Icona Pop

This Duo from Sweden Is the Hottest Ticket We’ve Seen in 2013

You may not recognize Icona Pop by face or name (give it time), but you’ve likely heard their irresistibly dance-y anthem, “I Love It.” Propelled by a placement in this season of Girls, the song spread like wildfire, and is supported by an EP that’s as fun and catchy as their single.

We sat down with these two ladies to talk about their wild ride, their sound and what it feels like to come from a sofa in Stockholm to playing sold out shows around the world. Snap: With “I love It,” being such a huge success, people think you’re an over night sensation, but that’s very much not the case. Tell us a bit about how you got started, and how it feels to come so far.

Aino: We’ve been musicians for a long time, and before Icona Pop we had different projects. We met about 4 years ago, and I was heartbroken. We met at Caroline’s house party. Caroline: We always say we were born in the neon light. But yeah, we had a lot of different projects, but I couldn’t put my finger on what didn’t feel 100% right. And if it doesn’t feel 1000% right, you can’t sacrifice everything you need to sacrifice. You need to drop everything, to dare, to go, to throw yourself out there. When we met, we thought, “Shit, this is exactly how it’s supposed to feel like.” The day after we met, we wrote our first song and we were producing.

Snap: And what did it sound like back then? Aino: Death Pop—it was kinda Tarantino, sexual frustration. It was a cool start because I’ve never been so sure. And still today, after 4 years, you think it will fade away...we’ve never been so sure. After 4 years, When we’re together we feel sorta invincible. Which is cool, because that’s what you need to feel. There are times when no one else believes in what you’re doing, and you need to be sure. And that was how we felt about a year ago. Caroline: Yes, this time a year ago, we didn’t have much. We had our label and management in Sweden, and they were like our family, but we didn’t have anything except that.

Aino: So we sorta started from the beginning,”what do we want to do? What did we want in the beginning? Who are Icona Pop?” And then, I don’t know what happened, but all of this energy just came together, and we were born again. And then everything started to happen. Two months later, we started talking to Atlantic and we signed [with them].

Caroline: I think nothing could stop us because when you go through a rough time, that’s when you put everything [in]. It’s a challenge to keep going. When everything is going straight up, everything is fun and exciting. But it’s actually when you’re down there, we were looking at each other and we said, “This is what we do. We can’t live without this. I don’t know what else to do—We can’t do anything else. And that’s when we said “Let’s go back to where we started,” and now we’re sitting here.

Snap: And now you’re playing to sold out shows, and you have a song on one of the most hyped shows in the world.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s so sick. Every day, even though we have two shows tomorrow in different states, different cities every day, we’re traveling like crazy. We’re still like, “Ok, I’m pinching myself in the arm. Wow, are we really doing right now?” All the great people we meet, all the great fans...it’s just... Aino: We’re living our dream.

Caroline: We’re two best friends doing what we love. Snap: Let’s talk about what you’re working on next. How’s the album coming?

Aino: We always say “We’re in labor, our baby is coming out.” Four years ago it started, but soon it’s coming out. It’s been in the oven a long time.

Snap: And now you’re just baking it to perfection! Aino: Exactly. I think you’re going to clearly hear that we moved to London and got very much influenced by dance music. And we’ve been going through a lot of different periods. We’re doing pop, but pop with different influences.

Caroline: With edge. Snap: Let’s talk about some of those influences— London, the city, the sounds, the culture. Aino: The rough culture, the coldness. I mean, everyone is very nice there, I don’t mean the people. But, it’s just the climate... everything makes sense when you’re there. And then we’d go to these DJ clubs and being the only girl DJs, you kinda have to be rough, like, “Gimme my beer and gimme my money!” Caroline: We had to toughen up a lot when we got there. In the beginning we’d be like, “Hello? Who’s in charge in here?” Snap: And now you’re in charge.

Aino: Yeah, it was an important time, and I think we grew a lot as people.

Caroline: But yeah, the album, it’s not gonna be 15 exactly the same tracks. It’s gonna be kinda spread, because that’s how our journey’s been. I mean, when we’re in the studio, we’re so free. We can do a hip hop song tomorrow, we can do a rock song. For us, it’s just about what we’re feeling right now. And when we’re up on stage, we want people to feel what we felt when we created the song. So, I mean, it’s gonna be a lot of sharing our feelings, very honest. But still Icona Pop, the synthesizers, the galloping drums, it’s all gonna be there.

Snap: I can see that. It’s a journal of the last 4 years. But now, looking back over the last year, what’s been most exciting?

Aino: One of our biggest moments was when we had our first headlining gig. People were singing our songs, they were screaming our name, “Icona!”

Caroline: That was such a big moment for us. [And] for us to just come to the states. I mean, last week we played Madison Square Garden. For us to play there, it’s an epic venue, a dream as a kid. When we were soundchecking it was like “1, 2, fuck are we really doing this?”

Aino: I don’t think we can even understand what we’re going through. We can’t think too much about it. We just want to be in the moment, to enjoy it. —ms