Nina Persson has no plans to return to the recording studio with The Cardigans as she prepares to launch her latest solo project. 

The frontwoman has teamed up with James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra for her latest album, ‘The Great White Sea Eagle’, with its sound worlds away from the group’s rock edge. 

Although they have reformed sporadically since 2012 to play live, Nina insists new material remains off the menu: “There was a sudden internet thing [in 2022] that said we were making new music, but it’s not very likely that we are going to – we know that much. But we continue to play – which we are enjoying – and will probably continue to as long as that’s the case. We might do some little bits but we just don’t know yet other than we aren’t going to do any releases as The Cardigans with new music.”  

The group may have no plans to revisit the studio, but Nina is very much a regular, having released her 2014 solo LP ‘Animal Heart’ and two albums with A Camp, among her more recent credits.

Right now, her central musical offering is in collaboration with James and The Second Hand Orchestra, with a series of concerts, which began last year, continuing in the UK throughout February.

This is the second album the folk musician has performed with The Second Hand Orchestra – an array of virtuoso musical talents from Sweden – and while he was chief vocalist on the first record, a second singer was sought for the follow-up. 

The Scottish star recounts: “Nina was the first and only person who we asked; I knew everyone on the list and it was like, ‘Oh my God, we could sing with them?’, but Nina was the one I had the most connection with.”

Besides the opportunity to work with different artists, Nina also took herself out of her comfort zone by taking part in a recording process that lent itself primarily to improvisation. James flew over to her Malmö home shortly before the recording took place as a bonding exercise before the rest of the band joined in – at which point orchestra leader Karl-Jonas Winqvist was the only other person to have heard the songs. 

She adds: “This isn’t something I think I could have done back then – The Cardigans records back then were very structured, really quite the opposite from what we are doing now, this is very free with an element of improvisation. Thirty years on I’ve found my own tone in a different way and that ease of confidence.”  

‘The Great White Sea Eagle’ by James Yorkston, Nina Persson and The Second Hand Orchestra is released January 13 on Domino and available to pre-order now. They will be touring the UK in February.

Read the full interview in the February 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.