Vacum have released the new single “Bensin och låtsaspengar”
The Swedish cult punk/postpunk band Vacum returns with brand new music for the first time since 1985, with the collective creative outburst “Bensin och låtsaspengar”, the first single from the band’s upcoming album.
In June 2024, Stephan Segermark, Anders Olsson, Patrik Högl and Mats Hammerman met at Nevo Studios in Sundsvall. The idea was to have the time and space to write together without preparation. To start with a blank paper. The hope was one or two new songs that could, at best, result in a new single.
The unconditional meeting resulted in a collective creative outburst and during a few frenetic days in 2025, a brand new album was born. The original idea was to return to the band’s post-punk period instead of, as with their latest project, returning to their punk roots. It turned out to be both at the same time, and Vacum really got a kick out of it. Suddenly, it became something of an avalanche in the songwriting and Mats and Stephan began creating a furious flow of material to the rest of the band’s undisguised joy.
Anders says: “It’s like this project was two unassuming songs in Nevo and then a nonstop Christmas Eve when Mats and Stephan delivered some of the best material Vacum has written ever.”
The first single from the upcoming album is “Bensin och låtsaspengar”; a snorting full-speed attack on the gas pedal, filled with years of suppressed grumpiness and musical energy. All this reinforced with forceful backing vocals by acclaimed hard rocker Marina Ammouri.
Stephan says about Bensin och låtsaspengar: “It’s the first song we wrote for the album. It feels like we found the right one right away, a classic punk song. It feels like it wrote itself. A collective creative outburst that culminated with Marina’s singing.”
At the same time, the band released their first music video created by the band members and internationally recognized filmmaker and artist Damón Zurawski.
Vacum was part of emerging local punk scene in their hometown of Sundsvall; an important regional scene within Swedish punk and new wave during the late 1970s and early 1980s that released a lot of singles and some albums as well. Vacum are often described as an early bridge between punk and the then emerging Swedish electronic/postpunk scene.
Vacum’s early singles and first LP form the core of their legacy and have become sought-after collectors’ items. Although the band later developed a more experimental and synth-based expression, it is primarily the early punk recordings that cemented their cult status.
Although their commercial success can be seen as limited, Vacum has subsequently gained an important position in the historiography of Swedish post-punk and indie, not least through their connection to the record label Massproduktion, which they ran together for several years. And is still run by their singer – Mats Hammerman.
In 2020 they returned with the album Korståg which contained new recordings of old songs in new versions where they went back to their punk roots. In 2022 came the vinyl single Pang, du är död!/Jag vill inte se dig gå which contained partly re-used unreleased older material.
In 2026 they are back with completely new material. In October their fifth album – Dum Dum Tiden – will be released, in the meantime, enjoy “Bensin och låtsaspengar” with Vacum.