![\"icona-pop-Issue-No30\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/icona-pop-Issue-No30.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nFrom radio to TV ads to movies, Icona Pop\u2019s \u201cI Love It\u201d has infiltrated every corner of pop culture. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect over 40 million views on YouTube,\u201d says Aino Jawo. She and Caroline Hjelt formed the duo in 2009 and recently released their debut album, This Is…Icona Pop<\/i>. \u201cWe went out clubbing and heard our song in every one,\u201d says Jawo. \u201cWe were like, \u2018Oh, my God, this is one of those songs that people are going to start to hate because they play it so much!\u2019\u201d The ubiquitous single kicks off an album packed with raucous\u00a0synths and club hits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Were you in bands before Icona Pop?<\/b><\/p>\n
Caroline and I have been musicians for a long time. Caroline had come back from\u00a0New York where she was writing with people, trying to find what she wanted to do. And I had a rock-pop-electro band together with six guys. But I started to go more\u00a0toward electro.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Did you release an album in Sweden?<\/b><\/p>\n
We felt like Swedish fans were craving it, so we decided on a small release there so they could see what we were up to. But we\u2019re just going to keep on releasing. We just released \u201cMy Party,\u201d but have another in the future with Zebra Katz, an amazing rapper from New York. We have developed a lot since we released that album. Though it\u2019s only been a year, a lot has happened in that year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When did you begin the new album?<\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been basically writing for five years, and have something like 200 songs. We\u2019ve picked our favorites from all the writing sessions we\u2019ve had. Most of the songs on This Is…<\/i> are actually from this year, because we did so many things, and we got into a very emotional spot where we wrote a lot. Every song on the album was made in a different place, which makes it very interesting. For example, some vocals were recorded in Australia, and some, like the latest single, \u201cAll Night,\u201d were recorded in New Orleans. We actually recorded a choir we invited onstage. And we were like, \u201cCan you please sing along to our new song?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Do you have a writing process?<\/b><\/p>\n
We have a rule, and that\u2019s not to have rules when we head into the studio. We love writing in different ways. Sometimes Caroline might write the song, and I\u2019ll come in and sing something\u2014or I\u2019ll write the song, and maybe we start with a beat. It\u2019s always different. We love to collaborate with people, because that also offers a different way of working when there\u2019s another person, another energy in the room. And sometimes it doesn\u2019t work at all. Sometimes you might like a person, but when it comes to the music, you don\u2019t speak the same language.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How about songs you didn\u2019t write?<\/b><\/p>\n
You have to feel that it\u2019s 100 percent you. It\u2019s very important, because you\u2019ve got\u00a0to live with that song. Even though we didn\u2019t write \u201cI Love It,\u201d we made it our song. I could never have a song that I didn\u2019t feel\u00a0100 percent about.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Why cover Tupac\u2019s \u201cGirlfriend\u201d?<\/b><\/p>\n
We love that song, and we\u2019ve been singing it for quite a while. We went into the studio, and we were like, \u201cLet\u2019s try to do something with it.\u201d So we emailed Tupac\u2019s mom, and she answered us. She was like, \u201cI would love to.\u201d So in honor of Tupac, we\u2019re singing the song. And I think it\u2019s kind of explaining what Caroline and I are going through right now, because sometimes it can be pretty lonely, but we always have each other.<\/p>\n
\u2013Amanda Farah<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ICONA POP A monster hit launches a club-friendly debut album for the Swedish duo\u00a0\u00a0 From radio to TV ads to movies, Icona Pop\u2019s \u201cI Love It\u201d has infiltrated every corner of pop culture. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect over 40 million views on YouTube,\u201d says Aino Jawo. She and Caroline Hjelt formed the duo in 2009 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7309,7299,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11346,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344\/revisions\/11346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}