IN CONVERSATION WITH TOVE LO

interview by MAREK BARTEK

There is no reminiscing of the Tumblr era without automatically humming Habits. Since then, Tove Lo grew into an award-winning international pop sensation and a forever Cool Girl with hits like disco tits, No One Dies From Love or Bikini Porn. Fresh from the studio, Tove Lo has released the lead single I’m your girl right? off her sixth album ESTRUS. Together with the album comes an announcement of the ESTRUS tour across the US, UK and European cities.

You are a part of the iconic Swedish pop lineage, together with artists like ABBA, Robyn or Zara Larsson, so I’d love to start with a legacy question: What’s the secret to Swedish pop, and why do you think it resonates with such a huge audience? 

Honestly, this entire concept is kind of insane to me. We’re such a small country to the point that ABBA feels more like a local hero for us. It’s funny because they are one of the biggest bands ever but I wonder if that starts the ripple effect. 

But I also think that if you want to make music or be any kind of artist or work in entertainment, there is a big support system for that in Sweden. When I started dreaming about being a musician, I just went to a public high school focused on music. I got in based on audition and my grades, so there’s a lot of opportunities to nourish your creativity from a young age. I felt like my dream was actually very achievable, and I think that definitely played a role in how I saw myself as an artist.

Your sixth album, ESTRUS, which means “a female mammal in the state of heat” is out soon! While the explanation of its title might be already suggestive of what to expect, tell me about the album itself, its name, inspiration, and how it all came together for you.

It has definitely been an interesting process for me. When I started writing for this album in October 2024, me and my producer Ludwig Söderberg — who is basically the other half of Tove Lo — got together. We spent a month in LA trying, but we didn’t make a single song that we liked, which is so rare for us. I know I sound a bit dramatic now, but I really started to panic and had all these questions in my head: ‘Do I not know what to say? Where did my voice go?’

We decided to just take a break. I remember him telling me to go live life — and so I went, I wrote for other people and did things to get out of my own head for a bit. We both did that and then we met back up in Sweden five months later, and all that stress of delivering something fell off me. 

I feel like I almost have a protective armour on when I’m in LA living the life of an artist, simply to not always be so vulnerable. But when I got to Sweden, I went to this place where I would spend all my summers as a kid and a teenager, and I just felt like I could feel the entirety of my life there. I’ve gone through so much there, and that sense of safety really allowed me to just be honest and real to the point when I could feel this really intense energy being inside me. It felt like I was going through some sort of metamorphosis but I didn’t know what it was. 

I felt like my mind and body wanted different things — I’m a grown woman and I’ve been told over and over how I am supposed to be a certain way at this point, which I’m not. All these conflicting emotions and constant back and forth emotionally fuelled the whole album. It's going to take you on the ride through all of that.

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shoes CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN
rings SHAUN LEANE

The lead single I'm your girl right? is already out. Why did you pick this song in particular to be the first taste of what's coming?

It just has the right energy and it encapsulates the album perfectly. It’s quite heated and feels like you’re on a hunt but then you listen to the lyrics — and they’re so vulnerable and borderline desperate. Even though there’s a lot of animalistic desire there, it’s also very “I’m just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love me.” These two emotions constantly brew inside me, and I just love the contrast of them. It also lets you into the world of the album where there’s a lot of grittiness in the production and, you know, dirt all around but at the same time it’s still an emotional pop.

Together with the song, you also released a music video that came together through a collaboration with Nogari, whom you already worked with in the past on your Borderline music video. What was it like getting back together, revisiting your creative work again and what changed since Borderline for you and Nogari?

The biggest difference was that we both trusted each other even more this time around. When you work with someone for the first time — especially when it comes to being collaborative — you often second guess whether they truly understood your vision, and are worried things might get lost in the communication. But working on Borderline with him, I really could see that we just see things in a very similar way, and I can trust his taste and his vision. When he says a reference, I know exactly what he means. I remember back then we gave him a full narrative of it being the revenge video of Annie The Robot coming back to get me. 

This time around, we gave him just some sort of visual story arc of the album. We talked about what the album represents, the culture of conformity and not being able to be your true self, and just breaking from all of that and letting that inner feral cat roam free — and he came back with this beautiful short film with a light storyline.

I’m just so happy I did this with him! It was an amazing experience, and I feel like I let go of my impulse to be controlling and rather ask him how he sees things. He knows how to bring out this unpolished darkness, which I really love. He’s the sweetest guy, so you’d never suspect he has such a dark mind — and people say the same about me, so we just work really well. 

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shoes MCQUEEN
rings LOVENESS LEE and ATR

Speaking of Annie — you’ve explored queer relationships in your previous work, and you are a huge figure within queer nightlife culture, and so I do wonder what this relationship with queer audiences mean to you?

It gives me so much, and I love being part of the queer community and queer dance floor. There's energy, taste, and vibe there that’s just much stronger than a straight dance floor. It, of course, stems from queer history and the feelings of freedom and liberation, and it carries through into the new generations. 

It inspires me to write, and to make people feel great about themselves. I want to see them dance and take their shirts off, and feel like they can just be whoever they want to be right in that moment — that spark is so inspirational to me, and I am grateful to be part of it. 

dress ALEJANDRA MUÑOZ
shoes VALENTINO
rings LOVENESS LEE and ATR

You are about to release a new single, des fleurs x Stromae. How did this collaboration come about, and what can you tell us about the song itself?

I’ve been a fan of Stromae ever since I saw him for the first time at Coachella in 2015. I was walking by one of the tents where he was playing, and I was just pulled in by the energy that was coming out of there. I’d heard Alors on danse before but that was pretty much all I knew back then, and I was just blown away by him as a performer. His stage presence, his music — everything was just so good! He had everyone wrapped around his finger, it was really hypnotising.

We’ve been in touch on and off over the years and discussed making music together but since we live in different places, it’s been a struggle to get us both into the same studio. Eventually, he sent me a few tracks in 2022 right after I’d released Dirt Femme. I was in New Zealand looking out over a volcanic beach in this deserted place when I got those instrumentals. There was beautiful piano music and a choir humming in the background — and that really grabbed me by my heart. I had my portable studio with me, so I just sat down and wrote a song for it. I sent it to him and he loved it. 

We said to release it but then put it on hold, and we both went on living our lives until I was putting this record together. I really didn’t want this song to just sit there, and so I reached out and asked how he’d feel if I put it on my new album. I remember him asking if he can sing on it as well, and me just going “please, please, please!” He sent me his verse in French, and it’s one of my favourite songs on the album. It’s been a long journey, but I think you can really feel the sexual tension between two people, and wondering “is it going to happen or not?”

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shoes CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN
rings SHAUN LEANE

These themes you’ve just described aren’t really new to you. Your music captures these various aspects of this extremely human experience. From love, and sex to vulnerability, addiction and even eating disorder — it’s all there. Why is it important for you to cover all of these topics in your work?

There’s just so much more to the human experience than one feeling. I can be really confident and feel amazing in my body but then I also have days when I don’t even want to look in the mirror and hate myself. It’s a very human thing, and it’s important to hear because we’re taught to only show our most confident and perfect selves to the world. We all strive to do our best but it can be really hard to be at your best, to truly believe in yourself or feel like a good person and do everything right all the time. That’s simply not possible.

Sharing the imperfect and vulnerable sides of me is really cathartic for me. When I write, I write to get things off my chest and it’s almost like keeping a journal, and you have to be honest in your journal.

coat TYLER GREENSTON
tights MYAT
shoes MALONE SOULIERS
rings LOVENESS LEE and ATR

A lot of these topics are not really expected to be mixed with pop. Would you say that the joy of pop music is some sort of means of healing?

I definitely think that music is healing. What I love about pop is that it can be a sweet escape. You can go from listening to a sad ballad and just cry for an hour to not wanting to think about whatever made you cry and just go out and dance. There’s a spectrum of songs for whatever kind of healing is your favourite — and it all exists within pop. 

And I do love making songs about just forgetting about your worries for tonight. I just want to have a great time but then I always balance it with something very blunt and self-reflective.

Alongside the album, you've also announced the ESTRUS tour starting in September. What can we expect from the tour itself?

Oh, it's going to be incredible. I'm working with a new show designer, who is amazing, and we're building out the entire new stage. It's going to be an emotional ride, but I feel like I'm ready to give this my all. I'm really putting a lot of heart, mind, body, soul, sweat, and tears into it. It's going to be like the biggest tour I've done in terms of venues, so I really want to make sure I bring a good show and wow the fans — and I hope they’re going to love it, too!

full look AGRO STUDIO
shoes CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN
rings SHAUN LEANE

TEAM CREDITS:

talent TOVE LO
photography TOM J. JOHNSON
styling THOMAS GEORGE WULBERN
makeup WENDY TURNER
hair JANINA ZAIS
photography assistant DALI UGHETTO
styling assistant ALICE LIBERTY
editor TIMI LETONJA
interview MAREK BARTEK
cover design ARTHUR ROELOFFZEN