I never felt like I was forced to do anything.
I took a lot time to do the first album, and I was really happy about that album. I co-wrote the songs and it was a learning process. When I was working on that album I realized, for the first time, that I could write my own songs.
It's good to have an idea about what you want to do with your life before just doing things. If you have goals and dreams, it doesn't really matter if you achieve them, but if you have them it's much easier to not get lost. It's easier to make decisions.
Kill Bill is one of my favorite movies. It has this gritty feeling to it, and it's got a little bit of everything - a little bit of western, a little bit of samurai, and a lot of this very cinematic violence that I personally think is very entertaining.
I've always been singing and making noise. I used to do that all the time when I was a kid. My mom would get very frustrated with me because I would just sit around and make noises.
I never learned to play properly either, I was a little bit too lazy for that, but as long I could express myself in a way that had sound, I was happy.
I wanted to take my writing to another level. I wanted to write stuff that was personal for real. It's one thing to write a lyric that sounds nice in that line - that's not very tricky - but it's a different thing to write something that sounds nice and actually comes from someplace real.
I think it's important to find somebody who you trust, who has the same vision. If I were to do that myself, and not trust anybody to do it for me or with me, I would have to spend as much time as I have learning to make music on making music videos.
I think it's very easy to get self-conscious and stuck when you're doing everything on your own.
I've been collaborating a lot, because I like working that way. It's fun and keeps you moving forward.
I'm a child of the downloading age. I remember when I was 10, a friend who went to the same school as me came to our [school's] costume party with a really weird hairdo. She had all these little knots in her hair. I asked her who she was and she said she was Björk. I thought this Björk must be a really cool person, so I got on the internet when I got home and found as much as I could on Björk and I fell in love.
You get a lot of fame, but haven't created anything musically.
I really do know what I want with my life. I think that keeps me from making bad decisions and spending time doing stuff I don't enjoy.
I needed to get to know myself and really, really explore music without any pressure to sell it. I wanted to try and not restrain myself at all, so I've been trying to move quite freely between different sounds and genres.
I didn't take a break from making music, but I took some time away from the "need to sell it" thing, and moved to my hometown, Umeå. I took my time there, exploring music on my own, on a very personal level.
I hadn't known anything else, other than being an artist, and I needed to be a person for a while, really get to know myself without that whole thing [of selling music] surrounding me.
I took some time away from the music industry. I've been doing this since I was 16 and needed some time to get to know myself as a grown-up.
The challenge is to translate the song into something that works on the stage. It's pop music, but I try to keep it as loose as possible.
I think that social media is a really good way to stay in touch with the people who are following you, and I think it's nice to have that very direct relationship with them - you don't necessarily need a middleman or woman. A lot of people, when I meet them, I recognize them by their profile pictures.
I have quite a broad taste in music.
