Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to the inside the studio on
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan run Tug, but enough
Speaker 1: about me today we're talking to a bona fide pop queen,
Speaker 1: or a pop prodigy to be more precise. She's been
Speaker 1: at this since the rest of her peers were in
Speaker 1: grade school. She was ten when she want a TV
Speaker 1: talent contest in her native Sweden. She released her first
Speaker 1: international album, So Good, which set the European charts on
Speaker 1: fire with her electrifying electro dance floor fillers like Never
Speaker 1: Forget You in Lush Life. Over the last year, she's
Speaker 1: dropped bangers like love Me, Land Wow and her latest
Speaker 1: Talk About Love, which features Young Thug. Now she's gearing
Speaker 1: up to release an all new full length poster Girl,
Speaker 1: which she promises will be to use her words like
Speaker 1: abba on acid. If you're missing the club and looking
Speaker 1: to throw a little living room dance party, it sounds
Speaker 1: like this is the album for you. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: to welcome the poster girl for Swedish pop perfection, Zara Larson.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I'm very excited. Well, first up,
Speaker 1: you have a new song talk about Love with Young Thug.
Speaker 1: I Love it so much because it's about that really
Speaker 1: exciting time in a relationship when you're still trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what you are, like if this is for real,
Speaker 1: if this is going places? Tell me about that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think we've all been there. Scary you know,
Speaker 1: where you start seeing someone and you're like, do I
Speaker 1: want to move forward with this? Do I want this
Speaker 1: to be a serious thing? Or am I just kind
Speaker 1: of having fun with it? I am very bad personally
Speaker 1: at like casual dating. I kind of instantly just have
Speaker 1: to like ask myself what do I want from this?
Speaker 1: And if it's not someone that I really want to
Speaker 1: be with, then yeah, by like what's the reason, why?
Speaker 1: What are you gonna give me? You know what I'm saying. So, Um,
Speaker 1: it's definitely about that sweet spot before you like start
Speaker 1: asking yourself all these questions. Just the first rush of
Speaker 1: love and affection. Yeah, that's so Yeah, then it's scary.
Speaker 1: Then it's like trying to figure out what it is
Speaker 1: that's the scary part. Yeah, I agree. But yeah again
Speaker 1: I am like I see a person once and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're getting married, right, and they're like so really, Um,
Speaker 1: It's funny when you know talk about songwriting and when
Speaker 1: it comes to the point where it's like, well, how
Speaker 1: much of it is real? Or like how much can
Speaker 1: I relate to it? And I think for me personally,
Speaker 1: I've always thought that as long as you can relate
Speaker 1: to the emotions and the feelings of a song, then
Speaker 1: you can talk about basically anything. It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be like for me at least, it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be a page ripped out of my diary for me
Speaker 1: to relate to it on a on an emotional level,
Speaker 1: because now when I when I listened to the song,
Speaker 1: it's like, I personally want to talk about love all
Speaker 1: the time. Like I'm probably the person who was like,
Speaker 1: should we talk about this? You know? But I also
Speaker 1: understand and I have been in a situation where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I know, But that's the thing is usually when you
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about love, it's because really it's
Speaker 1: not that serious, you know, I don't really want it. Yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: it's just not Yeah, but it's a super fun song.
Speaker 1: I love the youngs Dogs on it. I think he
Speaker 1: did an amazing job. He really brought something to it,
Speaker 1: not that anything was really missing, but he really he
Speaker 1: added something that I felt that I didn't know I
Speaker 1: was missing until I heard his verse. I always wanted
Speaker 1: to have someone like I since since the first time
Speaker 1: I heard it, I knew that this was a duet
Speaker 1: for me. I mean, I think he's such a cool
Speaker 1: artist because I really admire the way he challenges like
Speaker 1: the traditional ideas of masculinity and rap with his style
Speaker 1: choices like wearing a dressing this album cover. What was
Speaker 1: he like to work with? Like how did he enter
Speaker 1: the mix? So because of this weird pandemic and like
Speaker 1: the weird not weird pandemic, but definitely like a weird
Speaker 1: year two thousand and twenty. Uh and what's even what's
Speaker 1: even the word to describe the pandemic? Yeah, we couldn't
Speaker 1: see each other in the studio, so I I think
Speaker 1: he recorded it in Atlanta. Um I recorded it actually
Speaker 1: like a year ago, maybe more in l A. And
Speaker 1: you know, we we we talked. We've been texting each
Speaker 1: other like d m NG and stuff, and like he
Speaker 1: seems very sweet. I was super happy he wanted to
Speaker 1: join me on the song, but we haven't actually like
Speaker 1: spend time in the studio. I was watching the live link,
Speaker 1: you know, seeing him record his version or the his
Speaker 1: part of the video, but same thing. I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know on a screen and we didn't. We haven't
Speaker 1: met each other, and that's so strange. I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's not really only because the pandemic, though. I think
Speaker 1: this is how music is made for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Like I remember doing the the euro Cup song. It's
Speaker 1: like in Europe. Uh, we had this huge it's like
Speaker 1: the super Bowl, you know, but it's soccer, and me
Speaker 1: and David Ghetta did a song and we didn't meet
Speaker 1: each other up until the actual opening ceremony and then
Speaker 1: I was like, hi, you know, it was weird, but
Speaker 1: we had this huge song together, but we just never
Speaker 1: like spoke before that moment. But it's fun. You know
Speaker 1: that it works out that way. Just send the files
Speaker 1: over the cloud or whatever and then you get it
Speaker 1: back and then you like send your stuff and yeah,
Speaker 1: it works technology. That's so funn It's like the band
Speaker 1: the Postal Service, Like that's how they got their name.
Speaker 1: It's like they just sent their stuff back and forth.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's so interesting. I mean, just think
Speaker 1: about the way that that you're working methods of evolved
Speaker 1: and your songwritings evolved. I mean talk about Love is
Speaker 1: single off your new LP, Poster Girl, which is due
Speaker 1: out in the spring. How your songwriting evolved since since
Speaker 1: So Good? You would have been what nineteen or twenty
Speaker 1: when when that album came out. How is your writing progressive? Then? Well,
Speaker 1: I first have to say I actually wasn't a part
Speaker 1: of creating Talk About Love, but I have worked with
Speaker 1: Amy Allen and Mike Sabbath was like the two big
Speaker 1: people on that record, and I have worked with both
Speaker 1: of them before and I think they are amazing. And
Speaker 1: that's usually what it's like for me. If I don't
Speaker 1: write the song, it usually ends up being a song
Speaker 1: from writers that I love to work with or that
Speaker 1: I respect a lot, and they're like, they know what
Speaker 1: I want, and it kind of all makes sense even
Speaker 1: though I wasn't like in the room. But when it
Speaker 1: comes to my writing, I think the biggest thing for
Speaker 1: me is the confidence, really because it's so hard. I
Speaker 1: think that I think that really comes back to all
Speaker 1: the creative stuff where you have to share your art.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if it's a painting or if it's
Speaker 1: a dance, or if it's a song or just like
Speaker 1: a text, you know, you're writing a book. When you
Speaker 1: share a piece of yourself, or you share your thoughts
Speaker 1: on something that's very you're very vulnerable. And sometimes I've
Speaker 1: been in the studio, especially when I was younger and
Speaker 1: a bit more insecure, and you know, I had this
Speaker 1: this line in my head for the next uh sentence
Speaker 1: of the verse or whatever, and I was just thinking
Speaker 1: about it, and I was like, oh, no, it's stupid.
Speaker 1: Oh stupid. Oh no, I can't say it out loud.
Speaker 1: I can't say it that loud. And then someone would
Speaker 1: say like the exact same thing, you know, like a
Speaker 1: minute after, and everybody's like, that's great. I would be like,
Speaker 1: just say it, Like, what's wrong with me? Why can't
Speaker 1: I just express my feelings? Because what's the worst thing
Speaker 1: that's going to happen? People saying like, yeah, yeah, that's good,
Speaker 1: but I think we can find something better that's like
Speaker 1: literally the worst thing that could happen, which sometimes could
Speaker 1: you know, feel like, oh gosh, I'm a failure, which
Speaker 1: isn't the I don't think you know, that's not the truth.
Speaker 1: But now I can be a little bit more confident
Speaker 1: and just share my thoughts in a different way. And
Speaker 1: I think that have just been um, giving people a
Speaker 1: more open and honest version of me, you know, and
Speaker 1: a bit more personal because sometimes, yeah, with creative things,
Speaker 1: it's like it's not only you write a song. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it turns into a therapy session and you start talking
Speaker 1: about like specially love, like relationships and what you've been
Speaker 1: through and like you realize stuff now that you know,
Speaker 1: like gosh, I can't believe I went through that, like
Speaker 1: what he did to me, or like how how was
Speaker 1: that reacting that way? Like all of these things you
Speaker 1: really have to you don't have to, but usually it
Speaker 1: ends up being brought up because it's it's like a
Speaker 1: natural way of talking about things when you when you
Speaker 1: share stuff about yourself. So, um, I guess I've just
Speaker 1: been yeah again, just more comfortable and confident, and I
Speaker 1: think that makes a huge difference. Said that, the sound
Speaker 1: of this new album is and I love this so
Speaker 1: much Abba on Acid, which is uh an album I
Speaker 1: definitely need right now. Please elaborate on that, because that's
Speaker 1: that's something I really need in my life right now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just I think I've always grown up with Abba
Speaker 1: being in Swedish, you know, we had some huge pop makers,
Speaker 1: not only performers, but like writers and producers. But ABBA
Speaker 1: has always been you know, They've always been around for
Speaker 1: as long as I can remember, and they probably had
Speaker 1: their biggest they were like huge before I was born.
Speaker 1: But it's just lately that I've realized, um, hello, excuse me.
Speaker 1: They make the best songs ever. Like they're timeless. They
Speaker 1: are so good still to this day, they will be
Speaker 1: good in a hundred years. And I just never really
Speaker 1: appreciated them like fully up until recently, where I really
Speaker 1: you know, sat down and I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: listen to Abba. Their melodies, the sounds, what everything. It's
Speaker 1: blowing me away, and I just wanted to like be
Speaker 1: a little bit inspired by that, especially the melodies they
Speaker 1: use and like harmonies or how they build up to
Speaker 1: a chorus and then just I don't know just everything
Speaker 1: about it. But then I also wanted it to be
Speaker 1: a little you know, probably with a twist. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess you could say modern, but in a way again
Speaker 1: like I still ever so timeless, but a bit more
Speaker 1: me like a little trippy and and fun. Still I
Speaker 1: want to ask you a question. It's gonna sound like
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, but I'm actually kind of serious. Why are
Speaker 1: people from Sweden's so good at pop music? I mean
Speaker 1: there's you, there's Abba their Showback, There's Max Martin, there's
Speaker 1: the Cardigans, there's a base, there's a I mean, there's
Speaker 1: just so many Like what is it? Is something water?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it's definitely like a legacy
Speaker 1: at this point, you know. And yeah, I do think
Speaker 1: it's been like a privilege for me to go to
Speaker 1: la for example, right where it's just like the holy
Speaker 1: mecca of songwriting and entertainment. And uh, a lot of
Speaker 1: the people there are Swedish. And even if they're not
Speaker 1: people are people respect me in a different way when
Speaker 1: I say, hey, I'm Swedish and I like do pop music,
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, you know, because we have this whole
Speaker 1: culture of songwriting. I don't really know where it started,
Speaker 1: you know. There's a whole bunch of theories about it.
Speaker 1: One that I really like is that everybody has to
Speaker 1: play music in school. It's like a subjects like pe
Speaker 1: or math or English, Like everybody has to take at least,
Speaker 1: you know, learn a few chords on the piano and
Speaker 1: the guitar, not maybe write a whole song, but you know,
Speaker 1: they have to try out a few instruments and they
Speaker 1: have to try it basically. And also the fact that
Speaker 1: we have a different support system than a lot of
Speaker 1: different countries, so you could actually get fund it from
Speaker 1: the government or um not a scholarship, but like you
Speaker 1: don't want to give you money for things like arts
Speaker 1: and stuff, Yeah, like a grant or something. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: very easy to get. And that means that people could
Speaker 1: actually dare to dream about having a life in music
Speaker 1: without being scared of you know, am I gonna like
Speaker 1: be able to have food this month? Or am I
Speaker 1: going to be able to like pay my rent and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and they could truly just go to
Speaker 1: school for music or playing a band and like tour
Speaker 1: and stuff. I don't know. I think it gives you
Speaker 1: a little when you have a financial freedom, It gives
Speaker 1: you a sense of security and then you can truly
Speaker 1: focus on what you love and what you're passionate about.
Speaker 1: I've read that you've been uh since being because you're
Speaker 1: in Sweden right now with your family during all of this,
Speaker 1: that you've been uh learning more about home recording software
Speaker 1: like logic and stuff like that. How how's that going.
Speaker 1: It's hard, so hard, and only because there's like a million,
Speaker 1: probably more a million different things to do. You know,
Speaker 1: I always open a session. What I love to do,
Speaker 1: I this is in like life generally, what I love
Speaker 1: to do is I love to start things. I don't
Speaker 1: really like to finish them. So I have so many
Speaker 1: sessions that I'm like, yeah, this is a vibe, and
Speaker 1: then I start something and then, you know, instead of
Speaker 1: like finishing it. I'm very good at going into the library,
Speaker 1: YadA YadA, finding a new sound. I'm like, uh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're starting, We're starting over. We're doing this because this
Speaker 1: sounds really fun and for me, this whole pandemic, it's
Speaker 1: been really fun to just play around with. UM. I've
Speaker 1: also realized that recording myself isn't as hard as I
Speaker 1: thought it would be. It's definitely hard to you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a mixer. I can't make everything sound perfect,
Speaker 1: but just to put down an idea, UM, it's powerful
Speaker 1: because it means that I feel independent and I can
Speaker 1: you know, I always write with other people usually, you know,
Speaker 1: if I'm in a session. But if I could learn
Speaker 1: this just to the point where I could put down
Speaker 1: some ideas, uh, and then just send it over to
Speaker 1: someone who could clean it up. Then I think that's great.
Speaker 1: And also it's so fun to sit around and play with,
Speaker 1: like it makes me really happy. Would you consider yourself
Speaker 1: a perfectionist? Oh my gosh, yes, And I think that,
Speaker 1: Uh it's the worst because sometimes my willing, my my
Speaker 1: will to want everything to be perfect. It kind of
Speaker 1: stops me from doing things sometimes because I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm also that type of person who I
Speaker 1: want to be excellent at things, like immediately you know
Speaker 1: the whole process of it, which is the beauty of it.
Speaker 1: I don't like it, like I wanted to go at
Speaker 1: it right now. And I think that's why singing has
Speaker 1: been such a passion of mine too, because it's something
Speaker 1: I do naturally, always been doing. You just open your
Speaker 1: mouth and it comes out sounds. But when it comes
Speaker 1: to like learning an instrument, learning how to produce, learning, um,
Speaker 1: even to write songs, really you have to put down
Speaker 1: and you have to put in the time for it.
Speaker 1: And that's why I respect like specially producers, because all
Speaker 1: of these produced they're just nerds, they're just people who
Speaker 1: they really are like they're cool, but they're very nerd.
Speaker 1: I love nerds. When someone has a specific subject that
Speaker 1: they're just so passionate about and they sit with it
Speaker 1: and they perfected and they perfected and they perfect it,
Speaker 1: and then you know, there's no ceiling to this. And
Speaker 1: also things change age how we want things to sound
Speaker 1: in music. Just you know, listen to the songs from
Speaker 1: twenty years ago or even ten years ago, or like
Speaker 1: what was popping on the Hot one hundred. It's different
Speaker 1: from what it looks like now. So it's always evolving.
Speaker 1: But yeah, being a perfectionist, I feel like some sometimes
Speaker 1: just be a bit overwhelming, you know, because I want
Speaker 1: everything to be perfect at once and that's literally impossible.
Speaker 1: You mentioned singing that was something that's been with you
Speaker 1: from a very early age. I mean you were on
Speaker 1: the the Swedish equivalent of Sweden's Got Talent at what
Speaker 1: nine ten years old. Was there a moment you knew
Speaker 1: that that music was was your path in life? I
Speaker 1: actually don't have that memory. Um, I've just always it's
Speaker 1: been a part of my DNA for as long as
Speaker 1: I can't remember, and I think I have always loved
Speaker 1: my personality type is very much, you know, I love
Speaker 1: to be the center of attention. I love to entertain.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely like a people pleaser. Um, I want everybody
Speaker 1: to have like a really good time. If they're not
Speaker 1: having a good time, then I feel like everything reflects
Speaker 1: back to me and like that I'm a bad person.
Speaker 1: So that combined with having a good voice, it's like great.
Speaker 1: You want to you want to please people, you want
Speaker 1: to entertain people, and you can say sick. That's like
Speaker 1: an artist. So I have just always had that dream
Speaker 1: of mine. I don't know where it comes from. My
Speaker 1: family is so not musical. My dad played in a
Speaker 1: punk band when he was like fourteen fifteen, and that's
Speaker 1: as close as we're getting to any like music musicality
Speaker 1: in my family. Um, but me, my sister, we've always
Speaker 1: just loved it. Yeah, it's it's it's really strange, but
Speaker 1: it feels like it's almost destiny in a way. I
Speaker 1: don't really know if I believe in that, but it
Speaker 1: feels like I couldn't do anything else in life just
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, bringing joy to people. The music
Speaker 1: that you've released in I mean love me Land, Wow,
Speaker 1: talk about love. It's been such a great escape from
Speaker 1: just this really upsetting, unsettling time. What do you do
Speaker 1: when when you want to escape? What's your favorite way
Speaker 1: to just get away mentally? That's so funny you say
Speaker 1: that because I have, Uh, that's what I've been doing.
Speaker 1: Like pop for me has been in this form of
Speaker 1: escapism for me. So really, if I'm being honest, I
Speaker 1: think of myself probably more as a performer than a writer.
Speaker 1: So I really love to write, but I'm not the
Speaker 1: girl who was sitting in her bed like writing songs.
Speaker 1: I'm the girl who stands in front of the mirror
Speaker 1: with like my high heels on, my hair done, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you ready? You know, like let me,
Speaker 1: He's saying, and I going off in the mirror. Like
Speaker 1: I love to perform so growing up and even now
Speaker 1: every day I stand in my living room and I dance,
Speaker 1: and I pretend that I'm on stage performing in front
Speaker 1: of people. And that's how I kind of escape reality,
Speaker 1: the boredom of it sometimes, the you know when it's gray,
Speaker 1: when things So when I'm anxious or even just expressing
Speaker 1: my happiness, that's just been a go to for as
Speaker 1: as long as I can't remember. That's really like my
Speaker 1: true essence just like, Okay, it's performing time and I
Speaker 1: just get into it. Yeah. I wasn't going to bring
Speaker 1: this up, but I have to. I love, love, love
Speaker 1: your very ship of my heart will go on from
Speaker 1: when you were like like ten years old. I think
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Titanic nerd. Like I've been obsessed with
Speaker 1: with that since I was a kid, So like, I
Speaker 1: love your version of that where you really yes, actually no,
Speaker 1: I don't think I was are into movies as a kid,
Speaker 1: But now I don't know if it's because I watched
Speaker 1: so many movies and series this year, particularly or last year,
Speaker 1: because you know, you didn't have that much to do.
Speaker 1: I started to really get into like directing, just being
Speaker 1: like very you know, okay, I wouldn't go that far,
Speaker 1: I would be interested in I would be interested in directing,
Speaker 1: or like I would be aware of in movies where
Speaker 1: it's like oh, that that's a really really great shot,
Speaker 1: or like I love how they were trucking her movement
Speaker 1: and then cut to that scene and like oh I
Speaker 1: see the plots in a different way, and like just
Speaker 1: the storytelling of someone on a screen. I am very
Speaker 1: into that, and I think specifically in these times, everything's
Speaker 1: very very visual too. You know, you just don't want
Speaker 1: a great song, you also want like a great video
Speaker 1: with it, and you want the pictures and you want
Speaker 1: the gifts and you want the TikTok's and you know
Speaker 1: we're looking at our screens a lot. And with that,
Speaker 1: you I think most people want like some form of
Speaker 1: content with it. So I think it's a you know,
Speaker 1: if if I would get into that, I would love
Speaker 1: you know. I co directed my music video for Talk
Speaker 1: about Love, and probably going to co direct the next
Speaker 1: video and then maybe eventually, you know, when I learned
Speaker 1: all about the lenses and YadA YadA, I will start
Speaker 1: doing that too. Um. And that gives me joy, like
Speaker 1: for real, um, just being a part of I feel
Speaker 1: like if I'm not writing the song in itself, which
Speaker 1: I preferably would love to do, you know, but I'm
Speaker 1: also I've never been proud two say like I didn't
Speaker 1: write this song, so I won't take it, or like,
Speaker 1: well I can take it if I can rewrite it,
Speaker 1: and stuffing like that. I think, if it's a great song, um,
Speaker 1: then it's a great song. And I you know, some
Speaker 1: of my biggest songs in my career have been like
Speaker 1: lush life and symphony that I didn't write, but then
Speaker 1: also equally the songs that I did right, like never
Speaker 1: Forget You and It's just to me. I just want
Speaker 1: really good songs, and I would I love to be
Speaker 1: a part of making them, but if I can be
Speaker 1: a part of creating them, I would love to be
Speaker 1: a part of everything else around it. So I feel
Speaker 1: like it's mine. This is like my vision for it,
Speaker 1: my my sound. Sonically I sing it, you know, of
Speaker 1: course how I want the songs to be sung. But also, uh,
Speaker 1: it just feels better when you know in your heart
Speaker 1: that you made this into what it is. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, I can imagine making an
Speaker 1: album is a very similar to directing a movie and
Speaker 1: you're creating a mood. You're you're the peaks and valleys,
Speaker 1: you some some bangers and then some ballads, and then
Speaker 1: looking that all out. I mean, I I I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask. I mean, it seems like that there's a
Speaker 1: there's definitely from the songs that I've heard from this
Speaker 1: album so far, I mean, let me land talk about love. Wow,
Speaker 1: there seems to be a theme of love in this album.
Speaker 1: Is that is that fair to say always always, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's that's what I'm mostly write about. I
Speaker 1: think it's because I am obsessed with love. I really am.
Speaker 1: I think like that's the reason we're all alive, to
Speaker 1: feel love and to be loved. Uh. And it's the
Speaker 1: most beautiful feeling. But also it's very relatable in any aspect.
Speaker 1: You know, you could be in love and be really
Speaker 1: sad about it because the person is not loving you back,
Speaker 1: or you can be really happy or very like very
Speaker 1: attracted to someone. I like to sing about that, honestly,
Speaker 1: my you know, it's it's hard to to do a
Speaker 1: really good song, uh, and to make it really really
Speaker 1: happy and about just like I love you so much
Speaker 1: without being super cheesy. You can, but for me it's
Speaker 1: a little tricky. But I do love to write about that,
Speaker 1: like initial like attraction you have with someone, or yeah,
Speaker 1: just everything about everything about love. I think. I think
Speaker 1: it's just it's fun. It's fun to write about it,
Speaker 1: and I think people can relate to that quite easily,
Speaker 1: no matter and again coming back to maybe they haven't
Speaker 1: been in like that exact situation, but everybody can relate
Speaker 1: to the emotion and the feeling of it, and at
Speaker 1: least for me. You know, when I listened to songs,
Speaker 1: I sometimes want to feel like I am heard or understood.
Speaker 1: I think that's why we listened to sad songs when
Speaker 1: we're sad. Yeah you feel like, oh you feel me? Yeah? Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: During the lockdown, my girlfriend, I've been watching a lot
Speaker 1: of old catching up on a old like nineties rom
Speaker 1: coms like Sliding Doors and stuff like that. Do you
Speaker 1: have any any favorite rom coms? Rom coms that's when
Speaker 1: they laugh in between, right, or what categorizes a rom
Speaker 1: comment or any any Roman Romancic comedy. Usually I'm thinking Julia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like Julia Robert's like my best Why do I think
Speaker 1: about those friends? That's not a rom com? Oh that
Speaker 1: could be. Yeah, Like I'm thinking about like Runaway Bride,
Speaker 1: the Best Friend's wedding, sliding Doors. I'm trying to me,
Speaker 1: I love what is that? What is that? The Christmas
Speaker 1: movie with with Kiara Nightley? Actually food Law you love?
Speaker 1: Actually I love the Holiday That's a classic. I do
Speaker 1: love that because that's like zero anxiety. But you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, it's just like it just feels good watching.
Speaker 1: But I also I love the dramas where it's like,
Speaker 1: oh gosh, I can't look like, oh no, no, why
Speaker 1: is this happening? Like the things that stressed me out.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why when I'm you know, listen to music,
Speaker 1: I mostly just want people to feel really happy, because
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm quite an anxious person. Um and
Speaker 1: when I do listen to just like music, and specifically
Speaker 1: that's like my escapism away from like all the drama
Speaker 1: and in that. But it's so nice sometimes you're right
Speaker 1: to just watch something that makes you feel cozy and
Speaker 1: also things you watched like a million times because it
Speaker 1: feels familiar and nice, you know, like The Office. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's everybody's favorite. I always have it on the background. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know, it's so weird, isn't it everybody's favorite? I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's it's sort of I mean watching those
Speaker 1: those you know, romantic comedies, and that's just sort of
Speaker 1: exhilaration and enjoys. Is what you know you feel when
Speaker 1: you listen to a great banger? Like I is there
Speaker 1: a feeling that you get when you know that you've
Speaker 1: just written a great banger? Is there like a personal
Speaker 1: litmus test for you where you think Okay, this is
Speaker 1: this is going to get Yeah, definitely. You know, That's
Speaker 1: how I felt when I was writing. So that's what
Speaker 1: I did for this album was love me Land, and
Speaker 1: I did that with um Jason gil who did Funeral
Speaker 1: on So Good, and Julia Michaels and Justin Tranther like
Speaker 1: the best songwriters in the world. So for me working
Speaker 1: with them first of all, was such a huge honor.
Speaker 1: I love them both not only as writers but as people.
Speaker 1: They're just really, really, really great people. And I knew
Speaker 1: it was gonna be a great song. But then I
Speaker 1: just when we played it for the last time, you know,
Speaker 1: before you go home, you've bounced it, you're ready to
Speaker 1: like listen to it in the car on the way home.
Speaker 1: I felt so proud and so happy of that song.
Speaker 1: And that can't you can't take away that feeling because
Speaker 1: being a pop girl and being in you know, the mainstream,
Speaker 1: I like, I want to have my songs being played
Speaker 1: on the radio, and I you know, um, I think
Speaker 1: it's super important and it makes me really happy when
Speaker 1: I have the radio support or like playlisting and all
Speaker 1: of that. Like, I do want my streaming numbers and
Speaker 1: I do want to be on the chart, and I like,
Speaker 1: I'm lying if I saying I don't want that, But
Speaker 1: something about I don't know it when you feel really
Speaker 1: proud of something and when you've been a part of
Speaker 1: it and you like put down your vocals and like
Speaker 1: your input into something then or like even the video,
Speaker 1: like I was so proud of that video because finally
Speaker 1: people saw me dance and just everything around it. I
Speaker 1: thought I was gonna go home and I was like
Speaker 1: this is the number one, Like obviously this is going
Speaker 1: to reach number one on all the charts, and then
Speaker 1: it so far from did that. Um, but I wasn't sad.
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna be really sad about it,
Speaker 1: but I just didn't care as much as I thought
Speaker 1: I would be. I was like, that's a shame that
Speaker 1: people won't get to hear how good it is more
Speaker 1: than like I am a failure, you know, because sometimes
Speaker 1: you do end up in those cycles were like oh
Speaker 1: my value as an artist or like how good I am?
Speaker 1: It's hied to numbers and like that's not the truth though,
Speaker 1: And I think I kind of woke up from that,
Speaker 1: especially after doing so well, you know, I was like
Speaker 1: it just can't be what I'm about only, but I
Speaker 1: was so proud of that song and I just felt like,
Speaker 1: this is it, And even if it turned out that
Speaker 1: it wasn't like for the general public or whatever, I
Speaker 1: was really really proud. I really was. You got it
Speaker 1: out of you? You did it? Yeah, I did. I
Speaker 1: loved it. Your new album is called Poster Girl. If
Speaker 1: they were, if you were the poster girl for one thing,
Speaker 1: what would it be if I was a post to
Speaker 1: girl for one thing, it would be I would love
Speaker 1: to be, like, I don't want to say, if we're
Speaker 1: having really good songs, um, I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: of course I want that. But I feel like that's obvious.
Speaker 1: I would love to be post a girl for supporting girls.
Speaker 1: I would love to do more of that in my song,
Speaker 1: to write about more, write more about that, because I'm
Speaker 1: definitely a huge feminist and I think about feminism and
Speaker 1: like equality a lot, many many minutes every day for
Speaker 1: many hours. Even like I consume a lot of information,
Speaker 1: I I I care about it a lot. And I
Speaker 1: used to have a blog where I wrote about that
Speaker 1: all the time as well. And maybe I want that
Speaker 1: to reflect more in my music in the future. Maybe,
Speaker 1: But I hope that people who do follow me and
Speaker 1: who listens to my music, they know where I stand
Speaker 1: on questions when it comes to equal rights and feminism
Speaker 1: and lgbt Q and you know all of that. Um,
Speaker 1: But I would love to be a Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: also my generation is like very involved in a lot
Speaker 1: of things, probably because we have the Internet and there's
Speaker 1: so much information available. And I feel like my generation
Speaker 1: is also very open and supportive of like differences. But
Speaker 1: it's definitely it's a little you know. I am also
Speaker 1: very happy that I was born in Sweden, where we
Speaker 1: are quite equal. Quiet I'm saying, because we're not fully there,
Speaker 1: but definitely compared compared to other countries, we have an
Speaker 1: advantage being a woman here. But I would just I'll
Speaker 1: love to be supposed to go for that. My last question,
Speaker 1: I want to take up too much more of your time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you could snap your fingers and have coronavirus go away,
Speaker 1: just go exactly back to it the way it wasn't
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. Whatever your definition of normal is, I guess
Speaker 1: what would be the first thing that you would do?
Speaker 1: Trips you'd want to take, things you want to do,
Speaker 1: people you would want to hug. I think I would
Speaker 1: honestly get like get my butt on a plane to
Speaker 1: l A very fast. I'm very excited for that. It's
Speaker 1: been really strange not traveling this year. Good for the environment, though,
Speaker 1: but I am so used to being in different hotel
Speaker 1: rooms and like different places like every week or every
Speaker 1: two weeks than now when I've been here. I remember
Speaker 1: spending my first month like at home in my apartment.
Speaker 1: I was like, I have to move. I'm so tired
Speaker 1: of this place. I have to move right now. Um,
Speaker 1: And now I have I can't lie. I've been having
Speaker 1: a really good time with my family and my friends
Speaker 1: staying at home. I still want to move, but I
Speaker 1: would probably take a quick flight to l A. And
Speaker 1: I would go to a festival. Yeah. Yeah, I love festivals.
Speaker 1: That's I love going to festivals. I love performing at festival.
Speaker 1: It's just such a fun thing that people like spend
Speaker 1: a weekend together and they just listen to music and
Speaker 1: they like party and stand keep like. I don't even
Speaker 1: remember that feeling of being like in a crowded place.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I watch movies and I'm like, it's very crowded here.
Speaker 1: No one's wearing a mask, like it's in me out,
Speaker 1: you know. But I can't wait to go to festivals.
Speaker 1: That is an awesome answer. Thank you, Thank you, Thank
Speaker 1: you for the chat, talk a lot you. You asked
Speaker 1: like three questions and I was just like love blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. Your answers were incredible. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: It was such a pleasure. It was It was really
Speaker 1: good to do. Thanks. We hope you enjoyed this episode
Speaker 1: of Inside the Studio, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more episodes of Inside the Studio or other fantastic shows,
Speaker 1: check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.