The last time we spoke to you, you played a show at the AB Club to introduce your EP, The Beautiful Struggle. How do you look back on that period?
It feels very long ago, like three people ago. Very young, cute. I had just dyed my hair for the first time then, red! You couldn’t see anything, but I felt so cool and confident with it. One of the first moments where I found out how much physical self-expression does to me.
Back then, just about every major music medium proclaimed you as a future superstar in the music world. Was it hard to deal with that pressure?
Yes, but mostly because I didn’t want to become a superstar. I just want to make and perform art, build a community around me, and be able to offer it to others. Not everyone wants to play arenas and millions of streams; that’s a choice that doesn’t suit me. I am happy to present myself as an artist now rather than a potential future superstar. I love daily life too much to fight for another life. It’s fine.
After that, you retired. What did you learn about yourself in those two years?
That things are allowed to coexist. That I can be a star rather than a supernova. That I can also be homely, bourgeois, wholesome, and at the same time, a walking statement. I want to be a woman who does what she wants, who dares everything but is also allowed to be afraid. That life is not black and white.
