RedfestDXB 2017: Tove Lo on balancing pop stardom and indie cool

Ahead of her show at RedfestDxb on Friday, Swedish pop singer Tove Lo tells The National about her latest album, Lady Wood, the dark side of fame and her ability to balance pop stardom with an indie sensibility.

Swedish singer Tove Lo. Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images for iHeartMedia

With the music landscape dominated last year by the deaths of David Bowie and Prince, a return to touring by Adele, and Beyoncé's release of her multimedia opus, Lemonade, it is understandable that you might have missed one of the best pop albums in recent times.

Released in October, Tove Lo's second album, Lady Wood, is an irresistible collection of dark and dynamic club stompers that has elevated the sultry Swedish songwriter from an emerging talent to a force to be reckoned with.

The 29-year-old will showcase her brooding, techno-inspired tunes in Dubai when she headlines the second and final night of RedfestDxb on Friday.

The gig, at which she is likely to be playing to a predominately teenage audience, comes two months before she will share the bill with indie-rock giants Radiohead at the uber-hipster Coachella festival in the United States.

More than all the accolades and steady sales, Lo points to this straddling of two worlds – where she can be a bona fide pop star while maintaining her street-cred – as her proudest achievement.

“It is really special to me and I am thankful for that,” she says.

“To be on this border of being a commercial pop artist and an indie artist is a great feeling. It allows me to keep going, experience new things, people and cultures – that’s what I love the most about this whole journey so far. It just feels great that all kinds of people are connecting with the music.”

There are a few reasons why such a diverse audience has fallen for Lo. The first is the songwriting, which is admirably tight. Since arriving on the scene with debut album, Queen of the Clouds, in 2014, chart-topping hits Habits (Stay High) and Run on Love displayed a welcome pop nuance missing from much of today's saccharine pop scene.

Where Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande often use songs as platforms to showcase vocal prowess, there is a pleasantly old-school approach from Lo.

Listening to the minimal yet forceful Influence and Cool Girl from Lady Wood, you get the sense she is serving the song rather than the other way around.

Then there is her unflinchingly honest lyricism. While her words mine the traditional pop shtick of hedonism, they are not there for shock value.

Lo explains her darker turn in Lady Wood as the "comedown" after the celebratory sounds of Queen of the Clouds. It also explores some of the adverse effects of fame.

“No matter how amazing things seem to be, there is always a counterpoint,” she says. “I found that you can’t be getting these extreme highs without getting those lows.

“There was still some things that I didn’t expect with fame that I had to care about. Some people around me changed. When you become a public person, it really changes how people act around you. There is a positive aspect where it can be empowering, in that you can inspire others.

“But at the same time, there are dangers of being famous at a young age. People start treating you like you have more worth more than anyone else, which is not always the case.”

Lady Wood addresses these issues directly. The electro sleaze of the title track and the dark majesty of True Disaster detail her calculated bad behaviour.

Lo admits she has a self-destructive side.

“The main concept is about chasing rushes and doing things that scare me, that’s what holds it together,” she says. “They say the first progress in therapy is accepting your problems. I think I am very good at identifying my own behaviour, but I still sometimes do things other people may find questionable or destructive.”

She quickly qualifies that by adding: “But I don’t look at it that way – it is just me doing what I want to do as opposed to what I am supposed to do.”

Another highlight of Lady Wood lies in the production credits. The album is a rather brilliant showcase of what could be the next big names in pop.

Helming a lion's share of the album's production (five songs out of the 12) are anonymous Swedish duo The Struts, whose work include the minimal dance sounds of Influence, and the throbbing groove of Imaginary Friend.

Then there is the addition of one of pop's hottest young names, 30-year-old Ilya Salmanzadeh, whose efforts on the cocksure Don't Talk About It shows why he is being touted as the next Max Martin (one of the most successful producers in modern pop history).

What connects Lo and these studio masters is their homeland. This raises the question: is there something in the Swedish water that has helped the country to consistently produce quality pop artists and producers for the past five decades?

Lo laughs knowingly and says: “I don’t know, but there is something about the use of melody by Swedes that seem to work outside of the country.”

Thinking about it for a moment, Lo says the directness in the hooks and lyrics comes straight from the Swedish demeanour.

“I write what I feel and I just say it like it is. It makes sense to me to be that honest and admit to things that people think they shouldn’t it,” she says.

“It’s a Swedish thing – we are generally more blunt in our language and the way we do things.”

• Tove Lo will perform on Friday at RedFestDXB, Dubai Media City Amphitheatre. Tickets start at Dh395 from Virgin Megastores and www.ticketmasteruae.ae