A rock star is expected to act like a mess, sound like a mess and look like a mess. People don't expect you to show up on time and be a professional. But when you're a pop star, you have to do all that, look perfect and be a role model.
I always loved performing and being on stage.
There was this lynx at a zoo that was called Tove, and that I totally fell in love with. It was my dear godmother who decided to call me Tove Lo, after that lynx. It stuck.
I don't think I would live very long if I was a rock star.
I definitely feel I'm outside of the polished pop girl group, which feels right. I don't think I could keep up that polished surface on purpose.
I would never agree to sing something I didn't feel was 100% me.
I've always liked music that has a darker vein to it. I come from such a safe upbringing - very stable, classic family, everything's nice and good - I was always looking for something different.
It means a lot to everyone around me that I look good, and I don't think it should have to. I just think I should look the way I do.
My dream was never to become this unattainable star.
The thing that I love about pop music is the simplicity and the directness of it.
I was big into grunge, like Nirvana and Hole, when I was younger, which has been a really huge inspiration because of its rawness and honesty.
When I'm angry, like, if someone gets me really upset, whatever comes into my head, I scream it.
I knew when I went to a very hippie high school that focused on music that I wanted to do something in the industry.
I fight the same way as my dad! I've picked that up from him. We both get angry really fast and very intensely, and then get over it very quickly. You need to be good at apologising if you fight like that.
The very first song I ever wrote was a song called 'Crazy' when I was 11 or 12 with my best girlfriends - we had a girl band. It was about loving a guy who everyone else thought you were crazy for being into.
I've never grown into loving someone. It's, like, either right away or slowly sinks in.
I was always drawn to the self-destructive kind of way. I thought there was something beautiful about it; I don't know why.
In the same way that I'm open when I speak, I'm that open on stage. I feed off the energy of the audience, too, so they're feeling what I'm feeling.
I find it really cool when people have this artist persona they can put on. They can go out and act like this other person; I can't pull that off... I can't censor myself.
I'm not from a music family at all.
