Robyn and Royksopp now collaborate as if they were one band
“There is a little sex reference even to us about the lyric,” says Torbjorn Brundtland of Royksopp. The moody Norwegian electronic duo’s latest collaboration with Swedish pop star Robyn is a forthcoming EP named after its first single, Do It Again. But in case you’re wondering, the three artists, including Royksopp’s Svein Berge, arenot having sex.
“I think if we were having sex we wouldn’t have written songs about it,” Robyn teases. “We would just sit and YouTube it, volleys back Brundtland in a recent joint phone interview, which then provokes Robyn to add the kicker, “put it out and make a new career.”
Instead, the three have decided to continue with their proven successful careers in pop music — and both Robyn and Royksopp are working on new material separately. But collaboratively, they’ve decided to approach new work as if they were one band. Previously, the two acts had simply collaborated on tracks for each other’s albums: “The Girl and The Robot,” credited as “Royksopp featuring Robyn” and included on the duo’s 2009 album Junior; and “None of Dem,” credited as “Robyn featuring Royksopp” and included on Robyn’s 2010 Body Talk. They were going to continue that one-off style of collaboration, but realized what they had started writing would work better as its own project. “For us,” Robyn says, “it’s really just been about wanting to make more music together, because we really enjoyed this from when we started out. And then from that we became friends. We’ve toured a lot together. It feels very natural to us.”
Robyn + Royksopp will tour this summer, including a stop at Wolf Trap on Thursday, Aug. 21. “It will be a show in three stages,” says Brundtland, explaining that it’s not just your typical concert with two headliners performing separate acts back-to-back. “We will perform some things that are exclusively Royskopp, and some things that are exclusively Robyn, and then it will come together as a [Robyn + Royksopp] collaboration on stage, to be the climax of the show.”
Robyn + Royksopp perform Thursday, Aug. 21, at 8 p.m., at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $30 to $55. Call 202-877-WOLFTRAP or visit wolftrap.org. Do It Again drops Tuesday, May 27.
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