Press

Bio

Strike a match and cup it in your hand… 

BF/C was formed in San Francisco in 2015, by Barish Firatli and Joel Igor Hammad Magnusson (aka Californiaman), the sons of many nations and even more musical genres: Poor man’s pop … Rich man’s rock … Hot man’s mistress … Cold woman's kisses… 

Singer-Euro-electric-American-acoustic-songwriters, they host a nomadic feast without end.

Steeped in drum machines, synth, acoustic guitar, and smouldering bass, and born from a community of amazing musicians, artists, and producers, BF/C maneuvers in electropop painted in warm, vivid colours. With the crooning swagger of Rod Stewart; retro slick influences like Roxy Music, INXS, and Fine Young Cannibals; and the haunted edge of The Knife, St. Lucia, and The Embassy, the duo invokes desire, seduction, and longing in equal parts. 

A scene unfolds … Beneath a vaulted ceiling, shadows rippling in candlelight, a woman stands at a record player, her wrist holding back her hair. A study in black and white. In profile, her face is obscured, but for a tightening in the line of her jaw. You light another cigarette. The record spins and the needle drops. It's a song you've heard a thousand times, but it feels so achingly new. She turns to see you. In that moment, everything—from recrimination to love to nothing at all—is possible. You lean forward, inhale, and…

Songwriter, pianist, and frontman Barish's story begins with listening to his father playing guitar > mother-inflicted piano lessons at 9 or 10 years old/Chopin, Rod Stewart/sheet music he couldn't or wouldn't read > eighth grade San Francisco flamboyant yet controlled music teacher leading the class in singing Eleanor Rigby > waiting tables in Paris/1999 > social psychology at College of Marin, Marin County/quitting after one semester > an introduction to Bill Spooner of The Tubes/a couple of guitar lessons > voice coaching with a Buddhist monk/deep breathing and meditation > guitar lessons from the incredibly charismatic Johan Ling/channelling Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan > highs, lows/smash ups, collaborations > connecting with…

Joel, co-writer, composer, keys, drums, and bass who picked up the guitar when he was twelve > playing in a band with a friend for the next 15 years > touring with Swedish indie artist Timo Räisänen/screaming teenage girls > forming Me and My Army with Swedish producer and artist Kleerup/big performances with bands like Robyn, Glasvegas, and Teenage Fanclub/going broke and breaking up > working at Svenska Grammofonstudion/learning everything about music production > San Francisco hookup with a girl/a lot of weed > backing Wyclef Jean on bass/what? > reconnecting with Barish…

And a whole lot more, but you get the point: a nomadic feast, without end—remember? 

Based in Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden, BF/C has released two full-length LPs: The Unexpected Consequences of Feathers ( 2019, Tamiami Records) and Valet (2021, Tamiami Records). They also have a Swedish EP, Den Goda människan I Sequan (2017, Golden State of Mind Productions) and an EP, BF/C (2016, Golden State of Mind Productions). A third full-length album is forthcoming in 2025.

Along the way, they've carved a unique path, with standout blog and playlist buzz surrounding their debut single Temple and its follow-up, Upstate. Their song Year of the Rat gained prominence in a long-running Swedish cinema commercial, and they've brought their electrifyingly intimate performances to stages as far-flung as Istanbul, Stockholm, and Vancouver. 

Equally comfortable playing to tightly knit audiences in bars and nightclubs, unknown quantities at art show openings, and unruly crowds everywhere in between, BF/C takes on all comers. And converts them—into fans and friends alike. 

Now, BF/C aims to tour three months per year, wherever the music leads, and has set their sights on film, TV, and theatre placements, crafting music that tells its own stories and amplifies others. Above all, for as long as the music invites them, their focus remains on crafting songs that speak a new language, with textures and sounds that reach beyond words. 

…You free the burning match from the solitude of your hand. As the swelling flame lights the night, this is the sound of BF/C. 

Warm. Beautiful. Dangerous.