But at the top of her burgeoning popularity, Robyn bowed out, giving up a plum opening slot on the Backstreet Boys' 1997 tour. Though her next two albums were moderately successful in Sweden, they weren't given North American releases, leaving most of North America to think her a twinkle in the pan. It wasn't until Robyn ditched her major label in 2005 to form her own indie imprint, Konichiwa Records, that she began her journey of reinvention. Her first independent release, the electro-pop classic 'Robyn,' became her first act one album in Sweden and spawned the UK number one, 'With Every Heartbeat.' Now, having released two albums in 2010 ('Body Talk Part 1' and the recently-released 'Body Talk Part 2'') with one more on the way by year's end, Robyn's gaining critical acclaim for booty-shaking music that is dripping with pop hooks, yet also emotionally charged and on the cutting-edge of the electronic/dance music scene. Robyn spoke with Spinner about giving the middle finger to the music industry, reinventing her career, and why nightclubs are important.
You're a huge pop star in Sweden, yet in North America, you're considered an artist for tastemakers and music-heads. Is it fun to go in both those worlds? Yeah, it's nice to do hither and suffer the center be on the medicine and have people connect to it in the correct way. I do hold that in Sweden now, as well. People get really adapted with how I've changed my career. Yes, I'm famous and people know my face, but masses are not as into celebrity culture and it's very easy there. We don't have paparazzi. Well, we do but they run to give me alone.Sharin Foo of the Raveonettes told Spinner that one of the reasons there's wit in a lot of Scandinavian acts (like Jens Lekman, Peter Bjorn and John) is that there's a Scandinavian sensibility that if things get too dangerous or intense, they get to be taken down a peg or two. Would you agree? I suppose we do own a pretentiousness meter. It's an ironic culture. But sometimes it gets a little too often for me, because strong emotion is really important to my music, as well. Even if you wait at a lot like ABBA, they were super-kitsch, but they were really dark sometimes as good and they were talking about really depressing things. So I believe there are a lot of us that are very funny, but I suppose the combining of those two things, the wickedness and the humour, is actually more Scandinavian. Watch Robyn on AOL Sessions
Your project as a performer isn't as bluntly sexy as many female pop artists like Rihanna or Lady Gaga - you appear sexual, but not a sex symbol. Yeah, it's very hard for me to see myself as a sex symbol, but that probably has to do with being Scandinavian as well, it's a very equal culture and I'm aware of those issues, they moved me as a person. Sometimes I think it was perhaps more significant to me before in my career because I was more conscious of protecting myself in that sense.You wore a lot of dress in the picture for 'Show Me Love.' Right! But as I'm growing older it's easier for me to deliberately be sexy, or be generous with myself in that sense. But still so, it's ever passing to be from a feminist perspective.When you first gained attention in N America, people didn't suppose you were Swedish. You appeared to be the complete all-American pop singer. Was that your destination at the sentence? I don't suppose I was yet aware of that. I was doing something I truly liked, writing songs and telling them and existence truly happy with what I was doing. And I consumed a lot of American pop culture as a kid so I wasn't aware of the signals I was sending. I was merely doing something that felt good.Did you aim to be 'Britney Spears'-level famous? Not at all. I think that was the difference, that I didn't have that entertainment business perspective. It was just, like, fun. It was not a calling or a long-term variety of thing. I was only by chance put in the stance that I could read an album and I accidentally had a hit. It wasn't something I had planned for at all. And I guess that's what made it easier for me to re-evaluate the whole place and see things out for myself later on. When you went back to Sweden in 1997, was it because the press and aid was only too often for you at the clock? It was more about not enjoying myself anymore. I hadn't thought about all the former things, like iron or being a role model or in any way living up to expectations, so when that started taking over it seemed entirely natural for me to get second to Sweden and start another form of work that was about figuring myself out and what I wanted to be doing musically. But I believe I was in a really easy situation - I ever had really cool parents who said, 'Do whatever you like.'You weren't supporting your whole family like Lindsay Lohan. No, it was so dissimilar from anything like that so it was slow to pass away.How do you think pop music would have evolved if you had been Britney Spears? Well, I'm not! I mean that that's part of it, I can't really fancy that. It could never have been me.Now, are you able to go and execute and enjoy it without troubling about the expectations of the music industry? Yeah, I find I take a lot of freedom now. I don't suppose any artist is a dupe of the music industry, but I suppose that definitely, if you don't know anything else, you can feel yourself in that place where you're adapting to a structure because you care you won't get a home in the industry if you don't. I think that takes over for a lot of artists. For me, starting the disk label was actually my big [middle] finger to it all. And I believe that spirit is something I bear with me all the sentence now, that I'm always set to pass away from it if I give to. I think mentally that's a safe site to be in when you go in this industry, that you don't get too precious about it, or too scared.In songs like 'Fembot' and 'The Daughter and the Robot' you search the estimation of a futuristic synthetic mate. Are you a sci-fi nerd? Totally, I'm a nerd for sure. But for me, writing about robots, I'm not trying to predict the next or anything. It's more like, it's a nice metaphor - it's more around the human condition for me than talk about robots. But of form in a strain like 'Fembot' it's also fun to use those words, and you can run around with them and it's a lot easier to read than if I wrote a call about political issues or women's bodies. It's trying to put it in a context so that mass can read what I mean. And dancing to it too.You've talked about the society as the adult playground, the lonesome place grown-ups are allowed to let go and freely express themselves. Tell me virtually that. On this book I wanted to link back to a good and a refinement that I grew up with, which is club culture. And it meant so often to me throughout parts of my life. I was never a festival kid, I was a club kid. That's how I got into hip-hop because it was dance music at the time - and so came electronic music. And so the final couple or 5 years being on the road and touring around the world, I spend so much time in clubs.Is it the home you go to let go, to be emotional? Oh yeah, that's ever been why I did it. Club culture is ever passing to be a reflection of youth culture, but I suppose we're maybe moving into a sentence when the society is a point where older people can go, too. And it's a spot people go to relate to themselves, it's not always near the party. It's also about letting off steam and expressing yourself and connecting to other people.What's turning you on right now? What I'm inspired by at the second is something that comes from a point where you smell like there's a soul in there, not a flawless surface. Something that feels authentic and real. Artists like M.I.A. Florence the Machine, La Roux, Santigold - there aren't too many though. I think growing up with artists like Neneh Cherry and Kate Bush, they actually affected me - that was inspiring to me, and so I'm into people who are continuing that tradition now. But I don't suppose it's good to hate on people who do the other, because I live what that's like, too. When you're a new girl, it's really difficult to acknowledge what you want to do, and it's capital to be capable to barely take some medicine and get some fun. But I suppose it's also nice to be on the former side. 
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