“I made three records for a major company.  The first one was released all over the world basically. The second and third ones weren’t released outside Scandinavia because I had problems with …. I don’t think I wanted the same thing as I my record company did.  So those two records were kind of like, they were records that I made and I wrote the songs and I was very involved in the making of it, but I wasn’t enjoying the situation. I felt that there were a lot of flaws in the structure in the company I made the record for,” she explains. “It was a huge industry I was pulled into, an organisation where I didn’t really feel whole there and so over years I felt that sooner or later, I’m going to have to change and break away from that to be able to create a better and more long lasting way for me to work.   After the third record I felt I either start my record company or do something else”.

So Konichia Records (the name derives from a phrase used by US comedian David Chappelle) was developed so the singer-songwriter could have the creative freedom she has yearned for since she first started out at the age of sixteen.  But she insists that those early years weren’t bad years, and that working with producers like Max Martin (Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson) was a learning curve.

“I think that being sixteen, seventeen when I started, and having the opportunity to travel the world, release, work with these fantastic songwriters and producers and create a contact network in the industry.  It gave me the most important thing for when I started my own record company.  I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t have years of experience,” she reflects.  “They were definitely good years, but they were also tough years. I had to work a lot and I had to learn a lot of lessons”. 

As for her years spent living in America, the 27 year old also has fond memories of them. “America was a good place. It’s biggest market for pop music.  It’s a cool place to be if you want to get proper experience.  It was definitely my school and I’m really happy I have that to draw from now”.

Robyn credits her actor parents, who travelled around Europe as part of a theatre company, for inspiring her to be creative. “They were very much in control of what they did. I grew up with them seeing them on stage, but also seeing them work with their theatre company and having their creative freedom.  So I think I have a different perspective on what being an artist is,” she says.

The singer also reckons that it’s her artistic background that has kept her from going off the rails as so many teen pop stars have done. “The way I grew up, I grew up in such a creative home, and I think my views on being an artist and making music is probably a lot different from a lot of artists so I have this protection. Already I had a role model in my parents in what I think I needed to be happy and to be successful as a musician, and that was what was important to me. I was never in this to be famous or anything like that. I just wanted to make music,” she states. “I just think there’s a lot of expectations you know. I don’t want to guess what other people are thinking or feeling, but it is tricky business. If you don’t really have a secure base to stand on, you’re in really big trouble”.

So having survived in the music biz for so long, Robyn is finally making the innovative pop music she’s always wanted to on her latest, self-titled, album.  Konichiwa Bitches is a song that kicks backside as all good pop tunes should,  while her latest single, With Every Heartbeat, takes bitter sweet lyrics and teams them with elctro beats.

“I really like the fact that pop music is a place where you can talk about really banal, simple things, you know the human condition and do it in a way that’s not pretentious.  It’s a medium which a lot of people can connect with and relate to.  It’s a universal language, and that’s attractive to me,” she says.” The way we use the word ‘pop’ is we that we kind of narrow it down to a few artists that are seen in the evening papers. To me pop music is something else. When I grew up, it was everything from Prince to Cyndi Lauper, Talking Heads and the Police. So it was a lot of different things, whereas now pop music soulless, commercial and major record company driven which is not what it is to me”.

Whatever the future may hold, one thing is for certain, Robyn is finally right where she wants to be. “I’m really enjoying myself. I’m in the best situation I could possibly be in. I get to make to the music I want to make, and I can work with exactly whoever I want to work with and I have total control over my music and my record label –both creatively and financially.  I have a happy private life, so I’m very pleased”.

With Every Heartbeat is out on 30th July.

For more info: www.robyn.com

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