Icona Pop is heading in the right direction

August 25, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

Going “old school” is nothing new to musicians in the hip-hop and pop world. However, lately that throwback sound has been of the century variety where artists are mining Jazz Age-era sounding samples.

There’s Jason Derulo’s old-timey horn-driven “Talk Dirty,” as well as Icona Pop’s new single “Emergency,” which boasts a piano and trumpet motif that seems right out of the Gatsby era.

“If you listen to a lot of pop music today, Bruno Mars and [Jason] Derulo, a lot of people are kind of going to the funky way, which I think is super fun,” said Icona Pop’s Aino Jawo, calling from Louisville, Ky. “We still want to keep it very dance-y.”

“This might sound weird, but we love when you go to the circus and they play weird music. We were like, let’s do something like a crazy ‘Emergency’ party. What we want in that song would be something so different from everything else that’s playing on the radio but still sounds like music and old school.”

Mission accomplished for the Swedish duo, which recently released its EP “Emergency” with a new full-length effort expected to follow next year. Icona Pop arrived on the pop scene in a big way with 2012’s breakout single “I Love It.” The track boasted the memorable lyrics 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.”

The track’s success not only made Icona Pop a triple platinum-selling artist in the U.S. but the biggest selling Swedish female band in history. Further, the notoriety caught the attention of pop world megastars who pegged the duo – Jawo and Caroline Hjelt – as openers on two of last year’s biggest tours.

Icona Pop hit the road in the states on Miley Cyrus’ “Bangerz World Tour,” as well as played the U.K. leg of Katy Perry’s “Prismatic World Tour.”

Now the outfit has been added to what is arguably the biggest stadium jaunt of the year: One Direction’s “On the Road Again Tour,” which comes to the Rock Hall City Thursday at First Energy Stadium.

“It’s actually sick when you think about it,” Jawo laughed. “I think maybe a lot of people can relate to what we’re doing and they kind of want to help us as well. I feel like when you both look at Miley Cyrus and the One Direction guys, they are really in charge. If they want someone to go on tour with them, they’ll make it happen.”

As for how Icona Pop ended up opening for Harry, Niall, Liam and Louis, Jawo said mutual friends made the connection. That’s when the Icona Pop girls bluntly asked if they could have the gig.

Jawo stressed because Icona Pop hadn’t released a new single in a while, they weren’t hopeful. Then out of nowhere, they got the gig.

“I thought it was a joke,” Jawo said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to stand in front of 50,000 people every day?’ That’s sick. It doesn’t get bigger than that.”