Yahoo News Pop's Favorite Party Duo Tove Lo and SG Lewis Are Turning Up the ‘HEAT’ With More Club Bangers
Tove Lo and SG Lewis match each other's freak—at least, they do musically. For starters, Tove is a Swedish pop star and bi-con in her own right. Her infectious hooks have served as the soundtrack to parties and queer safe spaces since the early aughts of her career. "Habits (Stay High)," anyone? How about "Talking Body," "Disco Tits," and pretty much the entirety of 2022's Dirt Femme? Tove has also earned a coveted spot on A-list playlists, with fans ranging from Billie Eilish to Megan Thee Stallion (lest we forget Meg's meme-worthy "Too-Vay Lo, Period!" live stream). So, you get it—a party doesn't start 'til Tove Lo's voice booms through the speakers.
The same can be said of English musician and producer, Samuel George Lewis, who you might know as SG. He has worked with artists who've been on heavy rotation over the years, from Dua Lipa and Kylie Minogue to Victoria Monét and Sir Elton John. So when he teamed up with Tove for transcendent club bangers like "Pineapple Slice" and "Call On Me"—the latter which appeared on each of their last albums, respectively—fans were hungry for more. The duo heard their calls and headed to the studio to create a joint EP, HEAT, as a love letter to the queer community during Pride month and beyond.
Tove and SG (who are ~casually~ hitting the stage at Glastonbury Music Festival on June 28, JFYI) caught up with Cosmopolitan to cover all the bases surrounding HEAT, from raves-turned-music videos to their charitable efforts with Spotify and The Trevor Project. They also dished which artists they want to collaborate with next (hint/spoiler: one rhymes with Snapple Phone).
You are obviously a dream team and graced us with a whole EP, HEAT, after the success of “Pineapple Slice” and “Call On Me” in 2022. Which of the four new tracks was your favorite to work on?
Tove Lo: It's funny because we've had them for quite a long stretch of time. I feel like we've been teasing our fans for way too long. They're like, "Like where is the EP? Hello?" Because we started it last year. "Busy Girl" was the last one we did. You were like, "Wait, I have something." It was so quick.
SG Lewis: We got together with the aim to finish the EP and you were really in a head space where we knew what was missing. You were channeling a lot of that energy that is in "Busy Girl," that fierce stage presence. There was a lot that you were ruminating on and then when the beat was placed in front of you, everything came out in, like, five minutes.
Tove: It's the first song ever where I've played into my Swedish accent. Usually when I sing, I don't really have it, but when you're doing these talky things, it gives even more attitude. It's fun to play with that.
SG: I love the character it gives the vocal. Actually, my favorite one to work on was "Let Me Go Oh Oh" because Tove is a master of pop songcraft, and she's from a school of thought where she fine-tunes every detail of the song. "Let Me Go," we wrote last June, but it took up until the finish line. I love the technical process of tweaking and getting to drill into the song and change things.
Tove: I hate that in terms of the production stuff, so I'm really happy that you love it. I'll do it in the writing and the production, but it sits there and then I need someone to lock it in.
The “HEAT” music video definitely lives up to its name as it was filmed at your CLUB HEAT party in London. It’s unapologetically sexual and queer with steamy hookups, phallic microphones, and—of course—glitter and sweat. What was the energy like from your POV? How did you decide it’d be the perfect setting for the “HEAT” vision?
Tove: We felt like we needed to shoot us in our element, which is a party. We sent a brief to a few different directors, like, "We want it to feel like the song and be sweaty, hot, free, and open-minded—a safe space for everyone to be themselves." We were also really happy for the director to take the reins and make it theirs. The amazing David Wilson was like, "I need to do this." We shared the vision right away and he knew exactly what to do. There's a lot of very sexual shots in there, a lot of nipples and everything, so it's 18+ because isn't the point of this to not censor people from this community that is very often censored? We wanted it to be as free as it possibly can.
SG: From the outset, it was clear that the EP was our thank you to the queer community for the support for our music collectively and separately. At that point, it was really a no-brainer for the video to be this vessel for celebration for the community. David was the perfect director to turn that into a visual.
Both of you have been such innovators in the pop and dance genres, garnering a dedicated LGBTQIA+ following along the way. How does it feel knowing you’re the soundtrack of these spaces? Is there anything that surprised you about catering to a queer audience?
Tove: For me, also being part of the community—like when I flash my tits on stage every show—usually most of my crowd is very accepting and like-minded. So when I flash my boobs on stage with that crowd, it's all in celebration of body positivity and love. Like, yes, it can be sexual, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. It can also just be funny and a symbol of freedom. The few times I've played a straight-heavy festival, it doesn't feel the same. It's in the same nuance of "It's not what they said, it's how they said it" that some people just don't get. I feel like I can be 100 percent myself, relax, and be comfortable in my own skin in the queer space. There's an understanding there.
SG: Being able to create songs that hold sentimental value to people in the community as a guest in these spaces has allowed me to learn so much and witness celebration and freedom. It's a privilege to get to create music that empowers the community, and more than anything, I'm so excited to soundtrack those moments of freedom, horniness, and celebration. I feel very lucky to get to share that space musically and shout about it.
You also just threw another CLUB HEAT party to celebrate the EP’s release in L.A. and teamed up with Spotify to donate $5,000 to The Trevor Project. What inspired you to bridge charity with the club scene, and what do you hope comes from the effort?
Tove: I have a very dear relationship with The Trevor Project as we've made a lot of efforts together. Even though you could feel like it's contradicting—like, what happens in the club shouldn't be part of charity—it's creating a space where people can gather and feel safe to be themselves, forget their troubles, and just be in the moment.
A lot of people don't understand how much dance music does for those who are living in a place where you don't get to experience safety. People could yell a slur at you because you look a certain way or can tell you're queer and they decide to call you out for it in a mean way. If you experience that throughout your week, maybe you need a space to go where you can let go and not be judged. I feel like it tied really well, because music has always been that space for me, too, where I can feel all my feelings.
SG: Mental health is as prominent a conversation as ever, and for The Trevor Project to be a crossover of helping the community that our EP is obviously a celebration of, but then to also provide help in an area that I think is so relevant in 2024. Especially for people who grew up in the community, there are just more pressures and hurdles than ever. So it feels good for the EP to generate not only a spotlight for those causes, but to raise some funds to help them.
SG—you previously said you’d love to work with Nelly Furtado, and that recently came true with your track, “Love Bites,” which Tove appears on as well. What was it like bringing another pop legend into your orbit? Did your creative process differ at all?
SG: It was a really crazy process because, for any of us who exist in modern-day pop music, Nelly is an absolute titan. We all grew up listening to Nelly's records. When the opportunity came around, I got put in contact with Nelly and they said she was working on new music. We were working remotely on some stuff and we got in the studio and hadn't necessarily hit the bullseye yet. I took what we'd been working on and I reworked it and was texting Nelly, 'cause we're all in different parts of the world. It was so crazy because we essentially had the same idea at the same time. I wanted Tove to write on the chorus with the prospect of collaboration but before I'd even had an opportunity to suggest it, Nelly was like, "What do you think about sending this to, to Tove Lo?" This is some serendipitous stuff right here.
Tove: Yeah, I got the Nelly text and dropped my phone. It's still cracked from it. I know you said that you've been like dreaming about working with her, but for me, it was like a "That will never happen" kind of thing. I was obsessed with her, and I still am. It was cool to get in the studio with her and I'm grateful it was with someone I'm really comfortable with because I feel like otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to hold it together. I mean, she's so cool and just such a badass.
You’ve also worked separately with acts like Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, and Kylie Minogue. Tove, one of my favorite tracks in your discography is the “Bitches” remix—would you ever assemble a group of collaborators like this again? Who might you tap?
Tove: I would love to do another project with Sam. it would be sick to do it with, oh my god, Robyn.
SG: I was going to say Robyn!
Tove: I'm going to just say people that I haven't done something with. Maybe Robyn, Troye Sivan, Salute would be sick.
SG: Love that.
Tove: That's a band, like an A*Teens vibe. And Chappell Roan, let's throw Chappell Roan in there as well. I'm obsessed, she's on top.
SG: I love that you included Salute as well because I love the idea of pairing these pop icons with producers who are on the cutting edge of dance. Salute is at the forefront of euphoric dance music right now so honestly, that would be an amazing track.
On top of creating hits together, you each started your own labels, Pretty Swede and Forever Days. What have you learned about yourself as an artist since working as a label head?
Tove: I knew this before, but I'm not a business person. I'm not trying to run my label. I love being so on top of all the creative, but when it comes to "What's a smart budget? What's a good plan?" I'm not into it as much. I'm like, "This is the world. Here's what I'm creating, here's the visual, here's the music." That's the stuff where I can create that space, but all the smart important decisions, I can't be in control of because I would just run it to the ground.
SG: Forever Days is still very much in its infancy but I've learned how much work goes into running a label. There are so many different elements to it—it's so much more than just releasing music. The part I'm passionate about is this element of curation. As the label grows, we're going to be signing a lot of unknown and up-and-coming artists and building this world around the label with events and merch. I'm excited and want everybody to grow into this community. There are so many things that can grow out of running a label. There's a lot of work to do, that's for sure. But I'm definitely excited to get into it.
Tove: It just feels good not to have to fight for everything you want to do that's outside the box. For example, putting out a video that's 18+ would never happen at a major label. They're like, "No, what the fuck are you doing?" And we're just like, "We can! let's do it." I was always lucky when I was at a major label. There's a real risk when you sign a major deal. You're signing yourself as a product, and it's kind of something you have to accept as well. Obviously, you never feel that way with your art, so there's that voice in the back of your mind like, "What if they don't get this? Are they going to still let me do it?" I think that feeling is really good to be rid of.
Speaking from experience—I think we can all agree that the best parties happen during Pride. Tell me about some of your favorite Pride memories from over the years, or any you might want to make with the release of HEAT.
Tove: One of my favorite moments was probably when I played L.A. Pride. The energy of that crowd was just so amazing. I had like a crazy rainbow outfit on, and then the top just fell off me. Not to bring up my boobs again, but it was chaos. There was fire and confetti and I had Icona Pop and Parson James come on stage with me. I had all of my best friends and one of them had just come out that summer. She had her first gay experience that night, a lot of my friends had come into their sexuality that year as well. It was a really beautiful shared moment.
Then I went out with Fletcher last year at Pride and it was really fun performing with her. There was a moment on stage with her when I was like, "Are we about to make out?" And then the song was done and I snapped out of it. You can tell in my eyes that I was about to go in for it.
SG: My friend Ty Sunderland runs a lot of Pride parties and he had me play one of them at the Brooklyn Mirage. I'm used to playing in a wide variety of spaces and different DJ sets depending where I'm at, and I had never played there. I produced a track on Dua Lipa's album Future Nostalgia called "Hallucinate" and obviously, that album was so enormous but it was hard to know where I could play it. I thought it was more of a U.K. thing.
I'd played pretty much the whole set and it had gone really well and everyone was having a good time. Ty was like, "You should play Hallucinate," and I was like, "Really?" So I mixed it in and I don't think I've ever felt a venue explode the way it did. Every single person in that crowd screamed every word. It was an amazing moment and really unexpected.
What are your essentials for an epic night out?
Tove: Good friends and a very small bag, if you even have a bag at all.
SG: I'm unfortunately that DJ stereotype where at any venue I go to, I've got that USB in my pocket just in case for that situation that never happens where the music turns off and they're like, "Please, we need a DJ." Other than that, maybe a lighter, maybe a good meal before the night out. I'm getting older now, so you've got to be well nourished before the bender.
Tove: That's how we last.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Tove Lo and SG Lewis' EP, HEAT, is now available on all streaming platforms.
You Might Also Like
