Tove Lo

“I don't think I would live very long if I was a rock star.”

“At first, my bedroom had flowers and yellow walls and huge furniture in plastic that was orange and green - and furry green bed cover and everything. Then, I think the day I turned 13, I painted the walls black and put Kurt Cobain on the wall and just changed everything into a dark theme.”

“I wanted to write about relationships in a more honest, raw sort of way. Get away from all those cliches about how 'time heals' and how you can be the better person. Less sugar-coating and more 'feel the pain.'”

“It's OK to joke about yourself and have self-perspective, but, like, when you constantly put yourself down to get other people to tell you you're good, that annoys me. Have confidence!”

“There was this lynx at a zoo that was called Tove, and that I totally fell in love with. It was my dear godmother who decided to call me Tove Lo, after that lynx. It stuck.”

“Everything that has to do with sex is somehow... it's the best thing in the world, and it's still the one thing people don't want you to talk about.”

“In the same way that I'm open when I speak, I'm that open on stage. I feed off the energy of the audience, too, so they're feeling what I'm feeling.”

“I would never agree to sing something I didn't feel was 100% me.”

“The very first song I ever wrote was a song called 'Crazy' when I was 11 or 12 with my best girlfriends - we had a girl band. It was about loving a guy who everyone else thought you were crazy for being into.”

“The fact is, when you date an artist, you have to know that they're going to sing about you.”

“There are some nights where I don't get enough sleep, or we're traveling a lot. And then I'll go do a radio show, and the DJs are usually so energetic. And they're like, 'Why aren't you excited?' I say, 'I am excited. I'm just Swedish. This is my excited. I can't get to an American excitement level.'”

“I definitely feel I'm outside of the polished pop girl group, which feels right. I don't think I could keep up that polished surface on purpose.”

“I'm from a fancy, well-raised background. We were very well-behaved and not allowed to swear. It's the kind of place where people hide their problems under the rug and pretend it's all perfect. Eventually, you get sick of that.”

“That's kind of how I am - a roller coaster of emotions.”

“I find it really cool when people have this artist persona they can put on. They can go out and act like this other person; I can't pull that off... I can't censor myself.”

“When I play a song for someone the first time, if I make 'em laugh, I think, 'Yes, I've succeeded.'”

“It means a lot to everyone around me that I look good, and I don't think it should have to. I just think I should look the way I do.”

“When I'm angry, like, if someone gets me really upset, whatever comes into my head, I scream it.”

“If you say, 'I listen to pop,' you picture this kind of perfect, colorful, polished song. I want to have that, but when you open it, you see this gritty dark - kind of like dancing your tears away. Disguise the sadness in a pop beat.”

“The first album that I bought was the Nirvana 'MTV Unplugged in New York' album.”