Irya's Playground formed as a Stockholm-based indie rock outfit that occasionally incorporates electronica textures and scored a Top Five Swedish debut album in 2008. The lineup features vocalist Irya Gmeyner alongside Erik Nilsson on drums, Pange Öberg on bass, Ludvig Rylander on keyboards, and guitarists Jon Bergström and David Calgaro. The musicians draw from an eclectic array of reference points that span contemporary indie figures such as Cat Power and PJ Harvey, American new wave acts including Television and the Pretenders, British post-punk groups like Joy Division and the Clash, classic rock touchstones Bob Dylan and David Bowie, alternative pioneers the Velvet Underground and Patti Smith, plus soul icons Aretha Franklin and Irma Thomas.
Gmeyner, after whom the band is named, traces her roots to England and spent her formative years in Newcastle before moving to Sweden and settling in the capital. In the 1990s she fronted the alternative rock group Urga, which issued three independent albums—Ur Kaos Föds Allting (1997), Etanol (1998), and Urgasm (2002)—and built a following largely through extensive live work. After Urga disbanded, Gmeyner issued the standalone single “My Angel” on Byker Wall in 2004. She followed that with the 2007 five-track EP The Basement Takes from Textilgatan 7.
In 2008 the full band released its first long-player, the self-titled Irya's Playground, on Byker Wall in partnership with Universal Music. Four tracks carried over from the prior EP, yet the album took a more collective approach, with Öberg sharing writing and production duties. The songs “With You” and “Room 54” appeared as singles, and the record climbed to the upper reaches of the Swedish charts.
