Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt from Icona Pop made their claim to fame when their hit single I Love It landed itself on music charts all over the globe. Touted as a party anthem of 2013, the girls also released a new single Girlfriend, along with the release of their second album, This Is… Icona Pop.
When Aino and Jawo stopped by Kuala Lumpur for their exclusive showcase at Neverland, we got ourselves an interview with the gorgeous Swedes to discuss the success of I Love It and their fashionable collaboration with Asia’s Next Top Model.
Q. Icona Pop was brought to life after the two of you met during party. How did you both decide to make music together?
We were both very down at the bottom. Aino was heartbroken and she was lying in bed for two weeks, nothing was working for me so I all did was throw parties. We have a mutual friend who told me (Caroline) about Aino and I told her to bring Aino to the party because she needed to have some fun. It was weird because we started to click immediately, we started talking, we decided we wanted to do music and the next day Aino came over to my place and we wrote our first song. It’s was very natural, very weird but very simple and pure. Because sometimes when you write, it’s kind of scary to write with new people because you’re kind of letting new people in but it was just simple with us. We clicked immediately and it’s like falling in love. When you know, you know.
Q. I Love It has garnered popularity since its release and it can be heard everywhere you go. Are you nervous about the upcoming singles being able to reach the same success as I Love It has?
We look at it as I Love It opened up a lot of doors for us. Before I Love It, we had an album full of a lot of good songs, at least that what we think so we are very proud of everything we release and we look to make a change in the pop industry.
Q. How did you react when you first heard I Love It on the radio?
It was a very special time for us. We apparently had a lot of anger that we had to let out and so when we sang it, it was really from the bottom of our hearts and we started how big I Love It is when we started travelling, even here in Asia. It’s such an honour and a blessing to have people recognise us and our music.
Icona Pop’s music had actually appeared on the latest season of Asia’s Next Top Model. How did you guys get involved with the show?
Well we got approached from FOX to join them. And we thought it was such an amazing thing for us, to combine it with a trip to Asia and to be part of a show that is international and huge. Music and fashion goes hand-in-hand so it was a great opportunity for us and we are very happy to be able to work with FOX and Asia’s Next Top Model.
What song would you say is a very fashionable song?
Too Funky by George Michael! That is a very fashionable song, not just the video but the groove as well.
