After growing up in Sweden, quitting medical school, and wandering through northern Europe, Hilding found himself in Berlin where he has been ever since. Berlin itself features as a character in his songs, through which he gives the abstract concept of the city life and soul. It was alone from his bedroom studio – in which he still records most of his music – Hilding created his debut, Too High Too Soon. The track is both a boy’s love letter to the city and the reflections of a wearied man. This contrast, of hope and dejection, of exhilaration and regret, is part of what make Hilding such an interesting artist.

His new single Girl explores the isolation of digital life and the subsequent desire for intimacy. The song came to him in the midst of quarantine, a time in which this physical separation and craving to connect and feel seen had never seemed more apparent. Beneath the song’s vigorous guitar beat is a soft desire for closeness. Girl’s synthesis of “infectious pop with a dark undertone” precisely exemplifies Hilding’s ability to blend contraries and explore the complex richness of the human experience.