely makes them anxious, and neither is comfortable acting as a salesperson for their own band. They have accepted that releasing music also means talking about why they make it.
“We’ve realised that we have to make an effort to communicate what our music is about and why we make it, as a complement to the music itself.”
Spotify’s own pitching has produced little they can actually notice. They still use Groover, which is currently their favourite of the paid platforms because the price and the system make sense to them.
SubmitHub is being dropped.
The results were not enough to justify the time it took, and the curator feedback could get oddly specific around genre. Menderbug pull from emo, shoegaze, black metal, slowcore and indie rock, which gives people quite a few different ways to decide they do not fit whatever box they are looking for.
“We’ve had songs described as ‘too shoegaze’, only to have someone else say they’re ‘not shoegaze enough and too punk’. Then we send the same song to someone working with punk and hear that it’s not punk enough either.”
Earlier they had summed up the same problem in simpler terms. Sometimes a song was not shoegaze enough for a shoegaze blog. Somewhere else it was not catchy enough for an indie rock playlist.
They have paid for other promotional services too, with mixed results and some money simply gone. Anything promising thousands of streams in a short period now gets treated with suspicion. Offers of 10,000 streams have stopped being interesting.
“Promotion is a jungle full of people selling promises, so you have to be careful.”
Some playlist placements have worked surprisingly well. A single good placement can suddenly send a lot of people towards a song. Their experience has just made them wary of anybody pretending those numbers can be guaranteed.
The part they seem happier about is the smaller network developing around Menderbug. They have met other musicians trying to get heard, people offering mixing and mastering, smaller blogs and independent playlist curators. Marcus and Jonas have found those contacts much easier to deal with. The numbers may be smaller, but the conversations tend to be more curious and positive.
They also do not want months of pitching to turn them cynical. There are too many other small bands going through exactly the same process.
The next Menderbug EP already includes two of those connections. Australian screamo band Hotel Romeo have written lyrics and recorded vocals for one song on the third EP. German shoegaze band mellovel will add guitars to another.
“We really love collaborating with unknown but talented musicians. In a music industry that can sometimes feel completely focused on competition and profit, collaboration makes us genuinely happy.”
The third EP is currently being mixed. Marcus and Jonas are considering releasing its first singles in late December or early January, though those dates remain open. Sonja Perander will again handle the artwork.
Meanwhile, “Fading Signs” still has its own release cycle to finish. “The Face is Gone” comes first on October 2, then the EP follows on November 6.
Menderbug’s Bandcamp is at menderbugswe.bandcamp.com, though Marcus and Jonas admit it is still due an update. That is one of the smaller jobs waiting behind the writing, recording, mixing and promotion. They are also on Instagram as @menderbug.swe.
After all the playlists, pitching, genre arguments and release planning, their own definition of success has stayed very small.
“The biggest success is still much simpler than streams or playlists: the two of us getting together and making music we love. That’s the real joy of Menderbug. It’s a little glimpse of light in the dark.”
And after nearly 70 songs, they have got a little stricter about what actually deserves to leave the room.
“Menderbug doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to feel like us.”
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