Between 2014 and 2016, I was just, like, extremely sad. Like, really, really just not able to be in the spotlight.
— Robyn
I love when people mirror themselves in my music, and I think that's the whole point of it - not telling people what it is or how they're supposed to feel... but you having a relationship with my song makes it real to me.
I'd always been a club kid, so I was totally unaware that people had their own record companies.
I don't know much about making films or TV programs, but what's cool about being in the studio is that you have more time.
As a kid, I didn't know much about Prince - who he was and all the complexities of his personality - but I could still feel very close to him when I listened to his music.
To me, dance music is a lot of space - to listen to other things than melodies. I think club music and dance music really require a different way of listening.
'Honey' was the first song I wrote where I was really enjoying myself again after questioning the idea of being an artist.
When you're listening to club music, there's no reward. The reward isn't, 'Oh, here's the chorus, here's the lyric that makes sense.' You have to enjoy what it is. You have to enjoy that there's no conclusion.
Sure the Internet is the future, but what we do on the Internet is still very primal.
Club culture is always going to be a reflection of youth culture, but I think we're maybe moving into a time when the club is a place where older people can go, too. And it's a place people go to connect to themselves, it's not always about the party. It's also about letting off steam and expressing yourself and connecting to other people.
I don't want to have that thing where I make an album and then I'm super-constantly present in everyone's life for three years, and then gone for the next three.
The marketing is just as important as the music, almost.
I think that girls are always expected to have opinions about each other, and maybe I don't have an opinion about some things, you know?
I didn't have any role models of artists that were in the same playing field as me - making expensive videos, travelling, marketing and promoting an album.
I think it's amazing when technology is used in a smart way, but the responsibility that comes with it... I think there's a lot of technology that we're using that we haven't thought through. It's a bit scary to put all your trust in technology and to think that that's what going to save us. We're going to have to make some compromises.
Being onstage and communicating with an audience was part of my life since I was very little, but I was never pushed into singing.
Filming costs so much money, so it's such a nerve-racking process, whereas being in a studio is quite cheap compared to that, so you have more time to work on things until you feel good about them. That makes it easier to explain a certain feeling and be in a vulnerable place while making sure it does what you want it to do.
I listen to music very intensely as well: When I listen to an artist I really love, I feel like I know them. I feel like I understand what they're thinking about, even though I've never met them or talked to them.
It's called A Secret Gig because where and how it's taking place won't be revealed.
I seriously feel like Bowie was an astronaut who went into space and experienced things and brought back these... treasures.
Everyone deals with sadness and lack of love when they're kids, and all this abandonment. Most people do. Hopefully you want to learn something new, and you want to move on to this other place, and I think, for me, it was like, I really didn't know how to calm myself down.
When you're 17 and you have an idea, people don't really listen to you. I came out of an environment where my parents were always pushing me to do what I wanted and be creative, and I was not used to the industry's way of thinking.
I just want to have a normal life, like everyone else, you know?
The music industry used to be able to control a single dance on the very smallest level of when people are supposed to hear it, and when they're supposed to start liking it, and when they're supposed to start buying it. And that's trashed, you know, that big machine that takes control and works albums for a long period.
I didn't mind being in school. But I was usually uninspired and always late. I did what I had to, but not more.
When you become famous super young, you learn how to behave by the rules because you're the one that has to take the stress. But that also creates a barrier that I really didn't want.
Sure, the Internet is the future, but what we do on the Internet is still very primal. It's all about connecting to other people, sharing emotion. It's our new feathers or face paint. It's all very raw.
Hearing is a subjective experience, but I never really understood that it's the same with seeing as well. I always thought that everything we see is the same for everyone. But having these more psychedelic experiences of being really, really sad made me realize how brittle reality can be.
I love telling stories, but I also am more aware now of how complex reality is and how difficult it is to really explain what happened or how I felt. Maybe that sometimes makes me a little bit vague, because I don't want to really put my finger on anything or set it in stone.
When I say dance music, it's anything that makes me want to dance. It could be Timbaland and Missy Elliott, but it could also be disco music and samba music: It's not relying on melody in the same way; it's more about rhythm.
That excitement of how music makes you want to dance - that's what got me back into it, and that's what 'Honey' is about. Me just being able to enjoy myself again.
Club music taught me so much about myself: having patience or appreciating a different type of way of taking in life. That, to me, is like what 'Off the Wall' is. Or 'I Feel Love' or 'Rock Your Baby' with George McCrae.
It wasn't easy for me to socialize with other kids when I got back from touring. I felt different. Like we all do, but I didn't feel like I got all the codes. I was a little awkward.
Being onstage and communicating with an audience was part of my life since I was very little, but I was never pushed into singing. My parents were so uninterested in me making music.
Everyone's talking about how no one is buying records any more, but to me it's quite logical. In the 1990s, music was so hardcore-marketed to a certain group of people that I think a lot of kids felt taken advantage of.
I think I'm always adopting a persona. That's how I look at pop music. I don't feel like I have to be myself. I feel like I have to be true to myself, but I don't have to show an exact picture of who I am.
My friends who are not from Sweden tell me that I'm more reserved or maybe more ... I guess the opposite of what a Latin American would be. Maybe because Scandinavians are more careful with their words and I guess it takes a lot to become a friend of a Swede.
