Watch the New Robyn Video Hang With Me Plus a Q&A with Our Favorite Fembot

The hair, the moves, the hi-tech lyrics, the attitude. Robyn burst back into the states this year with an edgy, electronic sound after laying low in Sweden since her dance hits “Show Me Love” and “Do You Know What It Takes” topped the charts in the nineties. Thrilled by the way the internet has freed her from major record label pressures and given her a platform to distribute exactly the kind of music she wants to make, exactly the way she wants to release it, Robyn is breaking all sorts of industry standards and gaining fans with each one she leaves in her wake. When we heard about her and Kelis’ tour that they announced, and subsequently sold-out via tweet, we knew we had to have a chat with her. Here’s what she had to say, as well as a preview of her brand new video for the first single off her upcoming Body Talk Pt. 2.

You’re releasing 3 albums this year!!! It’s amazing, but why three in one year? Does it have to do with the different ways we listen to music now?
Robyn: I wanted to find a way of working that is more adapted to my creative process. It’s an experiment in trying to keep my writing going while I’m touring. Also, I think most people my age and younger have a whole new way of relating to and finding music. It felt so stupid to not take that seriously and keep holding on to the old ways just because that’s the way the industry still works. I see it as one album, just released in three parts.

Since you formed your own label, you’ve written a lot of songs with tech themes. What is it about technology that makes it interesting to make music about? “Fembot” is totally my get-up-and-go-song, by the way.
I think the technological evolution we’re experiencing right now is super-interesting because it’s starting to become more organic and integrated with our emotional lives in a way it hasn’t really been able to do before. It’s not really about the future for me, it’s more about now. Maybe we’re already in the future?

You’ve also been doing more and more rapping. What is the appeal of rap for you? Do you have specific hip hop influences that you go back to? What about other influences?
I grew up listening to Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Dogg and A Tribe called Quest and Wu Tang Clan. Hip hop was my punk music, what I listened to when I was rebelling against my parents. I love rhythm in a vocal and that is still something that inspires me about those artists. But from the beginning, I think hip hop mostly was dance music to me. Music I could move to.

You’ve said that sometimes you listen to commercial music and sometimes you listen to music that doesn’t reach many people, and that for these three albums, you’re interested in the point where those opposites meet. Can you talk about what strategies you used to make that happen on Body Talk Pt.1 and now the upcoming Body Talk Pt. 2?
I was brought up in a pop tradition around people like Max Martin and Dennis Pop, the idea of a great melody is still the most important thing to me when I make music. But I also grew up in a theater family whose influences were obscure and full of left field art ideas, and that mix is still in me. To me the Body Talk albums are a continuation of the last album. But like on steroids…

Despite collaborating with a variety of producers, you have a consistent style that shines through the diversity of your tracks. How do you maintain that balance?
I don’t know. It’s not about protecting my sound though, it’s about collaborating with good people and what I bring to it. I guess it’s my style, and it shows.

How do you communicate with the producers you work with about the kind of song you want or are envisioning? What role does technology play in that creation process?
Youtube, jokes, old music, nerding out on kick drums, demos I did, and pop culture in general. Technology as an extension of my emotions is crucial to that communication happening!

What was it like working with Diplo on “Dancehall Queen?”
Fun, we connected on Dr Alban and Midi Maxi & Efti.

Who are your favorite people to work with? Why?
Klas Åhlund is the person I work with the most because we like to work together and we have fun. But of all the people I worked with this time, I worked with them because they’re fun and we trigger each other into doing new kinds of stuff.

You’ve talked about being inspired by The Knife. What about their music and attitude appeals to you?
That it’s brave and emotional.

Do you have any great creation stories?
Röyksopp and I worked on three other ideas when I was over in Bergen to make music for Body Talk Pt. 1. The last day we decided to do something with this demo of theirs that I had listened to and loved for a long time. It all just kind of came together in a night. I don’t think it sounds like anything they or I have ever done before.

You bought your own record back from Jive after it was bought by BMG, who you left for Jive because they weren’t giving you enough artistic control. Then the album you released on your own received critical and commercial success. What did you learn about being an artist from that whole ordeal?
That you have to have fun while doing it, otherwise there is no point at all.

And, for your viewing pleasure, here’s a video of Robyn doing just that: