Poptastic Confessions

Poptastic Confessions

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

An Interview with Isle Of You

Dear Poptastic Readers,

If you don't know the Swedish duo Isle Of You, you simply must check out their AMAZING debut album Party Until We're In Love, which came out this summer. It is one of our favourite albums of the year. Our posts about their singles and their album caught their attention on social media, so we asked them for an interview. They kindly agreed. So here is Isle Of You ...



Isle Of You is Ida and Elina
We are so happy that we found out about your music this year. We wish we would have known about you earlier, but better to be a bit late to the party than to miss the party altogether.
We’re so happy that you found us! Exactly… we’re always late to parties, sessions, meetings and so on but we’re working on that! Bad habit...
Ha! You’ve been best friends since the age of 10. At what age did you realize that you would want to be singers/songwriters/musicians?
Well, both of us started to sing before we could talk. When we realized that it’s actually possible to sing while playing guitar, it was ground breaking. We met through guitar classes at the age of 10 and became best friends immediately and sat up the goal to sell out Madison Square Garden even before we knew three chords. We started writing songs and just never stopped…
I don’t think we’ve ever said the words “let’s start a band”...from one day to another, Isle of You suddenly just existed. Like the universe. Big Bang, Isle of You was born. So long answer short: since forever!
Nice! How did you decide the name Isle Of You as your group name? It took us a few days to say it out loud and have that a-ha moment.
The first years we just called ourselves Ida and Elina, but those names are like the most common names in Sweden, and impossible for non-Swedes to say out loud, so we decided that we wanted a bandname. To begin with: we are from a small island outside of Sweden and thought a lot about island-related names. At first, we thought about Isle of Two, and Isle of Us, etc. But then we were just like “Why fight it?” and chose Isle of You. Cause it sounds like I love you. We write about love and are both suckers for love so it just felt good! 
Very good. Your first single was a charming acoustic pop song called “50+1” in 2017. Why didn’t make the new album?
Yeah, that’s right! It’s so funny that you remember that old banger! We changed our soundscape after that single, cause you know, we grew older, got more confident in the studio and started to feel that we could lean on our songwriting instead of our acoustic guitars. I mean, today we love the 80s synthesizers, arpeggios, and heavy basses, so it comes naturally to make that kind of music. Back in the “50+1” era, we listened a lot to Taylor Swift and had a lot of acoustic preferences. So the main thing is, for us, to just write that kind of music that we wanna listen to ourselves.
Did you ever hear from Taylor Swift about the name drop?
Haha, no, unfortunately we haven’t heard a word from Taylor Swift, but we’re still waiting (with just one shoe). 
Did “Mindcrime” ever get an official release? It doesn’t appear in digital outlets in the USA. What happened there?
(Somebody committed a crime and stole it from streaming devices.) We had a record deal back then, but only in Scandinavia. So it’s only available in that territory… and that’s why Mindcrime sort of became a mystery for a lot of people. Sorry about that.


It happens. “Skintight” was the next single, and is on the new album. In the USA, we can see a video trailer on YouTube, but we can’t see a video. Is there one? If so, could you make it available worldwide?
There is no video for Skintight, sorry again! If there was one, we would make it available for everyone, of course. But it’s just a trailer, for social media to make people curious about the single… I guess we succeeded?  We make all of our content ourselves, so back when we made that trailer, we probably got too caught up in writing a new song and forgot about finishing a video.


Your bio says that your third single “Bodyguard” was written after you performed at a high security prison in Medellín, Columbia. How did two Swedish young women like yourselves get that gig?
Well, we were going to Colombia to travel and meet up with our friend. Six weeks without music would make us go crazy, so we thought about performing at Hard Rock Café, but it was a bit tricky to get in touch with the owners. At the same time, we found out about a Swedish foundation called Ankarstiftelsen. They are working with prisoners in Colombia and asked if we wanted to perform at a prison for women. Without thinking, we said yes, but in retrospect, we had no idea what we signed up for (which was going to a high risk security prison in Medellin, the town of Narcos, the country where war is still a fact and there’s, in some areas, shootings on the streets). 
When we arrived at the prison, we found out that plans had been changed so we were gonna perform for the male prisoners as well. After walking through three security gates and passing prisoners pressed against the bars we found ourselves face to face with the prisoners at this special/peculiar department. The prisoners told their stories, most of them had penalties of 70 years because of various crimes, like murders, drug dealing, or gang criminality. When they were finished it was our turn. So we played our poptastic catchy songs for them, like “50+1.” And in that moment, we realized the power of music, how it connects people no matter their stories. 



Amazing story. Speaking of connecting with stories, “Backseat Ceremony” is fabulous song that, like many of your songs, we can’t seem to get it out of our heads! What was the inspiration there?
Thank you! When we moved to Stockholm, from our small hometown, we were struck by the most overwhelming feeling of freedom and were literally high on life. We fell in love with everything, the city, the pulse, the clubs…and a lot of guys. “Backseat Ceremony” is about falling in love with a stranger and in that moment wanting to spend the rest of your life with that person, so even marrying that stranger in a taxi feels like a good idea.  


Love it! And speaking of love, “Change Of Heart” was the song that we first heard by you and it has a special place in our hearts. That wonderful chorus! You must have known you were on to something special when you were writing this one.
Thank you!!! You guys!! <3 <3 Actually… Yes! haha. The moment Joakim Buddee, our amazing producer, made the bassline, we all felt like “okay... this is gonna be good.” The prechorus is quite intense and desperate, so we wanted the chorus to be more simple and hopeful but still holding on to the darker theme of the song! We always start with the melody, and so when we felt that we had the lyrics all set, we were all like screaming! That feeling, when you’ve created something out of nothing and you love it, that is like a nicotine combined with dopamine rush! 


We don’t smoke so we’ll take your word for it! Ha! “Hold Tight” is always one that we wonder if you are taking turns singing solo or anyways singing in unison. Can you clear this up for us?
Actually we’re always singing both, and mixing our voices together so tight that they almost sound like one. We use to say that our voices are better together. They are very different. Ida’s voice is more powerful and straightforward while Elina is more airy bloomy sounding. Both are important for our sound.


Very cool. “Hard To Forget” is the amazing current single and it was also released around the time of your debut album. How does it all feel for your music to go out into the world, and not just in Sweden?
We’ve always wanted to go worldwide with our music, but it’s still feels surrealistic that people from US, Canada and Mexico are listening to our songs. We love our fans from the bottom of our hearts and they’re so important to us! 
This year, we have featured quite a lot of female duos like Isle Of You, Bananarama, REYNA, Aly & AJ, Daphne & Celeste, Shakespears Sister, Icona Pop, and Rebecca & Fiona. You are in great company there. Any inspirations?
We love what Rebecca and Fiona do. We’ve met them a couple of times and they are amazing. We’re also very inspired by other cool and powerful girls like Robyn, Tove Lo, Little Jinder, and Charlie XCX.
Awesome! Of course we love Robyn, too. We’re sure you can’t reveal too much, but what’s next for Isle Of You? Inquiring minds want to know.
Well, we’ve been touring this spring and summer, and we are not finished yet. After that we will go back in to the studio and create new stuff, we are in a very inspired mode at the moment! So keep your eyes and ears open!


There you have it. Isle Of You's debut album Party Until We're In Love is available on digital outlets everywhere. Buy your copy today. You will want Isle Of You to be part of the soundtrack of your life when you look back on 2019. Have listen here ...

Cheers then,
—Davearama

P.S. Please follow Isle Of You and Poptastic Confessions on social media.

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