Robyn

Robyn

Hi.

Adam Bainbridge

Hi. Are we both a little bit nervous?

Robyn

I’m super nervous.

Adam Bainbridge

OK. Then we’ll start on something that you’re going to have full and total recall for, hopefully: your childhood. Let’s start at the beginning. Red Bull actually said to me, “Please don’t do a long chronological sort.” But I was like how do I do a 23-year career without some kind of structure?

We’re going to have to start at the beginning. Let’s talk about the influence that you claim you’ve had from your parents. Your parents were in an experimental theater group called Scheherazade.

Robyn

Scheherazade.

Adam Bainbridge

OK. I can’t say it.

Robyn

It’s the lady that tells all the stories in One Thousand and One Nights.

Adam Bainbridge

OK. It’s a Persian thing, right? My pronunciation might have been right.

Robyn

That’s fine.

Adam Bainbridge

That was the Swedish version. Tell me about going on tour with your parents, because you were on the road with them pretty much constantly as a child, right?

Robyn

Yeah. We were touring from when I was six months until I started school.

Adam Bainbridge

Six months old?

Robyn

Yes. It was a group that my parents started in I think ’76. Three years before I was born. It was them and their friends from university. I was touring with my parents and 12 other human beings. They were all quite childish and lovely actors.

Adam Bainbridge

In a Minibus? In a coach?

Robyn

Yeah, the first bus we had was a Volkswagen hippie thing. Then we got a few other bigger vehicles later on. They did experimental theater. Kind of bordering onto modern dance. They were very inspired by the Russian culture of theater that came out of the communistic era. But they weren’t making political theater, which at the time was something everyone else was doing. They were doing more theater about the human condition and about the problems with communism as well.

Adam Bainbridge

It was quite experimental, wasn’t it?

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

You’ve told me... Is anyone here from Stockholm? From Sweden? There’s a few. There’s a few Stockholmers in the back.

Robyn

Hey.

Adam Bainbridge

You’ve told me, as we’ve walked through Stockholm before, you’ve pointed to the town square and said, “This is a weird memory for me.” The car crash piece. Could you explain that?

Robyn

That’s great you remember that. It was in the beginning of the ’80s and my parents had made this happening thing. It involved two long Cadillacs driving down a ramp on one of the biggest squares in Stockholm. My mom and four other female actors dressed up and it was like a slow motion crash. They were all hit by the cars and they all died. It started with my godfather driving this Cadillac. He was a pimp. He had a tiger in the car, which was one of the other actors. Then a little gray man with a portfolio walking around the square. The whole thing ended with this gray man just transforming into this amazing female creature on stilts. It was all accompanied by experimental synth music.

Adam Bainbridge

OK.

[laughter]

Robyn

I was on the shoulders of my dad. Also, at the same time the first maybe racist demonstration was happening at the same time. There were clashes between, I guess, Nazis and hippies in the center of Stockholm. It was an intense energy. It was one of the stronger memories that I had from hanging out with my parents.

Adam Bainbridge

I remember thinking it was quite indicative because whenever we’re in Sweden I feel like we end up talking about the reminiscences of your childhood and spaces that you moved through. You’ll say, “I remember when this happened here” or, “I used to go to a club there.”

It seems that that kind of experimental culture and your parent’s friends had an impact on you. That style of interview that you did for Swedish radio you were saying just the sense of costumes and performance you realized later in your life they had had a really profound influence on you.

Robyn

Yes. I’m so happy you’re making this interview, Adam. It feels very safe.

It had a huge influence on me of course because my grandfather was a priest. After daycare or school I would be alone with my grandparents and I would come with him to church and I would watch him preach. Then my mom would pick me up and take me to the theater. There was another costume and another kind of preaching going on. This environment was both very serious and spiritual things but also my mom playing witches and prostitutes and of course was... It shaped me. It shaped me.

Adam Bainbridge

I guess in a way you’ve seen the performativeness of the church and you’ve seen the performativeness of your parents’ theater practice. At what point did music come into that? Pop music, for example. I know that you said that you were kind of at first very much influenced by what your parents were listening to.

Robyn

A lot of the music that I loved as a child were things that I listened to in the tour bus. It was everything from what my mom listened to, which was a lot of Aretha Franklin and Jimi Hendrix but then also other things that the other actors were listening to. One of the first memories I have was Heroes with David Bowie on headphones driving on some road somewhere in Europe. It was my way of making time pass by. It was boring being in the tour bus with grownups, no one to play with. Also, most people that were in the theater group they loved music and it was a big part of our everyday lives.

Adam Bainbridge

You have younger siblings but your younger siblings weren’t on the road with you.

Robyn

No. I think when my parents got pregnant with my brother they realized that there’s some great things about bringing me on the road and there’s some less great things.

Adam Bainbridge

One kid on the road is fine. Two kids on the road is...

Robyn

Yeah. I think they wanted to give him a more stable upbringing. We moved back to Stockholm when I was seven and I started school and my brother was born. Him and I have very different experiences of my parents.

Adam Bainbridge

Then you started writing songs at 11. There seems to have been one key event that was inspiring to you in terms of the lyrical content of these songs. What would that be?

Robyn

My parent’s divorce. Yeah. It’s a huge thing for a kid when your parents decide to split up or separate in some way. We had been touring my whole childhood, and they were always working together. It was a big kind of separation, and it wasn’t a good one either. The first song I wrote was called “In My Heart,” and it was about my parent’s divorce.

Adam Bainbridge

I actually have some of the lyrics for “In My Heart.” I showed them to you the weekend and we decided we weren’t going to broadcast those but this is a kind of great story. Robyn was discovered – correct me on any details here – in a school assembly in 1993? Ish?

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

There’s this group called Legacy of Sound in Sweden. They were invited to Robyn’s school to do a performance. They wanted one of the kids at the school to do a number or a something after the band had performed and they picked Robyn.

Adam Bainbridge

I’ve asked you about this, but what’s also funny is that the Swedish pop star directly responsible for then getting Robyn signed to BMG sent me an email and told me about this childhood...

Robyn

Wow.

Adam Bainbridge

This memory of you at the school assembly. Let me read you some of it, and I’ll show you the rest afterwards. It’s really sweet. This is from Meja from Legacy of Sound.

She says, “After our show was done I walk offstage and after that this young, blonde girl walks up on the stage with what I remember was a backing track cassette tape. She presented herself and her song and it really grabbed a hold of me. Her voice, her stage presence, and her being totally comfortable and confident onstage. She was 14 or so and to me born to do this. I walked up to her to talk and ask her what her dreams were. Did she want to sing professionally or would she want to pursue a career? I asked for her number and called her, spoke to her mother, and I decided I wanted to introduce her to the team I was working with in the studio at the time. I remember bringing Robyn down to Peter. She was just super cool. At the meeting I asked if Robyn would feel like singing just a song acapella for Peter. She sang, as always, her heart out. I guess the rest is history. I’ve followed her career ever since and she’s to me one of the greatest female artists we have. Solid, heartfelt, witty. Sure of herself and where she wants to go and a brilliant songwriter.

I have often wondered, though, because we lost contact when she signed to BMG, of how those early years affected her. I mean, she was only 14 in the music business full of sharks. It could not have been easy starting that early and I hope that she had a good comfort of the people around her. We see each other every once in a while and it always warms my heart. I’m a huge fan and have been since day one.”

Robyn

Aww.

Adam Bainbridge

Aww.

[applause]

Robyn

That’s very, very sweet. She’s a very sweet person.

Adam Bainbridge

Do you remember that? Do you remember singing this song in the school assembly?

Robyn

I do. I feel bad for her feeling bad for putting me... I don’t know if that’s what she meant.

Adam Bainbridge

I don’t think she feels bad. I think it’s something that you’ve mentioned, which is that it was a very young age to enter into an old-fashioned music business as well.

Robyn

Yeah. It was nothing like what it is today. It was not fractured. It was not multicultural. It was a very old school industry. I’m so happy that I decided to start my own record company eventually. Those first 10 years were really important and very informative but really difficult as well. I never felt like I fit in. Imagine going from that kind of thing with my parents into a much more conservative and very old school way of working.

Robyn

I was so naïve. When I came here to this city, the first time, and I started working on that first album, I just thought, “Yeah. We’ll tour. I’ll play some music for people.” I thought it was going to be like with my parents.

Adam Bainbridge

No?

Robyn

No.

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

You’re not in a Volkswagen bus on the back roads of Sweden anymore unfortunately.

Robyn

No. No tigers.

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

Even in Sweden, because this is me still looking at the very formative years that you had there, you were opening for Tina Turner in Sweden. How was that? Do you remember that?

Robyn

No. I was so little. I didn’t know my voice. I was super nervous. Amazing to meet her. It was one of my mom’s big idols. I remember meeting her before. She was like, “Well, hi, Robyn. I heard you’ve got quite a voice.” I’m like, “What? What?” That was mind blowing of course.

Adam Bainbridge

Let’s play one of these formative, inspirational artists. We’ll come back to Robyn’s rapping later in the lecture, but this was one of your influences and someone you’ve gone on to make music with. Let’s play “Manchild” by Neneh Cherry.

(music: Neneh Cherry – “Manchild” / applause)

That was “Manchild,” the video by Neneh Cherry. Who was the baby?

Robyn

I’m not sure, but I believe it’s Tyson, her second child.

Adam Bainbridge

Shout out to Tyson.

Robyn

Shout out to Tyson. And shout out to Neneh for being, [at least to my knowledge], the first female in pop music to be pregnant and have her baby in the video. She did it in ’85? What's this? ’87, maybe.

Adam Bainbridge

I want to talk about, again, the beginnings of your Scandinavian career just before you came to America. You end up writing some of these big first songs with Max Martin. This is the same year that he’s writing “Everybody” and “I Want It That Way” for the Backstreet Boys. This is his big moment on the scene. How was that? Do you remember working with him and Denniz [Pop]?

Robyn

I do. I do. I had finished most of my first album. Peter, who was my manager at the time, said that he thought I should work with this guy, Martin Sandberg.

Adam Bainbridge

How old would he have been at the time?

Robyn

How old could he have been? 25?

Adam Bainbridge

They were young, weren’t they?

Robyn

They were young. He was really young. Denniz was a little bit older. Martin was his protégé. I remember being told later on how Denniz had been putting him in a basement and just have him write a bunch of songs that were all of those amazing things that came out later.

The first time I met them both I was late and I was really nervous. They kind of froze me out. They didn’t talk to me for a minute. I got super nervous. It was quite traumatizing. Then when we got over that they were super friendly. It was a hard duty kind of environment for me to come in.

Adam Bainbridge

Max Martin comes from heavy metal as well.

Robyn

Heavy metal like suburb kid. One of the most generous people that I’ve worked with. I have to say that. He’s, always from that time up until when we worked later, the most generous and open person.

Adam Bainbridge

You came back to work with him on “Time Machine.”

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

Years later. It’s funny. You even took me to visit the Max Martin mansion in Beverly Hills. There’s a minion working in every room. “Write a song, write a song, write a song.”

Robyn

Yeah. They’re professionals.

Adam Bainbridge

I mean, good minions. [laughter] It’s on a time delay. We’re okay.

Then you come to America. What’s crazy about America is that we found footage on YouTube of your 18th birthday party here in New York. How does an 18-year-old get in a club in New York? That shouldn’t even be allowed. They were there pouring cocktails. Andy Bell from Erasure is there.

Robyn

Yeah. It was something that the record company did. I guess it was the social media of that time. There wasn’t an Instagram.

Adam Bainbridge

That’s true.

Robyn

You had to film things and show them to people and send it to MTV. There was no email. I remember when I came here the first time. I had email, but most people didn’t. When you met someone you were like, “Are you on the Internet? Do you have e-mail?”

Adam Bainbridge

People are like, “Here’s my Instagram. It comes on a VHS cassette.”

[laughter]

Robyn

Exactly. No, it’s true.

Adam Bainbridge

In that press kit there’s also footage of you backstage at the Apollo, which I find crazy.

Robyn

Yeah. Me too.

Adam Bainbridge

Not so much that you did it but that must have been nerve-wracking as hell. Live at the Apollo. You don’t think of it as a talent show but you know you’ve performed there. Then more footage that we foun, and we’re not going to show today but maybe you’ll be able to find it on the Internet. Robyn was also one of the very few non-black artists to perform on Soul Train. Twice. We watched that footage this weekend.

Robyn

Oh my God.

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

I mean, this stuff this must have been so nerve-wracking.

Robyn

It was. It still is in a way. I think to have your teenage years documented like that is kind of crazy. When I think about it I want to go back to myself when I was 16, 17 and be like, “Hey, girl. You’re going to be okay.” It was kind of tough. I can’t believe how brave I was in all the things I did. It’s bordering on just stupid. No, not stupid. Very just throwing myself out there and things I didn’t know that much about. I learned along the way.

Adam Bainbridge

When I’ve spoken to your brother and he said, “You have to remember, Robyn left home as a teenager.” You became fully independent, which is that’s a bold thing to do. Leave school at 16, just be like, “I’m out of here. I’m an adult.” In a particularly crazy music industry as well.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

You also reminded me that this is the era when lots of musicians would do talk shows together. It’s like you were backstage with Destiny’s Child or you’re on the same show as a huge girl group at the time but you were just like you on your own from Sweden. It was brave. It’s amazing.

Robyn

It is great. How lucky am I to be able to still be doing it? It’s luck and it’s a certain kind of chain of events also. You meet some really good people along the way.

Adam Bainbridge

Let’s talk about how this era of your career... This was also interesting talking to you about your albums. I said to Robyn, “When you say album one and two do you mean Robyn Is Here? Do you mean that as album one?” I’m getting the feeling that you think of Robyn as your first album.

You said that in a way you do. Now you think of Robyn as your first album, Body Talk as your second album. Let’s talk about how you’ve moved from the early three albums and the kind of influences that you had in those until then Robyn, album four, album one, and starting your own label.

What was it that made you think, “To hell with this. I don’t need a label anymore”? You kind of changed music, stylistically. Is it that the music was changing around you or did you change as an individual?

Robyn

I think it was me more changing. I was changing. I felt like I got to a point where it was so painful working in a major record company industry that it wasn’t worth it. I felt like I had nothing to lose really. It was brave but it wasn’t like, “Oh, I think I’m going to do this.” It was like, “I really need to do something now.”

It was difficult to try my ideas, even though I always wrote my own songs and I was involved in the production. The environment made me censor myself I think more than other people censoring me straight on. There was definitely moments and situations where I didn’t feel comfortable, but I never felt used. But I definitely felt that I could never spread my wings, I could never be as experimental as I wanted to be.

Starting the record company was a way of building a structure around me that would protect me from the pressure I would put on myself, but also, of course, from a more commercial part of the industry that I couldn’t mirror myself in it. I felt very weird and the things that felt natural to me just weren’t received. It wasn’t that they were pushed down. They just kind of went over the heads of a lot of people that I was working with.

I couldn’t explain what I wanted to do. I felt like I just had to do it. Again, I was lucky to work with someone that put this idea in my head. Also, at the same time we started making music in a different way.

Adam Bainbridge

This was around the time you were sent a copy of Deep Cuts by The Knife.

Robyn

Yes. I got a CD in my mailbox. It was The Knife’s second album exactly. Thank you, Adam. I was happy that they wanted to send me this album. I thought it was amazing music. I just got in touch with them. Kind of like I did with you and said, “Do you want to work with me?”

Robyn

They were so supportive. Very feminist way of working, very conscious way of working. They were all independent and they were doing it all by themselves. We made a great song together. I played it to the label that I was working with at the time. They didn’t like it. That just did it for me. I just felt like, “I love this. You don’t like it at all. How am I supposed to work with this?”

The same guy who didn’t like that song was actually the person who helped me start my label. That’s how it is. It’s so contradictive. You think the music industry was all bad, but it wasn’t. For me, it was about finding the courage of really following my instinct.

Adam Bainbridge

The Robyn album with “Who’s That Girl,” and let’s talk about “Be Mine” as well because this was the first time for you working with Klas [Åhlund], who is now a long-term and close collaborator.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

Who was working with The Knife. You’ve described it somewhere as the time you found your collaborators and you found your sound with them and really came into your own. How did you meet Klas?

Robyn

I don’t remember... I remember the first time we met. I think it was an idea from my then-manager. “You should meet with Klas. We should see what happens.” We met and we decided to start working together. It became a really close relationship and still is. Klas, Åhlund is his last name, is like the second band member in Robyn. [laughs] No, he really is.

Adam Bainbridge

If he had a large role in the Robyn album he had an even larger impact on the Body Talk records because a lot of that was just you and him being very, very spontaneous and just having fun as well.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

Is “Be Mine” the first song you wrote together? I think you said it was.

Robyn

I believe it is. Yeah. It was the song that Klas brought to me, and we finished it together. I remember feeling so excited. Really so excited about being able to make music that I liked.

Adam Bainbridge

This is really kind of Robyn as well. Robyn has gone into her archives and found us the demo, the original demo of the song. A lot of you might know the finished version, but now we’re going to play this demo of “Be Mine.”

(music: Robyn – “Be Mine” demo / applause)

Adam Bainbridge

That was the demo for “Be Mine.” That sounded so good. That was originally written on guitar. Was it the Kate Bush “Cloudbusting” influence?

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

You said you wanted to bring in strings?

Robyn

Yes. I wanted to... Well, Klas is a rock guy. Rock.

[laughter]

I’m not. Well, the only guitar that I’ve listened to maybe intensely has been Prince’s guitar, and I think that’s why I loved this song so much. It reminded me of something like that. But I was like, “I can’t do this guitar thing.”

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

I feel like he snuck it in on some songs since then.

Robyn

Yes.

Adam Bainbridge

Because maybe like the first song.

Robyn

Yeah. Exactly. Too much, too soon. So we recorded it with strings. And it’s just strings, bass, and drums and vocals in this version.

Adam Bainbridge

I want to talk about the song writing process as well because for this song the Klas may have brought a fairly complete song and it’s something that you’ve ended up writing together. I love the way you described writing “Dancing on My Own” for example where you were saying the melody was just floating around for a while. You just had this idea. How does that happen to you? Will you be walking down the street and the seeds of the melody come or is it you sleeping, you in the shower? Where do these ideas for songs come from?

Robyn

Well every song is different. Some of them you struggle with them for years. But some songs come as little presents and they’re rare, but some of them come to get where everything kind of comes together. Usually when I write music it starts with melody and rhythm, so it won’t be actual words. They will be just be like a rhythm mostly with some notes. And sometimes it’s lyrics. Sometimes it’s just the words that I love. But with “Dancing on My Own” it was one of those things where the melody and the rhythm and some of the words kind of came at the same time, and I think it was because to me “Be Mine” and “Dancing on My Own” are a little bit connected. They don’t sound the same, but they’re connected in the chord structure and the way that the chorus has two parts. And I think I’ve been touring with the first album for a long time and I’ve been marinating on this kind of language for a while and “Dancing on My Own” kind of came out of that, I think.

So I had this idea that I brought with me to the studio with Patrik Berger who I wrote Dancing On My own with and we started playing around with chords and synthesizers and it just kind of happened. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s close to magic sometimes when that hits you.

Adam Bainbridge

I read another interview from around this time where you were saying that part of the emotional intensity that you wanted to get into your songs with that kind of an emotional intensity that you have at 15, 16. When you really fall in love you fall in love, when you’re heart broken you’re heart broken. You can tell that from the song writing as well.

Robyn

Good.

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

Is part of that I wondered because also you were quite busy at 15, 16. Is part of this cathartic process. It’s like you’re revisiting emotional spaces you maybe didn’t get to visit with this time around?

Robyn

Yeah. You mean the first time around with the first albums or the first –

Adam Bainbridge

At that age.

Robyn

At that age? Yeah. I mean, who knows? The unconscious is so mysterious. But I think that after living a few years now – not that I’m old, but I’m getting older. I feel like when you look back at those... When I look back at my teenage years or whatever it might have been things that happen then or a little bit earlier, but it also might have been things that happen when I was super small. I feel like it’s... There’s so much inside of us I think that we don’t have access to and then when you’re in a very extreme or desperate or sad situation there are little messages that pop up and sometimes you’re able to catch them and make a song out of them.

I’ve written a lot of sad songs, yeah, and sometimes people ask me, “What happened to you?” I’m like, “Oh my god.” But I think... I’m a fan of when there’s light and dark at the same time and when there’s just happiness or just sadness it just gets boring. That’s so predictable, and the magic to me is when there are lots of things going on at the same time. That’s much more satisfying, and that’s what I’m drawn to when I make music, I guess.

Adam Bainbridge

And do you feel it is like a cathartic process? Do you feel better after writing songs?

Robyn

Yes, because you’re able to turn something that might feel like you’re holding in or that you’re censoring yourself or somehow not giving or showing. You’re able to make something good out of it. Something positive, which is amazing. So that’s really amazing. But I wouldn’t call it... Well maybe making music is a kind of a therapy, but I wouldn’t call it that, because therapy to me is something very different and much slower. It’s just like a way of being and a way of living that I just haven’t been able to change or whatever.

Adam Bainbridge

Well, I think I can speak for a lot of people in the room as well. All of the depth of emotion and the feeling that you put into your songs. It’s so meaningful to be. I think they really like those emotional ideas of “Dancing on Your Own” or “You Will Never Be Mine.” I think it really ... It’s not just universal, but it’s something that obviously connects to what happens in people’s lives as well. Let’s hear a little bit of another demo. This is quite exciting. So Robyn is giving us the demo for “Dancing on My Own.”

[applause]

Can you explain to everyone what yogurt is?

Robyn

Yes. So yogurt is a French word for a white kind of thing that you eat. No, I’m just kidding.

[laughter]

It’s a word that you taught me.

Adam Bainbridge

Oh, OK.

Robyn

Yeah. Yogurt is when you sing made up English.

Adam Bainbridge

Gibberish?

Robyn

Gibberish could be any language, but things that aren’t real words, I guess. So this is some yogurt.

Adam Bainbridge

So this is the demo version with some yogurt and towards the end of the chorus just so you know I’m going to cross fade into the finished version so you can kind of hear what ended up happening in the songs. So this is the demo of “Dancing on My Own.”

(music: Robyn – “Dancing on My Own” / applause)

That’s a little peek behind the curtain. That was the demo for “Dancing on My Own.” Tell us about writing that with Patrik. What do you remember?

Robyn

I remember Patrik. He’s in punk bands usually.

Adam Bainbridge

I’m sensing a theme here.

[laughter]

Robyn

Exactly. But he also loves synthesizers and it’s so goth-y now that I hear it. It’s so very sad.

[laughter]

Yeah I think we just brought out these synthesizers and I wanted it to be really pounding and he got it.

Adam Bainbridge

And so you already had that idea for a chorus in your head around?

Robyn

The chorus I had there.

Adam Bainbridge

And what would happen? Would you say, “I think I have this melody,” and sing it to him? Would it sound like that?

Robyn

I think some of it I sang to him. Some I didn’t know if it was going to work. Some things you don’t want to put it out there before you’re sure of it when you first work with someone. But I had this, “I keep dancing on my own.” I had that. I knew I wanted it to finish like that. Something very definitive about the melody and I always try to write a song that I feel like maybe Prince could like. And I think he could have liked, “I keep dancing on – ”

Adam Bainbridge

For sure.

Robyn

Maybe. That’s how I get myself in shape. I think about him.

Adam Bainbridge

I’ve also noticed you in the studio. There’s a thing that Robyn does when there’s a song we’re working on that’s quite good that we know has got promise. You’ll start singing “A Love Bizarre” by Sheila E over the song.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

But it’s like ... You’re like, “Shit. I got the Robyn seal of approval. OK. Great.”

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

What is it about that song as well?

Robyn

I don’t know. It’s just something. It feels like ... It’s a kind of melody that I feel is timeless. It’s not connected to a trend or a rhythm that’s happening right there and then. It’s something else. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like french fries. It’s always going to be amazing.

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

There we go. I think that’s the perfect metaphor actually.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

So I think we can start teasing towards the next era of Robyn because there’s a lot of people in this room who are like, “OK. It talks about the early albums. We talked about Robyn, we talked about Body Talk. The question is what’s coming next?”

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

But what has come next? What ... Let’s think about the projects that you worked on between Body Talk and now. So a key one I guess because it was... Well in a way it was your first band-band. The way you described it was La Bagatelle Magique, which was you, Christian Falk and Marcus Jaegerson.

Robyn

Yeah. Exactly.

Adam Bainbridge

How did that come about?

Robyn

Well Christian Falk was a person that I’ve ... He worked on my first album and Christian was this amazing person that, even though I was 16 years old when we worked on the first album when I was in the studio with him it was like we were equals. He took me very seriously. He gave me all the space and he took my ideas seriously. That’s so rare. I don’t know if you remember what it’s like to be 16. I’m sure you do. But do you remember how people just wouldn’t take you seriously? And he did.

Adam Bainbridge

He seemed like quite an unusual personality.

Robyn

Yes.

Adam Bainbridge

He was just a bit different from everyone else. You were hanging out with him in Stockholm.

Robyn

Yes. He was different. I’ve never known anyone like him. Sometimes we’re lucky to meet those people. His frequency was so high and it was always high and he always kept his eyes on the important things. He was very complicated, but he was also someone that would always inspire me to go back to the things that I thought was important with music, and he’s also the person that played me a lot of my favorite music for the first time. He had an amazing record collection. He taught me so much about music.

So when I came out of the Body Talk albums and I’ve been making so much music and I’ve been touring so much I was really exhausted and he was one of the people that I started making music with again just to feel good about music and not feel like it was job. And we spent time and we started working on a project together. It kind of just came together naturally and “Love is Free” was one of the first things that we worked on and it came ... This is how he worked. I mean for me he’s probably one of the most important people in my life when it comes to music and he was always digging through his record collection and always finding things to sample.

I mean he started as a bass player playing in a punk band. Yeah. [laughs] But then he also got into African music and house music and he was one of the first people that I heard play two-step and this was when he was like 45 years old. He loved hip-hop music. He made the sickest beats that you can imagine and he was still doing it and the end of his life. He dug up this really obscure thing called “Automatic” that was released on a small hip-hop label here in the US in the ’80s. Someone on that record, I don’t remember his name, made this house song and he found his little part in it and he sampled it and he started making “Love is Free” and it became a totally different thing, but still that’s how he worked. It was very inspiring to be around him.

Adam Bainbridge

Maybe this is a good opportunity to listen to a little bit of “Love is Free.” I think we have the video as well. Can we have the video, please?

(music: Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique feat. Maluca – “Love is Free” / applause)

That was “Love is Free,” which is La Bagatelle Magique and Maluca in the video, I think.

Robyn

Yes. A wonderful video made by SSION, I think. I don’t know if he’s here, but I love this video.

Adam Bainbridge

I know that Robyn had a bit of a hard time drawing up a guest list with all of the newer collaborators that have been through your life as well. Because the ’90s house thing goes deep for you right back to working with Masters At Work on album three –

Robyn

On album two.

Adam Bainbridge

... “Main Thing” on album two.

Robyn

Two and three maybe. Oh. I have to... Yeah. OK. We worked together. It was an amazing experience.

[laughter / applause]

Adam Bainbridge

But that’s New York legacy, though. Working with OG house heads.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

And you can kind of start to hear those ’90s influences coming back in La Bagatelle Magique and it’s even something that I think you’re being influenced by now perhaps.

Robyn

Yes. It’s true. But one thing I thought about – this is may be off topic, but one thing I thought about when you were... I don’t remember what we said, but yeah about writing songs. One thing that is so amazing with music is that you can hear a song, like when I was little and I was hearing all this music and I didn’t have any idea where it came from the beginning my teenage years listening to all this club music that was in Europe at the time, actually in the charts. Music that came from this place that I didn’t even know anything about.

But in some music, even though you don’t know anyone about it, there’s these little clues and messages like someone’s made something and you recognize a feeling and you recognize an energy and you... Even with lyrics you can understand what that person has gone through even though you’ve never met them. It’s so beautiful. I remember coming here when I was 17 and going to .. lucky enough to manage to catch two or three of the last Body & Soul clubs in The Shelter and just seeing where this music came from that I had been listening to all my life. But I just didn’t know anything about the culture. And I remember walking in and seeing all this baby powder on the floor and these kids sleeping with their headphones and waiting for some energy to come back so that they could keep dancing. All ages and so beautiful.

Adam Bainbridge

The Shelter, which now has monthly parties at Output also started doing these late night after hours for smaller crowds in the city and I got an email about it that I forwarded Robyn. And in a moment of madness we were both thinking about going last night at 3:30 in the morning, which is when it starts, and then we were like, “No.”

Robyn

Maybe not.

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

But it’s nice to see that lineage is still there. The Shelter is still going, New York house is still going strong.

Robyn

And all the people that used to go still turning up.

Adam Bainbridge

Yeah. Oh for sure.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

So sadly La Bagatelle Magique was a complicated writing and it was a complicated project to finish because Christian got sick halfway through. I think just because it’s quite heavy I would refer people to La Bagatelle Magique website where Robyn is actually ... You did a really great text with Lisa Milberg about how it was to complete the record and the feelings around Christian’s death. But it’s obviously a big shock and these emotional tsunamis that have happened in life, fairly recently as well. How have you coped with all of these kinds of emotional roller coasters? Are there things that have helped you through that?

Robyn

Yeah. Finishing the album was... Or finishing the EP that we did, even though Christian wasn’t around anymore, was one of them. I had started psychoanalysis in 2010 already, but it wasn’t until 2014 around when Christian passed and I went through a separation at the same time. I was really searching and looking for new ways of making music and that my therapy really started to take off and I stayed in psychoanalysis for about seven years. I think things happen in life. Big things happen, and there’s nothing good about people getting sick and dying. There’s no romantic way of looking at it. But I still feel privileged having been through that experience, and it helped me to appreciate life a lot more.

Adam Bainbridge

Because I think in the text for La Bagatelle Magique project you were saying that in some ways you had to let the project breathe so that when you did finish it still maintained the joyous energy that all of you wanted it to have. It was meant to feel like this explosive, living, breathing thing.

Robyn

Totally.

Adam Bainbridge

What was your motivation behind doing the psychoanalysis? You knew that was going to be several years of your life and kind of all consuming. It was like for three days a week? Sometimes I was like... Robyn would be on Face Time and I’d be like, “OK. I’m going to leave the room.” It’s just intense. It was something that you had to commit to fully. All your energy and emotionally as well. How would you feel also coming out about the side of that? The process?

Robyn

Amazing. So amazing to have had one totally healthy relationship. [laughs] I think that’s what psychoanalysis is. You do it for five years minimum. Maybe longer. Some people do it all their lives, but I think that’s what it is. You have one relationship where you try all your other relationships and someone that stays around and follows it through with you. It’s three to four times a week, and it kept me in Sweden for a long time. Sometimes yes on Skype from LA. But yeah a real commitment. Almost like an education, I think.

Adam Bainbridge

You talked about how you feel like it’s giving you... Not permission, but it’s giving you a way to embrace other sides of yourself. Like softness for example. Do you think that something that you might hear in new music, or how are you embracing that softness in your work?

Robyn

You’re so right. The whole process of making this album has been very, very different from anything I’ve done before.

Adam Bainbridge

There’s an album? What?

Robyn

Yes.

[applause]

It’s not finished yet, but it’s almost there. I felt very raw when I started making this album. No filters, and I started it on my own in my studio listening to music that I love, dancing and making beats. And that’s how I started and I wanted to start on my own before I started collaborating this time because I had some things that I wanted to try. And I love to collaborate. It’s one of the things that I always done and that I always will do, but I wanted to just flesh it out a little bit on my own before I brought other people into the process.

Robyn

So it was an amazing period for me. If you would have asked me then I would have probably said something different, but looking back at it, it’s one of those... I think I’m always going to look back at that period and feel happy that I was in that space and just got in touch with a sensuality and softness that I’ve wanted to explore.

Adam Bainbridge

I actually wanted to ask about in terns of your own writing process and how you interact. But you’re saying this is the first time that maybe you had your own tools, you had Logic and you had your drum machine and you have sense and you were really starting the song writing process entirely alone. This kind of ties into the work that you do with your text effects tool as well, which we maybe touched on. But do you think your career would look different if you had access to the tools that people do now in terms of music making? If you were 16 and you had a laptop with Ableton and all the tools and you can sample stuff off YouTube, do you think you would be making music differently or do you think your career would look different?

Robyn

For sure. I mean I think your musical taste and your identity is always there, but technology helps you to bring it out. And the big thing I think for a lot of people that aren’t exposed to technology early on in their careers or their lives you have this unhealthy respect for it and you think that it’s difficult or you might not even like it in the beginning because it’s not so intuitive. And a part of this break that I had was also going more into that aspect and learning more about the stuff that I always had been using a little bit, but really didn’t know and it helped me to be much more detailed and specific about what I wanted to do. That’s also with Tekla is about. It’s ... Should I talk about that?

Adam Bainbridge

Yeah.

Robyn

Yeah. OK.

Adam Bainbridge

Do you want to explain what Tekla is?

Robyn

Yes.

Adam Bainbridge

Or I can give you some... A little bit of praise and props here. We need to keep lifting the star. Keep lifting. Robyn was actually awarded the KTH Grape Prize in 2013, which honors a person who through epoch making discoveries and creation of new values and by ingenious applications of findings gained on practical aspects of life promotes Sweden’s continued material progress. Good job.

[applause]

And so you took that prize money and you created the Teklafestival.

Robyn

Yes. So when you receive that prize you’re asked to do a seminar for the students of the university and I just really didn’t feel up for it. What am I supposed to tell you? “Oh this is how you edit this vocal in Logic.” I felt not worthy.

I spoke to a very intelligent friend of mine, [inaudible], and she was like, “I heard about this thing that the Swedish government is doing. They’re trying to get more girls into the technological university in Stockholm. They’ve asked the school to work on this. Maybe we can help them.”

We decided to start this festival, which is a one day festival each year for – it used to be 250 and now it’s 400 girls that just get to come and listen to music and do workshops and learn how to play instruments or have bands or work in jobs like music programs but also program and 3D printing, work with AI. Even STEM science so chemistry, physics, and all that. Just to break down this barrier of fear and not having anyone to mirror you as a girl. It’s become something really great that I’m really proud of.

Adam Bainbridge

When will the next festival be?

Robyn

We’re taking a break this year to reevaluate some of the things that we’ve been trying for the last three years. We’re doing an event in Stockholm in April, but we’re going to relaunch it again next year. Maybe make it a little bit bigger. It’s really important to keep the quality of it. It’s more about focusing actually on getting more girls into this education because technology is, like we all know, something so influential, and it’s important that we all get to decide what it’s going to do.

Adam Bainbridge

Can you explain... This is one part of the KTH thing that confused me a little bit. They built a robot of you?

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

Was that part of the prize or that was just a thing they were doing anyway? Is this something that happens in Sweden when you get sufficiently famous?

[laughter]

Robyn

Right. Right. That was the prize. No. They had an idea of making a robot and naming it after me. I was like, “Cool. Do it. Do it.”

Adam Bainbridge

Did you meet the robot?

Robyn

Yes. It wasn’t a lot of interaction. No. No AI yet.

Adam Bainbridge

You didn’t get its email? Did you stay in touch?

[laughter]

Robyn

I was interested in the dance moves.

Adam Bainbridge

There is a question in the Q&A about Robot Voices is this... Was this the robot doing the? No?

Robyn

The what?

Adam Bainbridge

The robot voices on your records.

Robyn

Oh, right. No, that’s Klas.

[laughter]

It’s actually me but it’s just voice transformers and different shit that we like.

Adam Bainbridge

There is a technical question coming about that, so I’ll move on for now.

Robyn

There’s a really good voice transformer in Logic by the way. You should find it. It’s connected... I don’t know what it’s called but in the sidebar there with the channels you can find it as an already existing setting. It’s great.

Adam Bainbridge

Who uses Logic in the room? Ooh. There’s more. I was going to say, “You three people should talk to Robyn afterwards about this.”

Adam Bainbridge

When you were working on new music you showed me the equipment that you use. You use like a LinnDrum as well, which I think is kind of interesting because it’s still ties you into the Prince lineage and Jam and Lewis. I wanted to talk to you about some of the more unexpected collaborations that people might not even know have happened in these intervening years. You have a track with Nehne. That kind of brings it full circle now out of the back. How was that working with Nehne?

Robyn

A dream come true. This album, the first video that we saw was from an album called Raw Like Sushi. It came out when I was 10 years old. It was one of my first favorite albums. She always inspired me so much. I’ve known her a little bit over the years but we’ve never worked together. It was like a dream come true.

Adam Bainbridge

She grew up in Stockholm.

Robyn

She grew up in Stockholm. Her mother is Swedish. Her dad is from Africa. I don’t know which country. She grew up in America and in the UK. She also had this Swedishness. I knew she was Swedish. I was like, “Oh my God. This cool, amazing woman is Swedish.” There was nothing like her when I was growing up.

Adam Bainbridge

You were talking about how... Also, the Body Talk record is when rapping really gets involved in your music making in a big way.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

You’ve told me about Nano being an influence and Missy Elliot being an influence as well.

Robyn

Yes. Totally. Salt-N-Pepa. Yeah. I don’t know how to explain it. It just gave me so much courage and life to watch them and to hear them and the power in their voices. All of them in their different ways. I think it’s a kind of female rap that is just based on energy and happiness and joy and it’s really inspiring to me. Really important.

Adam Bainbridge

You came full circle to working with Neneh. Then you did a collaboration with Todd Rundgren recently.

Robyn

Yes. Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

That’s kind of out of left field as well.

Robyn

Yes.

Adam Bainbridge

How was that?

Robyn

Amazing. That was because of you.

Adam Bainbridge

I don’t think so.

Robyn

Yeah. Adam makes amazing music. One of the things that you and I have been working on is something that had to do with him.

Adam Bainbridge

Oh, yeah. That’s right.

Robyn

Yeah. We had to get in touch with him. Therefore he knew that I liked his music and then he just sent me this song that he wanted me to record. I didn’t write anything on that. He was just like, “Do you want to sing this?” I was like, “Yes.”

Adam Bainbridge

Then I threw it out there because I think it’s fun and I’d like to hear you talk about it. We also went to meet Jam and Lewis.

Robyn

Yes.

Adam Bainbridge

That’s pretty wild. I would love to hear you singing on Jam and Lewis.

Robyn

Me too. We’ll make it happen maybe.

Adam Bainbridge

Maybe.

Robyn

If you’re watching Jimmy and Terry, let’s finish those songs. We have some stuff with them that we’ve been working on. It was an honor to be in their presence.

Adam Bainbridge

I remember as well Robyn saying, “Guys, could you get the synthesizers that you used with Janet Jackson maybe?” Terry Lewis being like, “OK, all right. I’ll go ...” He drives two hours and comes back with them. Then as soon as we plugged them in ...

Robyn

They were like in school... They were so happy and just playful.

Adam Bainbridge

Playful. Yeah. Just imagine Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis playing “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” in front of you on keyboards. You’re like, “Is that the same synth?” He’s like, “Yeah.” What about your work with Zhala?

Robyn

Yes.

Adam Bainbridge

I feel like Zhala has been an important influence on you. It’s like a two way street with your collaborations as well.

Robyn

Yeah. Zhala is one of my favorite artists ever of all-time and genres. She’s signed to Konichiwa Records, not continuously but for every album we talk about maybe releasing it. She’s working on something new. I think I will be releasing that album as well.

She’s so complex and she has this amazing voice. Like a Whitney Houston voice. She’s using it in a very unorthodox way. She’s so brave and really bending everyone’s perception of what an artist can be.

Adam Bainbridge

Do you think that part of your ongoing place in the music industry is to find talented people and work with them?

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

I feel like I see you work with so many people and so many different genres as well. Not everyone can do that. Not everyone has that range, to use a phrase from the Internet.

Robyn

Thank you. That’s very sweet coming from you. I think you’re right. I think one of the most amazing things about making music is that you can be in collaborations with other people and there’s this structure around it where you can just be free and get to know each other.

Adam Bainbridge

I’d like to bring it back to you and your work. In this solitary work that you described, do you think it’s time to play this littl thing that we thought about playing?

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

So this is another demo version. Maybe we should just play it and explain what it is afterwards. Or do you want to explain a little bit first?

Robyn

No. Let’s just play it.

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

So this is something that you might recognize in a raw and very solo Robyn form. This is a very, very early Robyn demo.

(music: Robyn - “Honey” demo / applause)

Robyn

“#ReleaseHoneyGoddamnit”

[applause]

That‘s what it sounded like in the beginning. Now it sounds different.

Adam Bainbridge

The danger of you saying, “#ReleaseHoneyGoddamnit,” is that it shows fans saying that is working. It’s true, because you haven’t released it. I don’t know if the super fans in the audience recognize that. But that was a demo of “Honey,” which you first exposed to the world through an episode of Girls, a small TV show that not many people watch.

Robyn

You know when you get excited about new music... Then I got a question from Lena Dunham about if I had anything that I could play in the show. “Dancing on My Own” had a moment in the first season in the amazing part of the third episode. I was just really flattered and sent her some demos, and that’s what she picked. Then I finished a version for her that I wasn’t happy with. But people seemed to like it. So it’s been out there for a while. I thought I would play it for you guys because you’re here.

Adam Bainbridge

Just to clarify, when you say that you didn’t like it, that’s just your perfectionism.

Robyn

Yes. Totally. Definitely. It’s a good version. I’m not saying you shouldn’t like it. Thank you. I don’t know. This is one of those songs where it’s been important to get it to a place where I made it into what I wanted it to be. I didn’t mean to say that you liking it is a bad thing at all.

[laughter]

Adam Bainbridge

I think for you you just have somewhere really ambitious you want to go and anything along that journey that’s not quite there is not far enough or not sufficiently spectacular. Also, it’s nice this note that you sent me about your new processes and making new music.

Adam Bainbridge

You said, “I just need down time to space out in the studio, to sketch out some of the production ideas before I take them to anyone else. I spent a whole year just working on finding an energy that I think I’m describing in the song ‘Honey.’ Inspired, playful, sensual.” I love that idea that you just have to take time to find the right energy for the song.

Robyn

Yes. It’s so right. I think what you’re catching onto also, or what you’re feeling, is this thing of how sensitive it is to find something that is really what you want it to be and that feels honest and honest without being pretentious or whatever. Real and not filtered. That’s just not something that I think I can do anymore under pressure.

It’s really counterintuitive. I used to think that the more you push the better it gets. I think with this album I’ve gone more back into the softer I get, the more it happens and the more colors and the more dynamic a song gets. For me, it meant just shutting down for a while and being really sparse with my impressions or being very sensitive to what I needed.

Adam Bainbridge

Yeah. It’s a bit like the softer you sing in the song the more powerful it can be despite the fact that you’re actually singing quieter and more intimately.

Robyn

Yeah. Exactly.

Adam Bainbridge

I want to give the audience a little treat as we’re coming to the closing stages of this conversation. Just because not everyone will know this because they don’t know what time you were born. I wanted to throw out this little Easter egg for everyone.

Robyn is a sun in Gemini and a moon in Capricorn. I bet you didn’t know that.

[laughter]

There’s like two people in the audience that are like, “Yes! I knew that. I knew that.” I found that really interesting because I’m only recently coming to astrology and I read all this stuff. I was like, “This is very you.”

Robyn

Yeah?

Adam Bainbridge

Yeah.

Robyn

Amazing.

Adam Bainbridge

It’s all good.

Robyn

How good are you? I can’t believe that you’ve done this.

Adam Bainbridge

We did look at some of this together.

Robyn

Yeah, but still.

Adam Bainbridge

Well, no. It said, a short description for sun in Gemini, “She can express herself easily and learns quickly. She’s welcoming and gentle. She likes travel and intellectual work.” The weaknesses were, “A changeable and diffuse nature. Wastes energy by doing too many things. Lacks persistence in achieving set goals.”

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

Moon in Capricorn, “Calm, cool, and collected,” right?

Robyn

Yeah. For sure.

Adam Bainbridge

It also says, “Truth is they can have plenty of mood swings and some dark emotions now and again.”

Robyn

Yes.

Adam Bainbridge

OK. Great. We are coming to a point in this Robyn chronology where it’s almost impossible to say much more without giving too much away, which I know is frustrating for the fans in the audience but trust me there’s so much exciting stuff coming on the way.

Adam Bainbridge

I wanted to wrap up by asking some questions from members of the audience. We weren’t going to be able to get microphones out to people so this is a question from Bill from New Jersey.

Audience Member

Right here.

Adam Bainbridge

Hi, Bill. Well, now I should hand it to you, but I’ll just remind you what you said. Bill said, “I was lucky enough to see your show when you headlined Radio Music City Hall as well as when you opened for Katy Perry at the arena in New Jersey. I’m wondering what you took away or learned from touring with Katy and that huge production. Does doing something on a huge scale like that interest you at all?”

Robyn

Wow. I think it’s so impressive to watch those big productions. It is so much work. I mean, just putting together a show of my size I think is a huge task. I admire the strength of putting that together but it’s not what I want to do. Not at least right now. I haven’t been touring for six years. I’m just getting back into it. I toured a little bit two years ago. No, I think for me watching a big production like that makes me feel like I’m in a place where I want to be. I’m in the right space for me. Thank you.

[applause]

Adam Bainbridge

Again, just to clarify, that doesn’t mean there’s no touring coming.

Robyn

Oh, yeah. There’s touring. There’s touring. Yeah. Yeah. There’s touring.

Adam Bainbridge

Another question from Russell. Russell Eli. OK. Russell is just shy. “As an electronic producer who is highly influenced by the production work in Body Talk as well as the self-titled record, I can’t help but notice a cohesive and distinct quality to the timbre of electronic synths and beats as well as all the genius robotic vocals and harmonies. How involved do you get with the mixing, programming, engineering while you’re in the studio? Your tracks are pure ear candy, especially in a high quality pair of headphones.”

Robyn

Aww. Which was the first of the two albums that he mentioned?

Adam Bainbridge

Robyn and Body Talk.

Robyn

OK. Well, a lot of that is Klas. He’s a genius in just making things sound beautiful. The one thing I think we share is the love of rhythm, both in lyrics and in beats. We do a lot of that together.

Robyn

A lot of it is him and me sitting next to him and then talking about it or trying stuff. I programmed some stuff as well. Especially on this new album I’ve programmed things.

Adam Bainbridge

You edit a lot of your own vocals as well.

Robyn

Yeah. I edit a lot of my vocals. Klas does that too. It’s hard to talk about this. I really don’t see myself as a producer. It’s very hard work to be a producer, but I do produce.

Adam Bainbridge

Yeah. You do.

Robyn

Yeah. I do produce and I do move little things around in the Logic window and work with samples.

Adam Bainbridge

When he’s talking about automation and mixing I’ve seen you do all of that for your vocals as well.

Robyn

Yeah. Totally. No, I get into it, a lot of the different parts of it. Then a lot of it I leave to people that do it better than me too. It’s a collaboration of discussing it and bringing things out that I think is important. Now, I’m talking about these two albums.

On this new album it’s been much more production work from my end. Still in collaboration with other producers and some of it of course leaving it to the people that I’ve worked with totally. I think the rhythms is really me and Klas together, especially with the drums and the robot voices. It’s kind of what brought us together, the love of rhythm.

Adam Bainbridge

The “Honey” demo, for example, that rhythmic idea is all yours.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

What has become “Honey” was all based on a concept of rhythm and repetition that you were really interested in.

Robyn

Yeah. I think it’s something that comes from listening to all that club music that I’ve been listening to but also listen to Michael and Janet and Prince, who based their whole way of singing on rhythm. Yeah, it’s what gets me going.

Adam Bainbridge

You told me ... Maybe we’ll tell people some of the things that you’ve been listening to as well. I think you can hear these influences coming through. DJ Koze, for example.

Robyn

Yeah.

Adam Bainbridge

You could read these books as well if people want to know.

Robyn

Oh, yeah. I’ve been reading the books by Yuval Noah Harari. Sapiens and Homo Deus. I’ve been reading an amazing book by [inaudible], but it’s in Swedish so maybe it won’t...

Adam Bainbridge

There were three Swedes in the room.

Robyn

Exactly. It’s called [inaudible] which means “things.” It’s about art history and objects and how objects change with a varied mental health or psychedelic experience. Also, I don’t know how to explain it. Read the book. It’s amazing.

I’ve been listening to Prince and David Bowie and Kate Bush but I always listen to them. Then of course DJ Koze, who I think made one of the best club tracks of the last, I don’t know, decade or something. It’s called “XTC.” It was released in 2015, and it kind of changed my life.

Adam Bainbridge

Maybe they’ll play it tonight at the after-party.

Robyn

Yeah. Maybe. Well, the person who goes will see. What else did I write?

Adam Bainbridge

Well, you talked about Pikes. The clubbing experience.

Robyn

Oh, yeah. Pikes. Everyone is booking shows there now so I won’t try to keep it a secret because it’s not a secret anymore. It’s an amazing place in Ibiza. The genius DJ Harvey has a night there in the summers and that’s been a place that I’ve been visiting and feeling mega-inspired.

Robyn

Also, the Michael Jackson demos of the Thriller album and the Off the Wall album. I don’t know if you’ve listened to them but listen to them. They’re amazing. Those are some of the things I’ve been doing.

Adam Bainbridge

Well, I think it ties into ... People are curious about the things that inspire you and your influences. This is the last question from Andrew Madsen. Andrew, here?

Robyn

Hi.

Adam Bainbridge

Hi, Andrew. Wanted to know, “Who are some of your favorite dancers? Can I find them on YouTube?”

Robyn

Oh, my favorite dancers. Well, my all-time favorite dancer is Rosie Perez.

[applause]

I think Fatima Robinson is an amazing dancer. There’s so many. Jermaine Spivey, who came on tour with me two years ago is one of the most amazing contemporary dancers I’ve ever seen. My brother is great.

Adam Bainbridge

He’s an incredible dancer.

Robyn

Who else?

Adam Bainbridge

You work a lot with Maria as well.

Robyn

Yes. Decida, who is my longtime friend and amazing choreographer and collaborator. Definitely inspired me so much.

Adam Bainbridge

Can you talk about the choreography for the “Call Your Girlfriend” video?

Robyn

Yes. Yes. OK.

Adam Bainbridge

We can also move the table out of the way.

[applause]

You didn’t pay enough for that. Almost enough.

Robyn

Thank you for getting me out of that. OK. The video for “Call Your Girlfriend” happened way, way, way later than it should have happened. Months later. The song had been out for a couple months maybe. Three months.

Robyn

Me and Max, the love of my life, started thinking about how to make a video for it. He had this idea about just being in a space and dancing and me and Maria started working on it. Decida. She has two names. We just started working on it. I think always when me and Decida works it starts with what happens or what comes naturally when we’re improvising.

I’m not a well-trained dancer but I love to dance. I think what informs me the most is clubbing. That’s what it all comes from and what happens to a person when you start letting go of and judging your behavior.

Oh my God. Prince is my favorite dancer. Yeah. We just did that. We did it in a week. I just did what felt good and she coached me and we shot it with a good DOP and amazing light designer. I feel like it inspired people, which I’m really happy about, to dance and move their bodies in a way that feels good to them. Lots of people have done that before but the video had a moment that I’m proud of.

Adam Bainbridge

Do you ever go back and watch these videos? When was the last time you saw it?

Robyn

I haven’t watched the choreographed video in a long time. I think I’m going to have to because I’m going to go back on tour soon. I have to get my stuff together.

Adam Bainbridge

Well, you know, I, for one, as a fan, I can’t wait for new music and a new tour, for the new choreography. I think everyone in this room would join me in thanking you so much for coming out this evening.

[applause]

Robyn.

Robyn

Thank you so much. Thank you, Adam.