To mark the release of their brand-new duet, "The Whole Woman," the rock and roll icon joined the Swedish singer-songwriter for a candid con
POP: For a listener, it’s pretty rare to hear those sorts of things without being accompanied by some horrible productions beating you over the head. On “The Whole Woman,” my favorite lines are when you say, “I’m not afraid to go down to the harbor” and “See you again to tell you the whole truth.” Do you go down to the harbor?
VON HAUSSWOLFF: Yeah, I do a lot. Whenever I need to air out some emotions, the harbor is my place. The ocean is my go-to spot when I need to calm myself or when I need to get out of my own head. I think the harbor is also, for this song, a place to say farewell at the same time, to clean yourself from your past.
POP: There’s an interesting thing. I’m an American, and the way you sing the phrase and the pronunciation is more correct than anyone would normally sing it. You say, “Go down to the harbor” a little bit like an Android. I really like it. I thought, “Holy shit! What has she done?” But then I thought, “Let’s go for it.” I’ve never done anything quite like that.
VON HAUSSWOLFF: Yeah. I love it so much. Our voices are so different. You’re very deep and the sound is so close and you really get into the head. And I’m out there, lots of reverb. I’m floating around. I felt when I wrote it that it was more of a song between two lovers.
POP: It’s a love song, yep.
VON HAUSSWOLFF: It is still a love song, but it’s not necessarily between anyone. It doesn’t necessarily have to be between two lovers. It could also be between a child and parents, or two friends, or someone being scared to come out from their shell.
POP: What about “Aging Young Women”? That’s a heated theme and you have Ethel Cain, who’s dynamite. What’s going on there?
VON HAUSSWOLFF: Most women, I’d say, when they close in on 40 and if they still don’t have kids, life starts to feel like a fear of missing out. I don’t have kids and I’m very confused about that. And I’m still not sure if that’s my way, having kids or not. But I’m at the end of that cycle soon and it’s been an internal struggle to deal with that. What is it that I truly want? I know what my family wants from me. But what do I want?
POP: Some people can handle that and some people can’t. There’s a lot of Xanax going around.
VON HAUSSWOLFF: But it’s also a song about seeing a world sort of breaking apart in front of you, in front of your eyes. Everyone wants a future for their kids and you are starting to see how things fall apart.
VON HAUSSWOLFF: I think you are a rising legend.
POP: I’m still rising? Wow. Thanks, Anna. I have trouble at times seeing a future in which I’m included because you get to a certain point and you say, “Oh, man. I’m good at this. Do I have to do it again? Oh, shit.”
VON HAUSSWOLFF: It’s also physical labor. It’s very easy when you’re in that constant flow of work. For example, you’re on a tour, you’re exhausted, and you’re like, “Oh my god. Why am I doing this? I feel like shit right now.”
POP: I’m becoming aware of it. There’s so many young players, and singers, and composers and people in the arts who are out there starting out and working very, very hard tour schedules, putting out a lot of releases. And initially, there’s either no money in it or little money in it. When I started, it was actually negative money because to keep going, you would sell off the rights to your future. It’s hard, but there are so many people that want to do it. It’s pretty moving, you know?
VON HAUSSWOLFF: When you’re a musician and you don’t earn that much money, you need to be really clear about why you’re doing it. You have to set a goal for yourself and also understand the relationship you have with art. Is it pure? Is it love for the arts, or is it just a love for the attention? I think if it’s for the attention and money, it’s not something that’s going to last. But if it’s about passion and if it’s about true love for art, you will be an artist your whole life. And it will be a constant flow of changes with many beginnings and many ends.
POP: That’s beautifully articulated. I agree with that.
VON HAUSSWOLFF: I want to ask you, in terms of what we are talking about, how do you keep your curiosity and imagination alive?
POP: I’m not the brightest person. But I am interested in strange sounds, strange sights, and people and other places. I’ve always been that way. I remember the first night I spent in Europe, it was in Munich, Germany and the doorknobs there have a handle instead of being round. And I wrote a long letter to my parents about how the door handles were in Munich and how the clothes looked engineered and about the funny alpine hats with the little feather. As I started touring Europe, each place I went I would have between 50 and 150 people. But I was excited because I’m playing the capital of fucking Denmark! It would be some dirty little dive full of drug dealers and runaways, but I saw it in a noble light. I lost all that little by little over time, and I struggled to interface with the professional industry and it nearly killed me. What really brought it back in the last years was when Jarvis Cocker wanted to stop doing his BBC radio show.
VON HAUSSWOLFF: Oh, yeah.
