{"id":720860,"date":"2025-11-21T14:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=720860"},"modified":"2025-11-21T14:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:45:10","slug":"writing-a-good-song-is-still-what-gets-me-off-robyn-on-her-grand-return-to-the-popsphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=720860","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWriting a Good Song Is Still What Gets Me Off\u201d: Robyn on Her Grand Return to the Popsphere"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Music<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWriting a Good Song Is Still What Gets Me Off\u201d: Robyn on Her Grand Return to the Popsphere<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Suzy Exposito<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

November 21, 2025<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Photo: Courtesy of Acne Studios<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n
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It doesn\u2019t rain much in Los Angeles, but on Wednesday night at the Fonda Theatre\u2014where the Swedish pop star Robyn performed new material for the first time in seven years\u2014hundreds of fans still turned out after a record rainfall, lining up outside the venue for blocks to see her live.<\/p>\n

Working together with Spotify, the Stockholm-based brand Acne Studios set the scene for Robyn\u2019s big Hollywood bash. The event was open to her top Spotify listeners, as well as a slew of VIPs: Sky Ferreira, Ad\u00e9la, Lykke Li, Kyle Maclachlan, Miranda July, Jordan Firstman, and Vivian Wilson among them. Before her set began, however, Robyn\u2019s opening acts, DJ Brownskinhazel and singer Isabella Lovestory, treated fans to the bass-laden rhythms of reggaet\u00f3n, which shook the walls of the near-century-old theater.<\/p>\n

By 10:00 p.m., the stage lights dimmed into a smoldering red. Sporting an oversized bomber jacket with a black lace body suit and nylon tights, Robyn emerged from a cloud of smoke singing her 2018 torch song \u201cMissing U,\u201d its lyrics heavy with meaning. (\u201cAll the love you gave, it still defines me,\u201d she sang, her hands outstretched toward the crowd.)<\/p>\n

Robyn would regale fans with 15 songs in total, including highlights from the catalogue she\u2019s honed for more than 30 years\u2014dance-floor essentials like \u201cCall Your Girlfriend\u201d and \u201cDancing on My Own\u201d\u2014and her new single \u201cDopamine,\u201d a sparkling work of scientific, four-on-the-floor pop, inspired by the human body\u2019s neurochemical reaction to falling in love.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you\u2019re in it, you know that you are being really stupid and just taken by the moment\u2026 it\u2019s a very vulnerable place to be, but it\u2019s also a very beautiful place to be,\u201d Robyn, 46, told me in her dressing room before the show. Lounging in a nude Acne slip and patent leather blazer, the hitmaker spoke candidly about her style, writing new music, and her thoughts on the state of pop today.<\/p>\n

Vogue:<\/em> How would you describe your style, in general?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robyn:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s kind of homemade. I always go back to what I used to wear as a teenager, like Doc Martens and hoodies. Acne is cool because they\u2019re in Stockholm\u2014I go there and they can fit stuff to my body. Style is about your body and what feels good, [because] everybody looks so different. I think there\u2019s nothing better than knowing you feel good.<\/p>\n

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Robyn<\/span>Photo: Jason Sean Weiss\/BFA.com<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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You have a new record on the way, possibly next year. What has your life looked like during the seven years since you released your last album, Honey<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I just stayed in Sweden and buckled down. I was still doing shows [in 2020] when everything started to close down. Then it was locked down and I didn\u2019t leave Sweden for, I don\u2019t know, three years or something? So I started to make new music, [and] I usually make music with Swedes, so I didn\u2019t really have to go anywhere. I was in the studio quite a bit in the beginning, then I had a baby.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, by the way!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about your new song \u201cDopamine.\u201d You actually wrote it 10 years ago; what needed to happen to make the song feel complete?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know exactly why it took so long. I wrote it together with Klas [\u00c5hlund], who is my longtime collaborator. I kept it for a really long time. I even sent it to Daft Punk as an early demo to see if they wanted to produce it, before I even knew that I was making this [album] that I\u2019m preparing to release.<\/p>\n

Before Honey<\/em>, I didn\u2019t really know how to make a pop album, and I knew this was a pop song. What I was making before was much more non-linear. It didn\u2019t have choruses in the same way; it was referencing the way you listen to music in a club. [\u201cDopamine\u201d] felt very different. It was one of the first things that I pulled out of my drawer when I went back into the studio in 2020, then me and Klas wrote these verses that were in a speaking tone… That\u2019s when I knew that I was going to finish it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Photo: Courtesy of Acne Studios<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Your music always felt like dance-pop medicine to me. What is your songwriting process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Me and Klas, you know, we always talk about emotions a lot. He reads books, not academic science, but science that is more commercial\u2026<\/p>\n

Pop-science?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, he reads pop-science books, and so do I. We both enjoy writing about the pure emotion of love and not complicating it so much\u2014getting down to the science of it, but also the way that it\u2019s really uncontrollable. When you\u2019re in it, you know that you are being really stupid and just taken by the moment. And it\u2019s a very vulnerable place to be, but it\u2019s also a very beautiful place to be. I think people are very\u2014or I have been, at least\u2014afraid of losing control. To be in that extreme emotion\u2014to be vulnerable\u2014is so beautiful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A song titled \u201cDopamine\u201d is so appropriate for today, when people\u2019s lives are centered around chasing dopamine, especially online.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re trying to figure out how to dose it, right? But this song is trying to describe that feeling when you can\u2019t control it. And it\u2019s really a part of being human, I guess. Dopamine is really what drives popular culture nowadays, and it always has been. I mean, dopamine is kind of like the rush you get from music as well. It\u2019s not a bad thing, really!<\/p>\n

I feel like people are trying to chase the dopamine of love, but in lower octaves: You go on a dating app, you go on Instagram, you post something, people like it, and you\u2019re like, \u201cYes, give me more!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Love is the crazy one. Love is the scariest. It frightens people, but that\u2019s kind of what we\u2019re chasing at the end of the day. I think human interaction is so different now: the physical meetings are not as common, so we get our dopamine from interacting on the internet. But the real meeting is something more precious.<\/p>\n

On that subject, what keeps you and Klas working together after all of these years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have this stamina for being uncomfortable and working on things for a very long time. Sometimes when I work with other people, it drives them crazy, how long I want to work on things. I don\u2019t think that you can overwork things\u2014I just think you get to a new stage with things. And I just really enjoy doing that with Klas because he\u2019s kind of as obsessive as me. I think we understand each other, which is very crucial. You have to understand each other when you have that kind of relationship. It\u2019s like an old marriage kind of relationship. It has ups and downs, but we managed to work our way towards a whole new [level of] excitement this time. I\u2019m really proud of us, actually!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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You should be! Your studio sessions sound therapeutic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We never went to therapy, but it\u2019s like<\/em> we went to therapy. We\u2019ve talked about our emotions and our experiences for 20 years. I think we\u2019ve done more work than most couples do. I love him. He\u2019s one of my best friends.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Nicole Busch, courtesy of Acne Studios<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been 30 years since you released your first album, Robyn Is Here<\/em>. What has given you hope for pop music since then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the music industry is so much better now than it was when I started. I think one of the most important things for me has been working with amazing songwriters the whole way through. Unfortunately, most of them have been men, and I\u2019m trying to work with more women. But I think writing a good song is still what gets me off\u2014like it\u2019s a hobby or an obsession. It never had to do with the industry, or having a career, or trying to calculate where I\u2019m going\u2026it\u2019s something I really love to do. When I started I [wanted] to make pop music in a way where you still felt like a person. It was a very different time and people weren\u2019t looking at pop music in that way. I just stuck to my ideas for as long as I had to and [brought] people with me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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You\u2019ve done a great job of supporting new generations of women coming up in pop; I hear a lot of your music in Charli\u2019s. How was it, teaming up with her on the \u201c360\u201d remix?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She asked me. She was like, \u201cI made an album, it\u2019s called Brat.<\/em>\u201d I was so happy she did that. We had dinner six months before she released that album and had time to talk about it before it all kind of went crazy…<\/p>\n

In a way, I feel more connected to Charli\u2019s age group in pop music than I did to the people that I started out with. There is this flexibility, a more fluid way of thinking about pop music that happened when she started working. I think it\u2019s a great time for pop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: http:\/\/vogue.com\/article\/writing-a-good-song-is-still-what-gets-me-off-robyn-on-her-grand-return-to-the-popsphere<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music \u201cWriting a Good Song Is Still What Gets Me Off\u201d: Robyn on Her Grand Return to the Popsphere By Suzy Exposito November 21, 2025 Photo: Courtesy of Acne Studios It doesn\u2019t rain much in Los Angeles, but on Wednesday night at the Fonda Theatre\u2014where the Swedish pop star Robyn performed new material for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":720861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-720860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-vogue-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=720860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/720861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=720860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=720860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=720860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}