Robyn Interview Exclusive with NewNowNext! Konichiwa B*tches!
When it comes to pop music, the Swedes just do it better; and super-tiny, sweet-and-feisty Robyn sits comfortably as Scandi royalty. But with a new U.K. album - and an upcoming U.S. release - Robyn's ready to expand her queen-dom. (Ten years ago, on a major label's terms, she probably could have ruled it all: remember "Show Me Love?")
Robyn performed live in the U.S. for the first time ever last night in New York's Highline Ballroom for a very loving - and very gay - crowd, and I can say she was officially amazing. I also spoke with Robyn at the LOGO studios yesterday: We chatted about dueting with Snoop, filming her new music video, singing about "jacking off" a girl and her cage-fighting boyfriend!
You recently filmed a music video for “Who’s That Girl,” but you wrote the song a while ago, right?
Yeah, I wrote it years ago, and the album was made in 2005. I’ve been trying to record a video for it for years, but it’s never been released as a single that needed a video. Now we decided to release it as a single - I think it’s the fifth single now in the U.K. It’s probably going to be a video here later, but for now it’s a video for the U.K.
Can you tell me about the concept of the video?
I’m dressed up as these different women. That’s the idea of the video: to show, you know, “Who’s that girl? What is a woman? What is a normal woman?” It’s a fun video ‘cause I’m dressed up as a hooker, as a racing-car woman … I’m dressed up as a Greta Garbo character, a junkie - all these different ones. It’s going to be good, I think!
Did you enjoy playing any character in particular? Did any feel totally natural?
I think you have all kinds of different characteristics; I think all people do. And there’s always something in you that you can pull out and use in a character. Of course, the hooker maybe was not ... that close, but it was definitely a raunchy attitude I could relate to.
But we didn’t really make the characters that stereotyped – we dressed them up stereotyped – but it’s also about showing that there’s a person behind those women.
And the song's lyrics, can you tell me about the lines, “I’m only sexy when I say it’s OK?”
The lyrics and the song are about where I was when I wrote the song; and it was right at the end, when I left my major company and decided to start my own record company. The song is about what I experienced being an artist signed to a major label, but it’s also about me being just a woman. You experience that as a woman or as a gay man – whatever – in society, all the time. You are put in a box because people perceive you as being something just because of your sexuality or … your sex.
So it’s about my professional life, but it’s also about my personal life. And I wanted to write the lyrics so I’m not telling you as a listener what you’re supposed to feel. Whatever you feel, what you put into that song, is good for me. And that line, “I’m only sexy when I say it’s OK,” it’s about owning your sexuality and owning yourself – about being able to be in charge when you’re sexy - and not being an object, but being a real person.
Oh, OK - I actually thought of it differently! Like - with a lot of overly-sexy women in music now, I thought you were saying, “The only way I ever feel like them is when I try to please everybody.”
I think that’s an aspect of being a pop artist. I think nowadays, for a lot of young women getting into music, there’s this big industry that you are kind of forced to– or at least, there’s a pressure to adapt to their way of doing things. Of course, I’ve been in that situation as well, but I think the song was about leaving that and about not relating to myself as a pop artist or as an object or - you know - as a celebrity ... just relating to myself as a normal girl and a person without any boundaries or whatever.
Robyn performing last night in NYC
Can we talk about “Jack U Off” now? That song’s so funny! Why did you choose to cover that song?
I was doing an acoustic version of “Be Mine” with Bjorn of Peter, Bjorn & John, and we recorded that to be the B-side of the Swedish “Be Mine” single. And so when we did that, I also wanted to do a cover of some sort, and I didn’t know which song we were going to do. But I brought a couple of Prince albums, because I was thinking, ‘We’ll figure it out when I’m there. Bjorn is a really good guy.’
So we went through this album, and then we heard “Jack U Off,” and it’s such a corny song - ding ding-da-ding!- when he’s doing his Rockabilly thing, I think he’s so funny. That came on and we just thought, ‘This would be great,’ to do, like, a really f*cked-up piano and not be too serious about it. And also the lyrics take a whole different shape when I sing them, and I like that contrast. It just kind of happened, you know, an impulse thing.
Did you think it would be cool to play with the gay implications? You singing this to a girl?
Yeah! You know there’s a rule in the industry, if you cover a song, you can’t change the lyrics - ‘cause then you’re not allowed to cover it. You have to do it exactly the way it is.
You can’t even change ‘her’ to ‘him?’
You probably can - but I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s just do it like that, because it’s fun and then it takes on this other form.’ And also, something about, ‘jack you off;’ if I were to say that to a guy, it would be so … nasty! You know what I mean? And saying it to a girl, it just felt like, again, it felt more independent doing it that way.
But I’m kind of against ... There’s a lot of heterosexual women who try to come off as bisexual just because it’s cool. That’s not really what I want to do, because I think that’s just silly.
Yeah – making out with a girl, making people think you might be bi…
Exactly! And I have lesbian friends who’ve been totally upset, ‘No, she wasn’t gay! She was just making out with me for a night!’ It’s kind of mean, I think!
But anyway, it’s also about that song taking a different shape: ‘Yeah! F*ck you! This is not for you anymore.’ And I think it’s very true to what Prince does with that song; ‘cause even though he was so sexual all the time, he was never condescending to women.
Would you say you are 100 percent straight? Or do you fall somewhere else on the spectrum?
I would say that I’m straight, but I would also say that ... I mean, I look at people as people. I’ve never fallen in love with a woman, but I know people that have who are straight.
And they’ve had actual relationships?
Oh, definitely! Like one of my best friends, she just started dating a girl ...
And she’s straight?
Yeah, yeah. She still does -laughs- ‘I’m straight, but I have a girlfriend.’ But I mean, she’s totally open with it. To me, Sweden is so modern in that sense. Also I grew up in a family where, you know, it wasn’t a big thing at all, what kind of life people chose to live. One of my best friends, her father was with men before he met her mother, and now he’s with a man again, and she’s bisexual as well. I mean, I grew up in that whole thing!
So before we run out of time, I have to ask you about your new song with Snoop ["Sexual Eruption"]! How did that come about?
It was crazy how it happened! I work with Interscope records, and our guy Martin Kierszenbaum knows their management; and he actually asked me, ‘Do you want to work with rappers here?’ because he knows I love hip-hop music. And I said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t want to work with Akon or any of these silly, you know, pop-gangsters. I want to work with, like, Snoop or Method Man or something!’ And he said, ‘You know what? I know Snoop’s management, and he’s just releasing a new single. You wanna sing on it?’
And we just did it, and two days later, my little sister called me, ‘Your new Snoop song is on the radio! Can I get it?’ And I couldn’t believe how fast it spread! Of course it’s about him being such a big artist, but it’s also the Internet and how people are so fast on stuff nowadays.
So did you meet him?
No, I did it in Sweden. But I did receive an email where he said that he liked it and the way he said it was, ‘It’s retarded’ - which I loved! You know, Snoop is one of my heroes; I’ve listened to his music since I was 10-years-old. It was great to pimp Snoop back!
Yeah! You’re going to ‘sex up’ Snoop!
Yeah! Come here, little pup! It was great! I was laughing my head off when I did that.
OK, so I also saw you on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
Oh! I was so nervous when I did that!
I thought they were so rude to you!
They were very rude. But that’s the whole thing of the show; they just tear people apart. Luckily I was not the one really being attacked; Christoper Biggins, the other guy, was, but that’s the whole thing. If you say yes, you just have to accept the fact that they’re going to make fun of you; and the only thing you can do is laugh about it and say something nasty back. But what did you think was bad?
I just remember them asking you all these odd questions – and you finally saying, ‘Don’t pick on me; my boyfriend is a cage-fighter!’
Just typical British humor. That’s the name of the game.
So you do have a boyfriend? Is he really a cage-fighter?
Yeah, he is. He was one of the best fighters in Sweden. When he quit, he had a match in Japan, so he was really good. So he could actually beat them up!
And last thing, I read you did backup vocals for Britney Spears’ “Piece of Me.” Did any other work you’ve done with Britney ever make it?
No, just that one song. Like most songwriters, there are songs that I’ve written that have been up for albums, and she’s recorded them, but they never made it onto an album. And this song, Klas Ahlund - who I wrote most of [my] album with, who also produced most of the album - he wrote the song for her, like, a year ago and asked me to demo it. He wanted someone who could do that kind of … the rhythm, to have it sound good for when you sell a song.
And I just did it as a favor to him, and they kept it. But I’ve never met her! –laughs-
Colin is the cutest thing ever. Great interview!
Posted by: B | February 07, 2008 at 02:34 AM