Mr. Little Jeans Pocketknife

Mr. Little Jeans (aka) Monica Birkenes sets sail to her debut album, Pocketknife, on July 19th through Sony Music Entertainment Australia. Following the success of her first two singles -Runaway' (2012) and her iconic cover of Arcade Fire's -The Suburbs' (2011), the new single -Oh Sailor' is a bejewelled, impressive first taste of what's to come.

With four #1 Hype Machine tracks under her belt and more than 2 million YouTube views for -The Suburbs' alone, Monica has been writing, developing and nurturing Pocketknife over the past few years. Working with such reputable producers as Tim Anderson (Solange, Sia, Dead Man's Bones), John Hill (M.I.A., Wavves, Santigold), Pocketknife promises to place Mr. Little Jeans firmly front and centre in pop culture.

Monica hails from Norway, where she grew up grew up in the middle of the woods in a seaside town called Grimstad. Her first instrument was always her voice: singing in the church choir at 5, then moving onto malls, old folks' homes, theatres, and even the local television station. At age 10, she recorded a tape of children's classics (selling it at local gas stations) and by 15, she was singing in bars (clearly underage but backed by a band of boys in their 20s). She focused on music in high school, then relocated to London to study drama.

After an endless string of years as a terrible waitress, and a couple more years sofa-surfing and country-hopping, she hit LA and shaped her sound into that of the inimitable Mr. Little Jeans we now know.

-Oh Sailor' is a pop song that dances left of centre, equal parts organic magic and buzzing electricity, with a soaring chorus bolstered by LA's Silverlake Conservatory of Music Youth Chorale. 'I wrote the chorus specifically for a kid's choir to sing, and fortunately I was able to pull it off! Having the kids there was magical, it really adds a lot to the whole feel of the song," explains Birkenes. 'The general idea behind -Oh Sailor' is that there is always someone out there with you, even if you can't see them." The magical video for -Oh Sailor' was directed by Tim Nackashi (Maroon 5, TV on the Radio, One Republic) and filmed in Los Angeles: http://smarturl.it/mljohsailor

Somewhere between St. Vincent's prettiest moments and Debbie Harry's wilder inclinations, Mr. Little Jeans fronts an army of bright ideas and sharp sounds; a shipbuilder's daughter with a voice that could part a sea. Pocketknife is immediate but heady, promising untold treasures that happily blur the lines between pop and art, light and dark.

Pocketknife Tracklisting
1.       Rescue Song
2.       Mercy
3.       Runaway
4.       Oh Sailor
5.       Don't Run
6.       Good Mistake
7.       Haunted
8.       Lady Luck

9.       Valentine
10.    Far From Home

Pocketknife is the forthcoming debut album from Mr. Little Jeans, available from July 19th. -Oh Sailor' is the first single to be taken from the album and is available to purchase digitally now.