Beer, boys and ‘90s bitches

Nick Bond
December 18, 2012

When the Star Observer spoke to Aino Jawo, one half of Swedish electro-pop duo Icona Pop, we were able to deliver some happy news from down under: the pair’s fantastically feisty single I Love It (sample lyric: ‘I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs – I don’t care, I love it’) had finally cracked the Aussie top 20, having spent the latter half of the year lurking around the lower reaches of the chart.

“You’re kidding! Oh my god, that is amazing,” Jawo exclaimed down the line from New York, where Icona Pop were touring ahead of their planned new years shows in Australia.

“I really love this about the world now – people can actually hear our music and we can have a hit single when we’re all the way over on the other side of the world.”

2012 has been a busy year for the duo, who’ve just released their debut album in their home country (an EP, collating the highlights of the record, is out now on Australian iTunes). But as Jawo explained, life’s been something of a whirlwind ever since she first met musical partner Caroline Hjelt almost four years ago.

“I was really heartbroken at the time because my boyfriend had dumped me. My friend forced me to come to a party that Caroline was hosting, and as soon as we met, it was a total friend crush. That night, we made plans to write music together. We had drunk a lot of beers, so I wasn’t sure if it’d happen, but the next day I went back to hers with a bottle of wine and a computer and we sat down and wrote our first song,” she said.

“Two days after that, we booked our first gig and a month later, we were on stage. Our friends were laughing at us – ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ – but we knew we had something that we wanted to show people.”

And with I Love It’s ascent to the top of the charts sure to be hastened by the pair’s impending visit, expect the song to be inescapable all summer. One of the more memorable lyrics has already been immortalised in any number of Facebook statuses, Tumblr posts and yes, even tattoos: ‘You’re from the ‘70s but I’m a ‘90s bitch.’

“If you like the trashy ‘90s one-hit wonders, you’re a ‘90s bitch. For me, the ‘90s was when I became a real person and started to properly listen to music, so it’s a decade that influenced me a lot.”

Jawo said she and Hjelt were looking forward to spending New Years in a southern summer rather than the depths of Swedish winter. And judging by their itinerary, it seems the Icona Pop girls have quite a bit in common with their queer fans.

“We’re dying to swim in the ocean. I should probably learn how to surf, but I think I’m just gonna enjoy a lot of gorgeous men and drink a lot of beer instead.”