Enfnts Terribles

Your song “EGO” explores the idea of letting go of control and the self. What personal experiences or reflections led you to center this song around the concept of ego?

My songs are often side effects of where my thoughts are and what I’m thinking and feeling at the moment. Right then, I was thinking a lot about the ego and how it affects life. I see the ego as this reckless creature you have to face and eventually conquer, and I started playing with the idea of having a conversation with her.

Eckhart Tolle had a big influence on the lyrics of “EGO.” How has his philosophy shaped your view of artistry or life in general?

I’m always in a constant flow of reading, looking, and listening to things — partly out of curiosity, but also for inspiration and then it goes through the filter of my mind. Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘A New Earth’ gave me the ability to understand what ego is and to look at it from a new perspective I believe but to be honest, I don’t remember much of the book, but it touched me deeply and inspired me to write this song. In many ways, it set the tone for the whole album and what I wanted it to be.

This time, you started with lyrics before melodies. How did that shift in your creative process affect the final sound and emotional core of the new album?

With this album I wanted to go a bit more raw and unpolished, so to start with the lyrics was a big key. Melodies come pretty easily to me, but that struggle I often felt later to put words to the melodies and to feel that what I say reflects where I am mentally could be such an impossible puzzle. So it was an epiphany like, what happens if I start with the lyrics? And that opened up a lot — both how I used my voice, I was more playful, and also the energy of the songs.

In “MILK”, there’s a powerful sense of confidence and self-made energy. Was that chant-like mantra inspired by your own journey through the music industry over the past two decades?

That chant has been growing inside of me, I would say, these last five years. The confidence of having a vision and running for it and not waiting for someone else to do it for you.

With nearly half a billion streams and a career that started at 16, how do you stay connected to your “naive joy” after so many years in the spotlight?

I’m actually so much more inspired today than when I was younger. I think there are many reasons. I am surrounded by so much creativity, friends who inspire me so much, who bring out the best in me, and who always push me to look inside and go deeper.

What’s something you can exclusively tell us about the upcoming album? Something nobody knows about it yet.

The last song on the album — you will be a part of my childbirth. But don’t worry, it will be in a very artistic way.

Photos by Fredrik Hvass