Welcome to Montreal! Is it your first time here?
Thank you! No, I’ve been here once before when I did the tour with Fifth Harmony and Cher Lloyd. That was 4-5 years ago and I just remember the crowd was the best crowd on the whole tour, it was insane. I’m very happy to be back, I’m very excited!
You haven’t really released music since your EP Uncover, how does it feel to finally have a full length album out and being able to perform it?
It feels amazing. When I did that tour or even just before I released the album in America, people didn’t really have a body of work of mine. Now that I finally released it, it feels amazing that I can just be on stage and see people sing along to my songs and see people on Twitter and other social medias say how they like my album and it makes me really happy cause I am so happy with it.
Since you mentioned social media, on Twitter you’re really out there if I can say ahah, how do you have time to reply and interact so much with fans and really be yourself on those platforms?
I mean, I think most teenagers like from my generation spends a lot of time on the internet and so do I cause it’s so easy. It’s not like you need to find time to go and sit somewhere. I have my phone in my hand all the time and whenever I’m not doing anything I’m just scrolling. What’s so easy about Twitter and what I love about that is it’s so easy to reply to people and it makes them really happy and they make fun of me all the time ahah. Its like we’re friends, me and my followers.
And then on Instagram it’s nice, we all know it’s for posting pictures and its just a great way of communicating. And to realize the person you may idolize-my idol is Beyonce and she doesn’t post much and even if she does there’s no caption, it’s very like ‘there you have it,’ but with other people you feel really close to them. That’s why I love following other people. It’s also about keeping up with my friends that are not with me right now. So, I do definitely find time for it.
Yeah it’s a great way to stay connected. Back to the music, on your album there’s a song called Only You, did you write it?
We started writing it me and my Swedish A&R Mac. So we wrote two lines on it and then we were chilling and we started doing something else. But I really liked that song and it came back the day after and it was finished, so no I didn’t really write it but it’s one of my favourite songs on the album.
I think it’s one of my favourites also because it’s so out there. And right now in the music industry its males dominating the whole charts and they always sing about sexuality and whatever. And then other females like you, 5H, Little Mix and anyone who sing about that its like “oh is she really doing that?”. So how important was
this song?
It’s definitely a reference to masturbation and yeah absolutely when you listen to the lyrics that’s what I’m saying and it’s very raw and real and I feel like everybody can relate to it cause everyone’s doing it. It’s just out there and honest so that’s what I love about it too.
I think we needed that from someone as young as you
Yeah and from my own perspective cause male artists usually sing from, obviously a male point of view about women and about all these bitches and hoes. And I felt like when you meet someone and that person’s like ‘oh my god’ and yeah it’s such a great song in my opinion
Having songs that are very real and raw, and with you being young and having young fans how do you feel as a female role model right now?
I feel good. I mean, think that I’m a good person. I hope I’m a good person and I believe that what I stand for and what I think and say is good because at the end of the day I will go out with my friends, I will smoke, I’ll drink, I’ll curse, you know all that. But what I care about the most is equality between all genders and all that , those types of things are more important than me saying ‘fuck’ once in a while. And women have always been a target for everything so it’s very hard to write in this world, being a woman. I feel like people expect way more from women to be role models and I know, I hear a lot of people saying Rihanna isn’t good and blabla but I think she’s one of the best role models because she just does what ever she wants. She doesn’t care about anybody’s opinion and she’s like ‘you know what imma do me’ and that’s ultimately what I want everyone to do. So just do you and be kind to people. I think that’s what makes a good role model; how you treat people and how people view who you are and how you view other people. So to me i’m chilling, I’m trying to be myself. I’m not trying to be a “goody two shoes” person. Like I’m just being myself and I think that’s the best way of being a role model; to teach others to be themselves too.
FIRE ROUND
Which artist, if you were to be meet them, you’d be starstruck?
Beyonce
Favourite song on your album?
Probably Only You
Best concert you’ve ever been too?
Beyonce!
Photos from Zara Larsson opening for Clean Bandit here: https://coraliedai.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/zara-larsson/