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The voice behind hit tracks like Major Lazer and Dj Snake’s Lean On and Justin Bieber’s Cold Water, Danish indie pop singer MØ has been riding radio waves around the world as effortlessly as she has climbed the charts. With 10 years of industry experience in her back pocket, she’s also worked with the likes of Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea and Lorde. A singer and songwriter, her latest single Final Song pays homage to her passion for music, and reached top 5 on the Australian charts. Having performed the song live on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, she’s marking her territory in the States, kicking off her worldwide tour there before heading to Europe and then to Australia for the annual Falls festival and her own headline show in the new year. Think Grimes or Tove Lo, MØ’s (pronounced Mü) husky yet sugary voice will be staying on the radio for a while with the impending release of her second album.
MØ: “It’s my fourth time in Australia in three years. I like it, it almost feels like home here. I’m doing Falls so I’ll be a back a fifth time, I’ve never been to Tasmania so I can’t wait to go down there and perform ay Marion Bay at New Years.”
GRAZIA: Tell us about Final Song…
“I did it with [Uzoechi] Emenike and a girl called Noonie Bao and we wrote it in four hours. I think we all felt super inspired and relaxed. For me, at that point, I really wanted to write a song about how we all have some kind of passion, at least many of us have a passion. It’s like a companion that you have within you, that spark you want to keep on. The song could also be about falling in love or a friend but for me personally it was about singing to this companion side of me; that passion. That passion is obviously music and it was about reconnecting wit that glow and being like, ‘come on don’t leave me, I feel lost without you’.”
That’s really interesting because when you really listen to the lyrics, you instantly think of a relationship.
“Yes of course! But I mean, it’s a relationship within itself.”
Did the Justin Bieber collaboration on Cold Water come through your relationship with Diplo?
“Yes, exactly. I’ve worked with Major Lazer and Diplo and all those guys for so many years. It’s almost like family and friends for me now. So the Justin connection just came through them. Diplo wrote me an email being like, ‘Hey, our next single is going to be with Justin Bieber on it and we want you on it as well.’ I was just like, ‘Yeah! Sure I want that! Cool!’”
That was at a time he was really exploring such a new sound…
“That was such a good move for Justin Bieber. He re-launched himself in a really good way.”
Did you get studio time with him?
“Nope. I have met him but not in the studio. He recorded his part somewhere and I recorded my part up in Iceland actually. So far away.”
Does that feel strange not having the other person in the same studio?
“No, not for me because I do it all the time. I always record on my own with my own little travelling studio set up. I mean, I do record with people sometimes but most of the time, it’s a busy world. All the musicians and producers are travelling so no one is in the same place.”
So what’s your travelling mobile studio like?
“It’s very simple. I have a sound item, like a thing that connects the microphone to your hardware and your computer and stuff.
And you can record in any room?
“Yep, I can basically be anywhere. I just need a table and power.”
You’ve also worked with Iggy Azalea, what was that like?
“Good! Again this is one of the things where I was accidentally in New York and they were like, ‘Hey can you sing this chorus?’ and that was actually the first time ever I tried singing on a song that I hadn’t been involved in the creative song writing process. It was Charlie XCX who had done the top line and I was just going to sing it. And she wasn’t in the studio so I just went in there and sang the top line and two weeks after it was out. It was super fast. And then I met Iggy for Saturday Night Live. So that was again, a very different situation but she was super cool.”
We know your music but we don’t know a lot about you. What was your upbringing like in Denmark?
“I had a very good and normal upbringing. Both my parents were teachers at that time. My dad is a psychologist now. Back then they were both teachers and always in the holidays they would take me and my brother to outdoor activity vacations like going hiking or sailing the ocean. And I was always dreaming about becoming a musician.”
As your dad was a physiologist, your mum a teacher and your brother a now-doctor, were they supportive of your musical ambitions?
“Yes! They’ve never been against it and they were like, ‘yeah, she’ll figure out what she wants to do.’ My brother was like a nerd; a computer nerd and super, super clever and getting A’s all the time. And I was a bit more of the creative; the trouble maker. I was not like super…”
Naughty?
“Yeah, naughty! I was just very outgoing and craved attention and a creative artist kind of weirdo. I remember once I was like, ‘I don’t want to go to college, I just want to be an artist and a musician’ and my dad was like, ‘yes that’s great, but maybe you should just take the basic education so that you have it. You should do that.’ And I was actually like, ‘Fine I’ll do it.’ But I’m glad now.”
And you used to be in a punk band with very staunch political views, is that right?
“Yes, I was into activism, environmentalism and left wing politics for ten years. All through my teen years. And the punk band was super political. They were all about like, ‘F**k racism” and “Girl power!” It was super radical. It was so much fun and we were touring Europe and playing spots and sleeping on mattresses. We did get to a point where we were like, ‘We don’t want to be these two angry girls. It has to be fun.”
You co-wrote Ariana Grande’s All My Love…
“Yes, with Lorde, Diplo and Ariana. I know they changed the lyrics a little bit but most of the melodies are originally mine. They had to change the words a little so it fitted into the Mockingbird soundtrack. That was why I think.”
Would you ever collaborate with Ariana?
“There are so many artists I find super great. I love collaborating. I would love to collaborate with Flume. He is amazing.”
Final Song is out now.
To catch MØ at Falls, click here.
MØ will also play two Falls sideshows which are on sale now:
Tuesday 3 January 2017, Metro Theatre (all ages) in Sydney. For tickets, click here.
Thursday 5 January 2017, 170 Russell in Melbourne. For tickets, click here.
Cover image: Getty Images
