20-year old Swedish singer Zara Larsson is back with a brand new single called ‘Ruin My Life.’

 

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During a recent interview with Billboard, Zara talks new music and why albums still matter to her in a streaming era.

 

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BB: “Ruin My Life” was originally conceived as a duet, and the version your label first played me also had different lyrics. Can you walk me through how that song has evolved since you first recorded it?

ZL: “When it’s a collaboration, I feel like the dynamic of the song is different, because it’s more of a conversation. I recorded the song and talked to my team like, “I want it [for myself]!” But when I sang it just me, I thought the lyrics were a bit tragic. It became this really sad girl singing about, honestly, an abusive relationship. Like, “I miss you throwing your fist through the wall.” — hold up, what? That’s violent shit! So I didn’t want to talk about that. I always argue with myself: Does this represent me? Is this a good message to send out to my fans? With that version, I didn’t feel represented. So together with the writers, we rewrote the lyrics for the verses so it was a bit more about the emotional rollercoaster. I don’t want to promote [violence], but I still want to be able to tell my story and tell something that I’ve been through without being labeled a bad feminist or a bad person.”

 

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BB: That must be a strange spot: You can’t just worry about whether people will like the song, you also worry about whether it’ll be deemed good or bad for woman.

ZL: “Even if I didn’t do music, I would still be politically aware — not only [about] politics but human rights and feminism. It’s just a big part of who I am, so I think that just comes naturally. It’s not so much, “Oh my God, will I get a hate hashtag on Twitter?” It’s more like, “Do I stand for this?””

 

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BB: How often do you find yourself tweaking song lyrics for similar reasons? I remember you changed the lyrics to “Ain’t My Fault,” which was originally about stealing another woman’s boyfriend, because you didn’t want the song to have a woman-versus-woman message.

ZL: “It definitely happens, where someone sends me a song and I’m like, “I wouldn’t say that” or “That’s not me, I wouldn’t stand for that.” And when I’m in a room [co-writing], I’m very quick to be like, “Ah, I don’t want to say that,” and there’s no hard feelings. It’s very rare that someone’s like, “Don’t touch it.” I just find it important. When I look at my concerts, it’s quite diverse, but I just want to make a really strong message for girls. I don’t want to pit any girls against each other, and I hope I wouldn’t be with someone who’s punching holes in the wall.”

 

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BB: The road to your last album, So Good, was a long one — about two years passed between when you released the first single, “Lush Life,” and when the album hit shelves. During that time, you explored a lot of different directions and worked with all kinds of writers and producers. How are you approaching making an album this time around?

ZL: “I find it so hard! My original plan was to have the album ready before I released any singles. But then I was like, “No, I’m just going to keep doing sessions with all these different people, and then once the album has to come out, like, next week, then that’s the deadline [to pick the tracklist].” And just like with So Good, I don’t really have a vision for my sound. I’ll just stay in [what’s happening in popular music] so hopefully, when I look back at my work in 10 years, it’ll be clear, “Oh, this era was this, this era was that.” Everything in pop culture goes quite quick: The style and genre that’s the biggest now will maybe shift, and whoever influences pop culture now will be someone else.  It’s just like what I do with my Spotify playlists — if it’s a good song, I just add that to my playlists. And hopefully, I’ll see a [throughline]. But we’ll see. It’s not finished. I change my mind five million times, so I don’t know what it’s going to end up being like or who I’m collaborating with. On the day of the deadline, that’s when I’ll know.”

 

To read the FULL interview with Zara and Billboard, click here.

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