Yaeger grew up on a tiny island in Sweden where, as a teenager, she discovered a portal. The glowing box she logged into each evening after school opened up entire other worlds – a treasure chest of music, movies, chatrooms, and forums. The internet and the freedom it offered would later become the inspiration for Piratebae, her debut album. Since releasing debut single ‘ocean’ in 2017, Hanna Jäger has developed a sound pairing lyrical intimacy with earworm pop and club sounds at their most cutting-edge. After studying at the Rytmus music school that birthed pop powerhouses Robyn and Tove Lo, she’s collaborated with Icona Pop and toured Europe with Zara Larsson in 2024, earning two Swedish Grammy nominations and praise from Elle and Billboard. Skarpö is in the Stockholm archipelago where Yaeger grew up, listening to Max Martin-produced hits by Britney and the Backstreet Boys on CD. She’d post goofy selfies on Sweden’s Playahead social site and download sun-kissed American TV shows like The OC. Those early days of the internet feel charged with nostalgia: a time when being online was more anonym ous and collective, where Limewire opened her eyes to indie bands like The Shins. Her native country produced two world-changing platforms in The Pirate Bay and Spotify – tools that rewrote the rules of music and culture – and it’s no coincidence that Pi ratebae arrives at a time when streaming has failed to deliver fair compensation to artists. In 2023 she put out Jaguar, with the title track sampling Boards of Canada, an EP that blew open her emotional rave pop sound. Piratebae pushes these ideas even further: bubbles burst through the synths on ‘Poseidon’, while frothy textures wash over the electro-pop of ‘Take It! Take It!’ ‘We’re The Meds’, built on a stripped-back club sound, sees Yaeger take aim at a political and social climate that stifles artistry – for her, music is essential medicine in fraught times. ‘Pool House’ carries a darker charge, its strobing beats and rippling vocals inspired by the teen parties she attended where boys circled like sharks around the girls. While ‘Baewatch’, its name a pointed 2010 throwback, celebrates the strong bond between women – a love letter to her best friends. One of the jumping off points for Piratebae was author of dark children’s stories Astrid Lindgren and her 1945 character Pippi Långstrump. Yaeger started building a world around that, tapping into the vivid imagination she’d had as a kid, where her dad’s fishing boat would become a pirate ship. Piratebae’s visuals bring these imaginative ideas to life: on her moodboard were early Billabong campaigns, noughties internet graphics, Lost, and Tim Burton films. Then of course there’s the look: custom pirate hats designed by Stockholm brand LLL, Vivienne Westwood-esque silhouettes and a heavy spray tan. By weaving together the anarchic spirit of the early internet and the raw intimacy of pop, Yaeger has built a world that feels both personal and accessible – and she’s created a portal of her own, piratebae.org, for fans to dip into and uncover more of this lore. At a time when culture feels increasingly constrained by algorithms, Yaeger offers a reminder that music can be a place for connection, resistance and joy.