Since her smash hit “Habits (Stay High)” — now 5x platinum in the US — captured the world’s attention in 2014, Swedish pop purveyor Tove Lo has been incredibly busy. In the intervening years, she’s added four exceptional records to her belt, accompanied by a trio of short films, brought her electric live show across the globe, and grown her cult following.
Released in September, Tove Lo’s fourth studio album ‘Sunshine Kitty’, is an explosive pop record; at turns it is heartbreaking, contemplative, and unabashedly sensual. Having written and recorded with the likes of Lorde, Coldplay, Flume, and Charli XCX, her fingerprints can be found all over the current pop scene. While she was on our shores to headline Spotify’s Front Left Live event in Melbourne, we chatted with the Grammy nominee about Sweden’s creative industry, how she aligned the stars herself to collab with Kylie Minogue, and about how an episode of Girls inspired the ‘Sunshine Kitty’ concept.
Best Before: Sweden has historically been a hotbed of pop and electronic music: is there anything specifically about the culture there that you think has encouraged the development of that scene? How has it influenced you and your creative process specifically?
Sweden is such a small place, and when you’re starting to dream about what you want to do, you look at what’s around you. I don’t know why pop and electronic pop seems to be something that so many Swedish artists do well, but there’s a little bit of melancholy there. In our culture, you want to talk about the troubles, and if you’re not talking about it, you’re not being honest and you’re not saying something real. So I think that’s where the hint of darkness that I feel is really strong in Swedish music in general is from. But then, our language in general is also very melodic, it’s kind of jumpy up-and-down, so that sort of leads to the playful melodies combined with the darkness. And then, going all the way back to ABBA, one band had that big success and they all lived in the same city, so you look at what’s happening around you.
“As soon as people think they have you figured out, it’s fun to do something else.”
I went to a music high school, where Robyn also went, for maybe just like a week or something, ha. It’s a public school, so you get in based on your grades and your audition, but you don’t have to pay your way into a school that will focus on something that you’re interested in already at 16 years old. When I applied to this high school and I got in, that’s when I really started dreaming. Then I met other musicians that went through the same thing, and explored different kinds of music, and then eventually you find your thing. You get to do it pretty much all day and all night from age 16. That played a huge part in me getting better at my craft, getting better at singing and better at writing, and understanding that there’s a way to make a living with what you love.
When it comes to your own writing, do you have a specific process that you follow? Do you start with a lyric or a melody, or do you just have some kind of conceptual idea and let it take you as you go?
It can vary quite a lot, but the main thing is that I need to have some kind of idea or intention. When I write lyrics, it’s kind of like a journal, so where it really clicks for me is when I find the feeling I want to express and write about. It can be a track that one of the producers plays me, and then I’m like, “Oh! This reminds me of this feeling,” or “this is something I need to get off my chest today.”
But I have a hard time writing the song with all of the melody and no intention of words, because I feel like I have no idea where it’s going. Melody and lyrics sort of need to happen simultaneously for me. When I write on my own, I produce a basic track that highlights the tone that I want. That’s usually when I have something I want to write about; I’ll make something in that kind of emotional state, and then write the song that way where everything is tied into it.
“[Some people are not comfortable with the idea that] you’re not supposed to be a woman who wants sex”
Speaking of producers, even though the style and sound of your music has evolved somewhat with each record, you’ve worked with The Struts on pretty much every project. How do you work together in the studio, and find such a cohesive vision through that change?
It’s because we know each other so well that we dare to challenge each other. There’s no politeness left. There’s no, “Oh, you know what, that’s a great idea, let’s try it!” even if you don’t think so. We can be really brutally honest with each other, and it’s something like, daring to suck in front of each other. We can try a bunch of ideas, and kind of go on a journey together and be like, “Is this actually good?” And then we’re like, “Mm, no, let’s try something else.” Because we work so much together and prioritise each other, there’s no version of, “Oh, this is the only day we have, we need to really really finish this song,” which can happen the few times I do sessions with other writers and producers.
To play a role, and do six sessions in a week with all of the different people… when that’s more of the mode, then they just want to finish the song. When I work Jakob and Ludwig, or anyone from the Wolf Cousins, the song needs to be the best it can be, so we’re gonna give it the time it needs. We always block out two or three weeks together, so that we can just be in a bubble and try all of these different ideas.
The titles of both of your last two records (‘Lady Wood’ and ‘Blue Lips’) definitely left little room for misinterpretation. ‘Sunshine Kitty’ is thematically similar, but a little bit more tongue-in-cheek. What inspired that title? Was making it more sly intentional?
Yeah, because as soon as people think they have you figured out, it’s fun to do something else. It’s a combination of me wanting it to be a play on pussy power, because all of my titles have that kind of essence to them — more or less blunt, obviously. But I think it’s also based a lot around wanting to create a character around it, for the lynx, because it’s been something I’ve talked about a lot; “Lo” means lynx, and it’s been my nickname since I was a kid. It’s my spirit animal, so I wanted to have a name that could be a character as well.
Honestly, the moment when I was like, “Alright, this is the title,” was when I saw this Girls episode, where Lena Dunham’s character talks about this author she admires, and how this author would lay out and tan her vagina, so she’d soak up the power of the sun into her pussy. I was pretty stoned, watching this, so I was like, “Oh, the source of all life in the sky, giving power to the other source of all life!” I just thought it was a beautiful thing. And then she’s like, “Oh, you know that glow on her face? That’s not moisturiser, that’s sun in her pussy.” And it just made me really happy, and I thought, “This is amazing, it has to be ‘Sunshine Kitty’.” Ha! So, there’s a few dimensions.
“This is a creative goal I have, and I’m gonna complete it, and everybody shut up.”
A main focus of your music is treating female sexuality as something to be celebrated instead of shamed, and it’s very clear that your immediate audience finds it empowering. Does the general public have a different reaction to it?
It’s funny, because now it’s just the trend to be gay positive, so I feel like people who may have something against it are like, “Well, this is what I’m supposed to think now, so I’ll think it.” But that’s also a step forward, if they’re realising that it’s not cool. I don’t think it’s the sexuality thing, as much as it is just being a woman who is sexual. That can really frustrate some people that aren’t comfortable with that, because it’s that idea that you’re not supposed to be a woman who wants sex, and instead want to please a man; if you have sex for him, then that’s great.
I’m not saying that everyone has to agree with me or think this way — it frustrates me more when they think that I don’t have a right to behave a certain way. When it’s like, “She shouldn’t be allowed to speak like this,” or ,“She shouldn’t be allowed to flash her tits at her own shows” — that kind of stuff. But I feel that there is a lot more support than there was when I started. Of course, a lot of people still find it very offensive, which is something that I’m used to now, but when I started, I was like, “Really? This is upsetting people? Why?” Obviously, I’m surrounding myself with people that are like-minded, but there’s definitely, “I don’t agree with what you’re doing, but I agree that you should be allowed to do it,” versus, “You’re a whore who needs Jesus.”
This album has some more contemplative and introspective tracks than on some of your past projects, but it also has some very club-ready tunes. It seems generally a lit bit more sonically diverse than some of your other projects: was this shift intentional, or did it come naturally?
With this album, I had a very clean slate. With ‘Lady Wood’ and ‘Blue Lips’, I had this really big project where I wanted to release a double album and make short films for everything, and I was going through some shit. So I was in this tunnel vision of, “I’m gonna make all this happen. Despite various feelings on the business side of things, I was like, “This is a creative goal I have, and I’m gonna complete it, and everybody shut up.” Luckily, I do have the best team, who were all working their asses off to make everything happen. So once I was done with that, and finished the short film for ‘Blue Lips’ and released it, I was kind of like, “Oh my God. I need a break from myself, I need to not think about myself.”
I was writing for other artists, which was just inspiring, and once I started writing for me again, I was in a better, calmer place, and I just had a more playful attitude around a lot of it. The freedom to play in different genres and different influences was something that I was excited about doing, and I felt like I didn’t have any rules, which was a really fun approach. That’s also a perk with working with a lot of the same people, because you all grow together. So when you’re in a place of, “We don’t want to do this again — let’s do something different this time,” you challenge each other to push the envelope a little bit.
This record has a lot of collaborations on it compared to some of your past projects. How did you pick who you wanted to work with?
I had the songs I wanted on the record, so it was kind of like, “Okay, who would be perfect for this?”, then me reaching out and hoping for a good answer. The only one that I had in the back of my head that I really was playing the long game was Kylie Minogue, because she tweeted me around my album in 2016 for ‘Lady Wood’, when I posted a picture of me holding my lyric book and she was like, “Oh, she’s a pen and paper girl!” From that day, I was like, “I need to do a song with her.”
The Australian audience is very happy with this.
Yeah, I was like, “She knows who I am, this has to happen!” So it only took three years, ha! Gotta win her over. But usually, it’s just kind of when I find something where I can hear the person’s voice on it that I try to reach out and see if they’re down.
A reasonable number of people dismiss pop music as shallow or disingenuous, but your music is very raw and brazen, and also quite vulnerable. Do you find opening yourself up like that, especially with such a large audience, difficult? Or is it freeing to get it out there?
It’s definitely freeing. I use my music like an outlet, like my journals. That’s where I vent and get all my feelings out. If I had to edit that, I wouldn’t be able to do it. It has to be whatever is on my mind.
Bask in ‘Sunshine Kitty’ goodness here: