"Konichiwa, bitches."
You might think it, but that is not how Robyn answers the phone.
Instead I get a shy hello on the other side of the crackly
line.
After a relaxed morning filled with a gym visit and late
breakfast, the Swedish pop star is working from her room in the
Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando, Florida, where she is staying before
her gig supporting Katy Perry later that evening.
The 32-year-old two-time Grammy Award nominee, lesbian style icon
and world touring record label extraordinaire has a lot on her
plate.
"So much time is spent doing things I dislike and I'd get so much
more done if I didn't have to travel so much," she says.
"Sometimes I wish I could just teleport myself to places, there
are so many logistics surrounding it all," she says. "But when I'm
finally there and I get to play to my crowd… then I know it's worth
it."
Robyn, a.k.a. Robin Carlsson, has been a pop star since she aged
twelve recorded the jingle for a Swedish kids programme. She claims
all of her work represents who she is to this day but her current
favourite song is Fembot from Body Talk, one of three albums
released last year.
Capturing our most inner feelings through heart-felt tracks like
Be Mine! as well as frequently spitting rhymes on tracks with Snoop
Dogg, Robyn has reached enormous fame worldwide without major
advertisement campaigns. Yet she still finds it hard to see why
others love her music.
"It's a little hard to understand but it's fantastic to hear that
people like my songs… I'm the one who's written [them] but I've not
gotten the connection to [them] that someone else has, everyone has
their own connection to… what I write."
Many are the artists who have moaned about the pains of
downloading but Robyn is not one of them.
"I'm not at all angry with people downloading my music… in one way
it's a shame but I'm not going to walk around sulking about it. I
want people to listen to my music and that is nothing I can affect.
It's the way it is."
Despite heading her own label, sporting bold fashion statements
and writing lyrics that scream self-assurance, Robyn is everything
but over-confident in private.
"I'm definitely not always strong. I don't think that's what I'm
trying to project… I'm not strong in the sense that I can do
anything but in the sense that this is something, you know, that
this is a feeling at all," she says.
Who does someone, who is such an inspiration herself, look up
to?
She whispers something that gets lost in the beeping and buzzing
of the line. When I ask her to repeat her answer, her voice has a
sharp tone to it.
"No human is perfect. To say that you look up to someone is a very
powerful thing to say, it's almost negative."
"But if you mean a person I'm inspired by," she continues, now in
a more relaxed manner, "I like my mum and a many of my friends,
they are nice people."
Did you miss Robyn at Glastonbury last week? Then Lovebox is your
only chance to catch her in the UK this summer. She headlines the
festival's Sunday line-up on the 17th of July together with Scissor
Sisters, Blondie and 2ManyDJs.
"I've got a massive soft spot for England, especially since I've
always been so well received," she says and adds that she wishes
she could play here more often.
For more of this interview, where Robyn also talks about the
alleged fight with Katy Perry and why she loves her lesbian fans,
check out DIVA's August issue, out 7 July.
Visit
iTunes to purchase Robyn's albums or single tracks
PHOTO CREDIT: Robyn by Rankin
