Matching Outfits – No Whiskey

Today, Berlin trio Matching Outfits have announced their signing to Bar/None Records and Emperor X’s Dreams of Fields, and released the single “No Whiskey.”

The trio of adopted Berliners warped, wistful take on indie pop invokes K Records luminaries like Dear Nora, and the off kilter, spare arrangements of Cate Le Bon. “No Whiskey” unfolds as an unfiltered account of a failed relationship, recounted in vivid and occasionally hilarious detail over warbling guitars and steadfast drums.

Frontwoman Linnea Mårtensson shares, “I wrote this song as a way to cope during that first busy month after having my heart broken. Through a wedding, tour and funeral in Sweden. Our album release show. Long shifts at the bar. Turning 29. All I could think of was my love not being there. I knew it would get easier. But when?”

The story of Matching Outfits begins on a farm outside of Mjöbäck, Sweden, where Linnea – a marching band saxophonist, choir singer and self-taught piano player – discovered the music of The Moldy Peaches and Belle and Sebastian and started writing songs of her own. She moved to Berlin with her high school sweetheart, and together they ventured into the city’s DIY music scene.

At an open mic night in Kreuzberg, she met Rachel Glassberg, an American and fellow former band geek who asked her to play saxophone on a song about the movie Sharknado. In exchange, Rachel played drums on her song about getting flipped off at a karaoke bar. A few years later, they met Leah Corper, a bassist and woman of mystery from the UK. When Linnea’s band and relationship dissolved, she got together with Rachel and Leah to try out some freshly written songs. New melodies and harmonies emerged, and Matching Outfits was born.

In September 2022, three important things happened in the Matching Outfits universe: the band released their first album, Band Made Out Of Sand, on local DIY cassette label Kitchen Leg, Linnea started working at a bar managed by Florida-born indie microlegend Chad Matheny (Emperor X) and her heart was broken a second time.

This combination of events resulted in the song “No Whiskey” – a diaristic retelling of that fateful month, complete with torn-up gig posters and unpunctuated texts. Produced by Emperor X, the single is also their first for his label Dreams of Field and New York’s venerable Bar/None Records. The band will make their US debut in March at New Colossus in New York and SXSW in Austin.

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