Butterflies and bruises can be your 2026 summer album
Written by Anna
I sat down with Yordanos and Perissa from Mixed Flames to chat about their newest release Butterflies and Bruises — an album mixing classic pop sounds, RnB, and indie. The girl group is made of women with five uniquevoices, visions, and taste in music.
Butterflies & Bruises
… kicks off with “Butterflies Fooling”, a heartbreak and an ending of a relationship. It talks about how you rise from the “ruins of your love” into a strong person. The album takes you on an emotional rollercoster, exploring heartbreak, anger, sadness, rage, to happiness, hope and gratitude. But it doesn’t leave you hanging in negativity. “Sweet Season” introduces you into the “Mixed Flames Summer Club”.
I couldn’t miss the chance to have a chat with two girls from the band, Yordanos (Y) and Perissa (P). They gave us insight on their debut album, inspirations and how it feels to be a girl group in the swiss music scene.
Could you introduce yourself?
Y: My name is Yordanos, I'm one of the members of Mixed Flames and we’re a group of five singers. I'm already 31 years old, I'm the oldest.
P: I'm Perissa, I am the sandwich member of the band, if you go by age. We’ve grown very close as friends on and off stage and we just keep rocking and try to break into the Swiss and international music industry with what we do, because we think that there are not enough girl groups and girl bands out there, especially at the moment, especially not around Switzerland.
Yeah, I totally agree! A lot of artists in the Swiss or German scene are just overlooked, so REFLECTION is highlighting them. But back to you, what inspired your girl group band name?
Y: We started in 2017, just five singers who came together. We are mixed and diverse in our voices and nationalities. Of course, we are all Swiss, born and raised in Switzerland, but we have different backgrounds. That's also what makes us a little bit special. I have Ethiopian roots, another girl has Brazilian roots, another one German or Serbian roots. We celebrate diversity and women in music, in every shape and in every look.
P: I agree with what Jori said, we have so many different ideas, so many different tastes in music as well. We have someone who can rap, someone who can hit amazingly low notes, amazingly high notes. Someone who likes country, or soul or R&B, so we have a broad range we can mix from.
What is the process for writing your songs? Do you all write each song together?
Y: Every person has contributed to each song. But you can also learn who did a little bit more work in each song. I think every person has a personal experience that has influenced parts of the songs. About the genre, I would say we know by now what our sound is. Each song is different though, one could be a more R&B song, and another one can be a power song. For example, “Burning Rage” is a song that I would never have thought that we would have. That's because I'm more the ballad person.
P: Absolutely. You can hear the handwriting, the signature of each of us in the different songs. It is very tricky to write positive songs for me too. Not because I'm not a positive person, but just because I usually write to digest negative or heavy emotions because it helps me. When I'm all happy and excited, I don't sit down and write a song. So, it's really cool to have an album of girls with lots of positive and groovy songs on it. It was a very conscious intention of ours that we not only hit the big ballads and dynamics and the big ones, but also the positive, light, summery, hopeful songs.
What's your favourite song on Butterflies and Bruises?
Y: I love the song “The One” because I got married last year and whenever I hear it, I am back in this moment. I also really love “Sweet Season” because I have a cabriolet and I love the idea of driving my car around while listening to this song. It's very hard to choose though.
P: I think if I had to choose, then I think it would be “Burning Rage”. It’s very powerful and I love to perform it live. I also love the ending of “Make the Moon Cry”. The trumpets were a highlight for us. We also had some guitarists working on it and some piano players and they were all adding up just because they love their sound.
“The One”
“This feeling inside me
I don’t want to hide it
Baby it’s you”
What was the emotional journey for Butterflies and Bruises like?
Y: It starts with butterflies falling, and it's about heartbreak and sadness. Afterwards, the part where you don't care anymore. I feel good. I am good. I don't care, and then the confidence, with anger and “Burning Rage”. After the anger, there comes hope with “Make the Moon Cry” and also happiness.
You wrote a little bit of summer-coded, good vibes songs. You even have a “Mixed Flames Summer Club”!
Y: Yes, we wanted that because we saw summer is coming, we needed a summer song. The end of the album is very epic and dramatic but also gratitude for what you have. That is the emotional journey we wanted to show with this album.
Your song “Sweet Season” is very summer-coded. Is summer your favourite season?
Y: Yes. I'm looking forward to summer. I can't wait.
P: Yes, it also has to be summer, I guess. What is your favourite season?
I personally love spring because it’s not as hot as summer but still warm. And I also love the snow. But back to your album, do you have a last message you would like to pass on to our readers?
Y: Well, we hope that our album will reach a lot of people, will make them feel understood, will make them feel hopeful, but also comforted, will make them feel inspired, but also at peace with where they are right now. Life is a beautiful journey.
