Maeve Bidonde, Arts Editor
This past weekend Zara Larsson came all the way to SUNY Oneonta to perform at O-Fest and she sat down with students from WONY, Wired, and The State Times for an interview before the show began. Wired got to start off the interview by asking Larsson about her process in choosing the female artists featured on some of the songs in her new album Midnight Sun: Girls Trip. Larsson’s response was that she knew that she wanted Kehlani on the record and that she is a big fan of her and R&B music in general. Larsson also mentioned that they tried putting Kehlani on “Girls Girl” first but ultimately landed on having her feature on “Blue Moon.”
Towards the end of the interview The State Times asked Larsson what advice she has for artists who are new to the industry and the biggest piece of advice she gave was to write your own songs. She specifically said “Something I wish I did earlier was write my own songs. So you don’t have to explain yourself or try to be someone else and then to have fun. I was really hard on myself when I was younger like I wasn’t good enough like I could do better and I would cry.” For Larsson the best part of being an artist is having fun and currently writing her own songs in order to make her music and career all her own.
WONY was last in the lineup and they asked her what was most surprising to her about her fame as her platform continues to expand. She said that she had been performing for so long that it is all the same to her. It makes her incredibly happy when fans tell her that her music makes them happy as well. “I’ve kind of realized in the past six months what I do in my artistry is fun, I want to spread joy, make them happy to see my show and spread that to other people. It is way more important to spread love and happiness.” The most important part of Larsson’s career to her is to spread joy to others and to just have fun while she performs.
Larsson did admit that while she would love to say that she does not care what people say about her she actually does. “I actively try not to think of myself. I surround myself with close friends that work with me but we talk a lot about me. It all just surrounds me and it’s kind of healthy to not think about yourself so much…I try very hard not to think so deeply about it. I tell my friends that we have to stop talking about me.”
When it comes to the makeup for any of her performances she trusts the process but does still have input in the looks themselves. She trusts her makeup artist so much that she will often sit down and let her artist do what she wants to her. “ I feel like a part of being like a good leader is to actually trust the people who do what they do really well. I’m not a makeup artist but I have opinions about it.”
The State Times deeply appreciates Zara Larsson for taking time out of her busy day on O-Fest to sit down with us for an amazing interview.
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