They're the guys responsible for the song that spent most of the back half of last year lodged firmly in your brain and that left your like-o-meter wavering wildly between 'OMG I'm so sick of this song' and 'OMG this is the best thing ever'. But Icona Pop aren't just about I Love It. The Swedish pop duo – made up of 26 and 27 year olds Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo – have produced a whole host of foot-stompingly excellent pop tunes, and supported first Miley Cyrus on the North American leg of her Bangerz Tour and then Katy Perry as she unleashed her Prism tour on the UK over the past month. Now, as they get ready to record their second album, we chatted to them about sneaking into Katy Perry's dressing room, raving in the woods and having the Cookie Monster sing their song.
Was Katy lovely to you guys?
She’s such a warm and humble person. The vibe backstage was great, we had so much fun and there was so much girl power going on!
Did you guys wait till she went on stage and then go in her dressing room and try on all her clothes?
Always. We would steal all of her food, and jewellery. Ha ha no. Like we’re really going to do that!
What was the food like? Is it all lollipops and candy floss on a Katy Perry tour?
The food was actually really good on the tour; very healthy. And I think she needed it to be because it’s such a big stage and such a long show so everyone needs to be like super athletes. I guess they probably serve the candy after the show.
Before this you went on tour with Miley. Who wins in the battle of the baggage?
I mean they both have like private planes and stuff like that and they love clothes. So they’re kind of equal when it comes to stuff like that.
Did you have any idea how big I Love It was going to be when you recorded it?
It’s something that you can never predict. What we usually do when we have new songs is try them out on an audience so if we’re playing live we just throw it quickly into the set and see the reactions. And we could see immediately with I Love It that from the first chorus people were singing along.
It’s been used everywhere. What’s the best place you’ve heard it used?
Our favourite one was the Cookie Monster. It’s so good.
How about in Girls?
That was so cool. We didn’t know it would be featured till we saw it.
How do you choose what you wear?
We love clothes and we always decide what we wear ourselves. Sometimes we create our own stage pieces like we thought up these cool jackets, then we worked with a friend from Sweden to make our vision come true.
Do people send you more clothes the more famous you get?
No, but if they read this, it would be amazing if they could send us some stuff. We wouldn’t say no to free gorgeous clothes. Thank you.
All your music is SO HAPPY. Are you ever sad?
I think that our superpower with our music is that actually the lyrics are always are usually about heartbreak stories but we kind of like to disguise them with happier tunes. But no, we’re just human. Of course it there are times when you’re not feeling 100 per cent or times when you’re not feeling like you want to go up on stage if you’re sad, but you just do it and you get so much energy off the fans.
A lot of people probably cheer themselves up by listening to the sort of music you make but surely you guys would be like ‘Not that song again!’
I mean, it’s not that I don’t like our songs, I’m very proud of all the songs we’ve released so far and they all have a story, but it's not the thing that I put on when I feel sad. Unless it’s a song that you made yesterday then you’re like YAY, it can be your little baby for a while.
Why is your country so good at pop music?
We’ve been talking a lot about this and we think it’s something to do with the fact that the vocals and melodies in Swedish pop songs sound quite a bit like traditional Swedish vocal music. I don’t know if it’s something to do with that, or maybe it's something in the water.
You guys could bottle up that water and ship it over here, you’d make millions.
Well you’ve got quite good musicians here as well!
Yeah, they’re OK – you guys have ABBA though. What are you going to do after the Katy Perry tour?
We’ve got a LOT of stuff coming up. We’re currently working on our new album and we’re going to tour and we’re going to be everywhere doing a lot of different shows and festivals. I mean, yeah, our schedule is very packed. In a good way.
Do you ever get to go home?
We’re actually going home in like two days and having a party with our friends.
Do they throw you guys a party every time you come back?
We’re throwing them a party. We missed them.
That's nice. Can we come with you?
Yeah! I would rent a bicycle and force you to cycle round Stockholm with us. It’s so beautiful with the water surrounding the city then I would definitely take you to our favourite coffee place and then we would go out to the woods and rave. Yeah, we would get boats to a little island and have a rave.
Is that something lots of people do in Sweden?
Not really! Just us. We like doing it, though. We feel very free.
Sold. See you guys there.
Follow Jess on Twitter @jess_commons
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.