43
For Icona Pop, a hit record is the best revenge They love it
By John Benson
The phrase “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” is right. Love produces so many universal emotions: happiness all the way to anger.
It’s the latter feeling that Swedish-band Icona Pop overwhelmingly tapped into with its breakout single “I Love It,” which for the past year has united females in one loud rally cry of “I threw your [expletive] into a bag and pushed it down the stairs/
I crashed my car into the bridge/I don’t care, I love it.”
“We believed so strongly in that song,” said Icona Pop’s Caroline Hjelt, calling from Austin, Texas. “When we recorded it, we were going through a lot of love drama. We were really pouring our hearts out in the studio and some of the recordings on the song we did in a closet in our little town house. We delivered such good feelings we decided not to re-record those. We just kept them.”
Making the “I Love It” story even better is the fact the two men who are the impetus for the double- platinum song know their role. Talk about sweet revenge.
“We met them and you can see it in their eyes,” Hjelt quipped. “That’s all I need to see. I don’t need to say anything.”
It’s no surprise that love lost is what drew Icona Pop’s Hjelt and Aino Jawo together at a February 2009 party in their homeland commiserating about crappy boyfriends. A few years later, the synth-pop act would begin a whirlwind that started with success in Sweden leading to a stint in London before moving to Los Angeles.
The act’s 2012 self-titled album was released in Sweden, but quickly started garnering attention around the globe. Then earlier this year, “I Love It” was featured on HBO hit series “Girls,” the Internet exploded and, well, Icona Pop popped.
Up next for the act is new studio effort “This Is ... Icona Pop,” which is due out later this month. Hjelt characterizes the album as yet another debut. She feels because the first CD was only released in Sweden, and considering the attention of “I Love It,” the upcoming project acts as a rare restart in the business, only this time the album has a No. 1 song attached to it.
New tracks on the CD are the punky “Then We Kissed,” the mellow “Just Another Night” and the girl-power anthem “Girlfriend.” The latter, which was released as a single in June, truly encapsulates not only the driving forces that brought the act together but its appeal among females.
“When that song came about, we were in the studio kind of talking about it’s kind of cool we don’t even have a home and the only thing we need is each other,” Hjelt said. “Then we started singing the Tupac song, ‘All I need in this world is me and my girlfriend.’ We thought, ‘That’s perfect. That fit in so good.’ He’s referring to his gun while we‘re celebrating our friendship. It’s really about how we feel about each other.”
As far as how people will feel about “This Is... Icona Pop,” Hjelt said inherently there’s a lot of pressure regarding the high-profile project.
“When it comes to this album, the most important thing is we’re proud and satisfied,” Hjelt said. “That’s all we can do. Then we hope that the people that listen to our music and like our music will love it as much as we do.”