Original Magazine

8/17/2019 Original Magazine

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bluzz 1 no vem

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winterpreview records

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in this issue

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w hat’ s the bluz

G I VE

T he co ver s tar ta l k s to us a bou t pop, boo ze, and per form ing

a t t he wor ld ’s

b igges t mus ic fes t i va ls.

T he Br i t is h crooner o f fers h is bes

ad v ice on ho w to k eep you loo k f

f t t h is w in ter ( he ’s a s wea ter pro

FASH I ON TA L

GE O R GE E Z RA

ME

M Ø:


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I VEE

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b y J acob Bro wn

Despite what the title ofher debut album promises‘No Mythologies To Follow,’Denmark’s resident electro-divaMØ is constantly writing new

chapters of her success story.

F OUND IN TRANSL ATION

(L) Performing at SXSW, where she got her rst taste of

life in the spotlight.

(R) As a kid, Mø–real name, Karen Marie Ørsted–grew upwanting to be the Spice Girls, more specically Sporty

Spice, which explains her very sweet cover of “Say You’ll

Be There.” She also holds the all-girl group’s Girl Power

mantra in high regard.

MØ tells me she’s tired, but you wouldn’t

know it from her demeanor. As she

peers into her computer’s camera, I get

a glimpse of her arresting blue eyes,

which carry a friendliness and warmth not

often associated with Scandinavia. She’s

genuinely excited to talk about 2014,

the most formative year of her career,

seemingly taking a ton of pleasure inreecting on it all.

In March, she dropped her album No

Mythologies To Follow, an incredible feat

lled with futuristic electro-pop gems like

the tracks “Pilgrim” and “Don’t Wanna

Dance.” The album was a long-time-

coming, and like falling dominoes, quickly

led to other huge accomplishments,

such as collaborating with Swedish artist

Elliphant, as well as currently controversial

rap/pop sensation, Iggy Azalea.

Her sharp tongue, charismatic spirit,

musical knowledge and willingness to talk

about any subject makes her the perfect

interview. Again and again, she shows

insights on life that seem beyond the

average 26-year-old. If there is anythingthe artist doesn’t seem to quite get, it

is the extent to which the world knows

and loves her music. She insists over and

over that she is not a big star, and I think

she believes it. That’s not to say she’s not

thankful. On the contrary, she’s incredible

appreciate of her fans and everyone who

has gotten her to where she is.

We talked to MØ about her album, the

struggles of being in your twenties, and

what it was like working with some of the

world’s biggest stars of the moment.

Reecting back on 2014, what were some

of the highlights for you?

This year, it’s been so crazy. Everythinghas been going so fast, you know? In a

way it’s hard to say this stands out, or this

stands out, because everything just grew

more and more. But so far it has been

the busiest and also the craziest and best

year of my life. One of the highlights, of

course, was releasing the album. Since I

was seven years old, my biggest dream

was to release an album…so that was

really a fucking big dre

And also that I felt like

responses came, with

personal. They were li

what you’re saying. It

something that I also f

And that’s the best thi

kind of response you c

happy that I’ve been apeople, at least.

Now that almost a yea

you released your albu

listen to it and reect o

life?

Yeah, I do exactly like

other day we were re

Photos by Pooneh Ghana (L) and Steven Garris (R).


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DANISHMA

MØ, whose name means

“virgin” in Danish, has be

to electropop artists such

Twin Shadow, with her el

powerful music.

"I THINK IT©S

HUMAN NATURE

THAT WE NEED

TO F IND SOME

TROUBLE TO

TRY TO SOLVE"

the “Night Versions” that are on the deluxe

album. It’s a stripped down show that we’re

going to do. Going through all of the songs

and really doing them like that, like stripped

down and more intimate, it really made me

think about all the things I was singing about.

It was just like, “Oh my god, that’s just so

how I felt a year and a half ago.” But in a

way, there’s something very nice and familiar

about that because you can feel yourself in

it. I can still feel those feelings. I’m still in that

mode, even though it’s in the past.

I read that the song “Glass” is about getting

to your 20s and not feeling fullled. Despiteyour crazy success, do you still feel like you

want more?

I mean, you know, when I think about it, it

is so wonderful. I’m a small sh in the water,

but still I really appreciate all these things

that have happened. But I think no matter

what happens in your life, no matter if you

became the biggest star in the world or not,

our brains just work like that. We always nd

something that we’re not satised with. We

need to always make problems for ourselves

in order to keep on evolving. We can’t just

be like, “Everything is great!” Because life

stops. I think it’s human nature that we

need to nd some trouble to try to solve.

Even though, I must say, I feel really happy,

I really do.

With “Glass,” you’re right, you know? I

was like “Oh yeah, you’re a teenager. It’s a

fad or something, it’ll pass.” But you know

what, I think that all life is going to be a

search and a struggle. But life should be a

struggle. That’s what makes it beautiful and

that’s what makes it worth living. Because

you need those crises to move and to

move people and to do something. It’s

really important that you have somethingto ght for, or ght against, that brings

out the re in you. That’s what you want to

show. You communicate and feel accepted.

I’m 23 and can denitely relate to that

sentiment. I’m sure a lot of your fans

appreciate your singing about this feeling.

It’s funny, because you know, we should

all just be like, “Oh my god, we’re in our

twenties! We’re all so young and free and

we can do whatever!” But everyone is

worried. Because everyone wants to be

special these days because of Instagram

and all of the proles. Everyone wants

to stand out and have this interesting

life and an amazing career and beautiful

boyfriend or girlfriend. It’s too much

pressure to me, man. Like all of us young

searching souls, we get all, “Ahh I’m not

good enough! I don’t know what to do!”

It’s kind of beautiful but it’s also hard. It’s

hard to be young, but I guess it’s hard to

be old too. Everything’s hard.

Now that you’ve achieved success on an

international level, what’s it like when yougo home to Denmark, especially because

you just won so many awards at the

Danish Music Awards.

I get all sentimental when we talk about

it because it is so…you feel so honored

and proud of yourself because the

people in your country, they feel proud.

Well you should be!

(Laughs) Thanks…but you get so happy

that all these people that don’t know

you, they support you and love you and

feel proud about what you’ve done.

Again, not that I’m…I’m not a bigsuperstar, I’m just doing these things.

In Denmark, I really feel that people are

really appreciating, or at least cheering

for me. So to win these Danish Music

Awards and really feeling that kind of

love…it was almost too much. You so

much want to show how happy you are

and how much you appreciate them for

doing that. But it’s so hard to express

that because they’re feelings that are so

unnatural. You just want to say, “I love

you! I love you!”

It’s very overwhelming. And again, I’ve been dreaming of

winning these awards since I was seven. It’s the daydream

that I’ve had the most in my life, to stand at the Danish Music

Awards and receive an award. That’s so sick. So when I nally

stood there, I was like, “Fuck man. I’m just this little, stupid

girl. I don’t know what to say. Who am I to think t hat I would

have this big great speech? I don’t know how to make a

speech.”

Swedish singer Elliphant is another favorite of ours. Can you

talk about the track “One More,” which you two collaboratedon, and how you met her?

I’m so glad that that song is doing well. Like, it’s really doing

well! Elliphant is just so inspiring. I don’t know what it is about

her. I guess it’s her open-mindedness. You feel like she talks

directly from her soul. It’s so refreshing, because everyone has

so many lters a nd are always holding back. She’s just like…I’m

like this. I think that’s so dope.

I met her in Oslo, in Norway, for the rst time I think in the

beginning of 2013. We both at that time had just had started

our careers or whatever. We were both early in the process

and at the beginning of everything. And she contacted me

on Facebook and was like “You’re cool,

girl” and I was like, “Oh my god, Y OU’RE

cool!” So we hooked up at this festival in

Norway and just hung out, not too much,

just that night. But I felt like there was a

strange connection, even though I never

met her before. I don’t know what it was

about her, but there’s something in her

that seems familiar.

We’ve had this attitude like, we’ve got to

stick together. Even

though we don’t

really know each

other. So we hooked

up again in LA, we’d

been emailing and

stuff. So she wrote

me, maybe a year ago or something, and was like

and Joel Little made this song. You should sing o

be the song we do together.” And I was just lovin

recorded all of the vocals, actually just in this roo just right over there. So I recorded it and sent it t

then suddenly it was done and it was a single. An

going so well for her, it’s so fucking amazing. She

that. She really fucking does. She’s free man. No

is.

There’s denitely something bold and inspiration

Everybody says that. I mean, everybody says she

I mean, her music is inspiring but also her person

really strikes me every time.

What was it like working with Iggy Azalea on “Be

She was really, really cool. I really liked her when

she was actually really down to Earth and strong.

somewhere that Kendrick Lamar said something

be. She’s doing her thing. It seems like that’s wha

I know that she’s been ghting for that right. She

at an early age and was like, I want to do this.

MØ co

P

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