Swedish Duo Icona Pop on Their Synth-Pop Sound and Bands They're Digging

Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt took a break from their non-stop tour schedule to chat about their whirlwind year.

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If Abba and Justice had a musical baby, their child would be Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt—otherwise known as the Swedish duo Icona Pop. The girls performed for Chloë Moretz as she celebrated her Sweet 16 at Teen Vogue's 10th anniversary with Aéropostale, and gave the crowd plenty of groove-worthy beats to get the party going. Thanks to their synth-pop sound echoed throughout the country this past summer, it's become seemingly difficult to say the phrase "I Love it!" without throwing in an accent and struttin' a few dance moves.

We took a quick dance break from Chloë's soiree to chat about their colorful and infectious songs, making music together as best friends, and how they put the pop in Icona Pop.

How do you feel about the group's recent success?
"It's been chaos. It's the biggest dream we've ever had so it's nerve-wrecking. We're just enjoying life 100% right now. We're on a tour together with Passion Pit and Matt and Kim and just performed with them at Madison Square Garden. We pinch ourselves in the arms every day. It's crazy!"

What's been you're bands biggest oh-my-gosh-this-is-really-happening moment?
"To be honest, I feel like it's been a journey. If we look back, we have special moments and special days. It might not be very big moments for someone else, but for us, it could be as simple as a phone call that we've been dreaming about for a long time. This February is our four year anniversary, and we just feel like we're living our dream right now."

Congratulations! Any exciting band anniversary plans?
"We got matching band tattoos! We designed them together."

How do you stay unique to your look and sound?
"We're two best friends from Stockholm and we sat on the sofa four years ago and said, 'Let's just do this our way like we imagined it from the beginning.' We decided that we wouldn't get carried away and let people tell us what to do and what to think. It's been all this crazy stuff happening since then."

What albums or songs do you have on heavy rotation right now? What influences the band's sound the most?
"Music is the main thing that keeps you strong in bad times. We get a lot of inspiration from Prince, David Bowie, Talking Heads, and Beyoncé. There are a lot of artists out there that inspire us. We also inspire each other very much. We give each other a lot of energy and we could never do this alone. It just wouldn't work. We have so much fun together and to be able to share both the hard stuff and the fun stuff is such a luxury."

Who would you most like to collaborate with?
"Prince is such a dream. We also love Diplo and all the urban hip-hoppers. We would love to do something really electronic or reggae or hip-hop inspired. To mix it up with people from different genres would be the most amazing experience."

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