MØ

Who Is the Real MØ?

By Bonnie Langedijk

Touring. Where are we on the charts? Writing. Did you finish that song? Performing. Interview. Album launch. Touring again. What’s next? The Danish singer, songwriter and record producer MØ was grinding for years before the relentless pace of the music industry caught up with her. And MØ isn’t alone. Artists including Arlo Parks, Santigold and Lykke Li have all recently spoken out about the pressures of the industry. MØ, known privately as Karen Marie Aagaard Ørsted Andersen, signed with Sony Music in 2012 and released her successful debut album “No Mythologies to Follow”. Shortly after MØ collaborated with Major Lazer and DJ Snake on the now well-known song  “Lean On”, which conquered the charts (it was one of the best-selling singles of all time, with global sales of $13.1 millon). The success of the song fast tracked the Danish singer's career. But that success came at a cost. The non-stop working took its toll. The physical and mental exhaustion led to anxiety and panic attacks, resulting in MØ taking a break from the music business for the first time in her career. Back in her hometown of Copenhagen, MØ used her time off to work on new music with long-time friends Caroline Ailin and Noonie Bao. From there Motordrome was born. The album is a raw and honest album documentation of the singer’s battles with anxiety, and helped her escape from it all.

We caught up with the singer on hustle porn, defining her genre and creating an image beyond the music.

I want to dive into the new album and where you were mentally when you were writing it. I connected with it a lot, as I’ve been dealing with anxiety and panic attacks. It can be very isolating.

MØ: I only found out after I went through all of it that it’s quite a common thing. I know many people now who have been through similar experiences. To know that I wasn’t alone helped me a lot during the process. Because as you said, I just felt so alone in the beginning. I thought I was losing my mind, that it was the end of the road. I don’t think it’s just a generational thing, but people from my generation, we push ourselves far beyond [our limits]. We haven’t been taught to take care of ourselves. Values like taking a break and caring for yourself and your body have never been taught to me. It’s always more: “If you want to make it in this career you just have to [go].”

That’s so true. It’s hustle porn to the max.

MØ: Toxic.

“It’s just about the STREAMS and the money rather than the art, which has always been what excites me. ”

All creative industries seem to be on this constant grind. Everyone is always on the lookout for what’s next and what’s new. How have you experienced that in the music industry?

MØ: For many years I thought that was the way things were. Things go fast and the wheel’s turning. For a long time I was thriving on that, because I do like working a lot. It was scary to realize that seven years into my career I hadn’t really been connected to myself. It was all just about adrenaline and getting onto the next thing. Many of the things I’ve been doing, I’ve been enjoying deeply but that grinding energy is just not good to be in for a long time. It damages the artistic output because it becomes so focused on reaching the goal.

Yes, it becomes this pressure cooker with no time for things to sit and process.

MØ: Exactly. It’s just about the streams and the money rather than the art, which has always been what excites me. All of a sudden you just think: “Who am I?” In the beginning I was just trying to make it. So when my career started to take off, I felt prepared and ready. But I constantly just moved from one thing to the next and I never got that space to digest it and learn from the ups and downs. It becomes very difficult when you can’t use that to evolve in that creative process. 

Have you thought about how you’ll change how you approach your career now vs. how you’ve done in the past?

MØ: After the panic attacks I started figuring out my core values and what kind of artist I wanted to be and how I wanted to run my business. Also just checking back in with myself. “Who am I after all these years of adrenaline?” But it’s two steps forward, one back. It’s been a journey now of almost four years. I remember in the beginning I started saying no to everything, which I think is quite a normal response to have when you have a crash. I’m slowly daring myself to take a chance, to put myself in situations that maybe aren't the best for me. To try and let loose a little bit. It’s about finding that balance. 

Motordrome is such a personal album, and while writing it you were very focused on yourself and writing the album, you went back to your hometown. What was the writing process like?

MØ: I felt like I was taking back control and focusing on myself and on what I wanted to say. It was very therapeutic, writing these songs and letting the feelings linger. It’s a bit intimidating, being vulnerable when you know so many people will be listening to it. At the same time I also felt guilty, because I didn’t want it to sound whiny in a time when many other people, less privileged than me, were having a much harder time. But it felt important to do this album. Motordrome, even though it was reclaiming myself and taking back control, it was painful to write. I’m working on new music now and it’s the first time in so many years that the writing is more fun and carefree. Finding [myself] back a little bit more is a big part of my own personal development, because the artistry and the person is coming together.  

Do you ever separate Karen from MØ?

MØ: It’s something I think a lot about. I can definitely separate myself a little bit, but not in a way where I’m taking on a character. When I go on stage, what people see is someone that’s very confident and going crazy and going for it. And that’s a really good side of me, but that’s not who I am as an individual. But it is, because it’s a free version of me. It’s really difficult to answer because it is the same person, my artistic character and me as an individual.

I think it’s difficult for everyone. Especially with social media. Everyone has these different parts of themselves that unfold depending what situation they’re in.

MØ: Exactly that. What you see on social media is a version of the reality but not the reality.  

You started your career as a punk duo, then you had “Lean On” which was a mainstream success, it couldn’t really sit further apart. Could you say where you think your music sits now? 

MØ: A lot of people have trouble with placing me as an artist. I started in the Punk duo, which was very underground and political. But when I started my own career it was Indie Pop for a couple of years but then “Lean On” happened. With “Lean On” being such a mainstream EDM song, which just around that time became the new pop, it was hard to not put me in that genre. That was around the time I started dealing with stress, and I started going in a mainstream direction. It was always a bit of a struggle for me because it was difficult to marry the more experimental or Indie direction with the mainstream direction. Now that I’m coming back into my artistry I would definitely say alternative Pop, Indie Pop. 

I see that. Did you feel like you had the freedom to decide who you wanted to be within the industry?

MØ: When I started out for sure. When I got my record deal with RCA in the UK I was actually amazed by how much freedom I was given. I had been hearing about major labels wanting to change you but I felt like I could just be me. When “Lean On” happened things just happened so fast. Everybody on my team was just like “we got to ride this wave”. There was this sense of we can’t miss out on this opportunity. There wasn’t any time to really think about what we were doing. It was the mixture of things that made it very difficult for me to find out how to best make use of this success that “Lean On” had created for me. 

I can imagine. And then on top of that you have to create this image beyond your music. 

MØ: There was definitely a before and after “Lean On”. There was a period of time when I was chasing the mainstream. I was getting so into my head about how to translate that visually. For a period I felt really stressed and questioned whether my image was strong enough. You’re thinking about how to be relevant, how to make an impression. I approach it differently now. There’s something about being yourself, and being genuine. Being gritty and ugly. But just a little, not too much. For me it’s about having fun and showing who you are and doing things that really fucking excite you. For this next album that’s one of my keywords: I need to think it’s fucking fun and fucking cool. And that’s the best I can do, both visually and when it comes to music. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

MØ’S PICKS

MØ’s favorite products, carefully curated by the singer, songwriter and record producer.