“It’s just a fun song about weed,” explains the 23-year-old pop singer.
“They were like, f–k!
You smoke so much!'
“Whenever I release this baby, it’s out for the world to judge,” says Zara Larsson, of her forthcoming third album.Luc Coiffait
I was like, ‘Let’s write a song about it!'”
But onPoster Girl, Larsson sings with purpose.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve been working onPoster Girlfor years.
What sort of emotional state did this start from for you?
I am a grown woman now.
“Never Forget You” was the first song you ever wrote.
I have the courage to speak up and just voice my opinions.
It’s a very intimate thing to be creative with other people in any sort of creative field.
Doesn’t matter if you’re a dancer or painter or writer.
All of us probably have better ideas than what we think.
But we’re just too shy to express them.
Poster Girlis far less of a group effort thanSo Good.
You worked a lot with Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels.
What drew you to them in particular?
It was a delight to work with them.
We would talk about life and just write it down.
For the next album, I would like it to be even less people.
The titlePoster Girlis taken from a song on the record.
What made you feel like that track could serve as the banner for the album?
I thought it was a really cool title.
When you hear it, you’re like, hm, what does it mean?
Is she the poster girl?
You know, it’s actually not that deep.
You could also hear it as a love song.
And when you hear “poster girl,” I felt it represented the album title.
I feel it presented me as two types of people I am every day.
I don’t walk around super glammed up all the time.
I’m very normal.
I honestly look like a bag of s–t most of the time.
I don’t care.
Both are equal parts of me.
Is this something that’s recurring for you in your romantic and personal lives?
That’s a good question.
I’d have to say yeah, because I don’t think about consequences at all.
“Ruin My Life” is from the point in life I was in earlier.
And that’s f—ed!
I did have some valid criticism about it: don’t romanticize abusive relationships.
Hopefully not, but a lot of them are.
Why should I be ashamed of that?
That teaches women to also look at themselves that way.
With that, I was just feeling like, tell your friends, I don’t care.
What are they going to say?
If I’m a slut, you’re a slut.
You know what I mean?
What is it about that sound that draws you to it?
Everything goes in cycles.
In 20 years, we’ll be doing songs that are inspired by maybe the early 2010s.
It’s just a natural way of life.
But I really like the sound because I’ve been sleeping on ABBA.
When you listen to the lyrics, the melodies, what?
It’s insane and timeless.
Just this legacy of a Roxette banger; so many amazing Swedish artists having a legacy is really inspiring.
I also like to dance.
I like to move.
You’ve had a lot of success worldwide, particularly in Europe and Sweden.
Do you think this album is going to push that barrier further for you in the U.S.?
Whenever I release a song, I’m like, this song is going to go number one.
That’s how much I want to love the song.
I believe that every one of these songs off this album should go to number one.
The truth is, no one ever knows.
Not the people who work in the f—ing record industry, they don’t know anything.
Whenever I release this baby, it’s out for the world to judge.
And if I don’t, then move onto the next album and we’ll go again.
It’s not deeper than that.
This interview has been edited and condensed
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