We’ve all met a Jimmy from the gym. The guy who walks up when you’re on your spinning bike, and tries to get your number? That’s Jimmy. Leaning over for a chat when you’re lifting weights — also a Jimmy. The man who wants to help you stretch? TOTAL Jimmy.
Jimmy From The Gym is also a modern-day No Scrubs for the Insta generation and the debut single by 26-year-old EEVA, aka Emelie Eriksson — one of Sweden’s hottest young songwriters and, as of right now, one of its brightest new popstars too. “Jimmy’s the one who makes the most noises in the gym,” she says. “You should ignore that guy.”
The song started life as a riotous role-call of male archetypes it’s necessary to navigate — we also meet Billy, who’s worth a billi and definitely wants you to know about it — that EEVA wrote for another artist to sing. When nobody else was brave enough, she took matters into her own hands. “It’s definitely a song that’ll divide opinion,” she laughs. “But it’s not hateable. It tiptoes near the line, I admit, but it doesn’t quite cross it. I want people to laugh, and have fun with it.“
Jimmy From The Gym is being released by multi-dimensional UK label The Other Songs, home to RuthAnne, Mabes and Quarry. EEVA says: “I’m so happy that The Other Songs believes in me and my music. I was thrilled when we signed the label contract that I spilled champagne all over it. Now I’m considering making it a tradition every time I sign something – signed, spilled, delivered, I’m yours!”.
There’s a serious side too: “The song’s also about what we call ‘perfect’ these days,” EEVA adds. “Superficial stuff doesn’t really matter in the end. We’re all stuck in the social media wave and sometimes we should take a step back and remember to not take it all so seriously.”
EEVA grew up in Oskarshamn, a small Swedish town best known for its candle factory and nuclear power station. As a teen she wrote books and comics and painted in her bedroom, but her life changed when a song she wrote for a friend’s wedding went viral, and at age 20 she became one of the first-ever students at the Dreamhill Music Academy, established by Swedish pop legend Anders Bagge, who’s worked with artists like Madonna, Janet Jackson, J.Lo and Celine Dion.
She’s now part of the team at Baggpipe Studios in Stockholm, based at the former EMI Studios/(Stockholm Abbey Road), where she has written for artists as diverse as Anastacia, Becky G and Kaiser Chiefs, and recently wrote Bloodshot for Mike Perry.
Jimmy From The Gym is just the first look at this exciting new singer, songwriter, all-round-popstar and self-proclaimed “deeply weird person”. “When I decided to release Jimmy From The Gym myself I wondered what sort of artist I should be,” she says.
“I can’t fake anything, I can’t be anyone else — so I decided just to be myself.”
Listen to the track below.
