“I lost my head a while ago,” sings Fever Ray – the alias of Swedish experimentalist and former The Knife vocalist Karin Dreijer – in the video for ‘I’m Not Done (Therapy Session)’.
Or, is the speaker actually one of Dreijer’s other personas? Several of the artist’s characters, which they played in previous videos for their astonishing 2023 album Radical Romantics, are here shown singing in unison – gathered together for a therapy session. It is tied to their new album The Year Of The Radical Romantics: reworking versions of songs from across their catalogue, and presenting new visual material on Radical Romantics’ troubled players.
There’s the axe-wielding Demona Lisa, last seen taking revenge on a school bully in ‘Even It Out.’ There’s the pale Main, who left their dull office job in ‘What They Call Us’, and was revived after falling from a great height in ‘Shiver’. From the video for ‘North’, there’s the troll-like creature Snusis who was last seen in a remote tundra. And finally the disfigured, pink-suited Romance – last shown serenading Main in ‘Kandy’.
While uniting these strange characters from across the Radical Romantics-verse might promise to answer some questions, it only raises more. What are the stories behind these figures? What are the relationships between them? What does the therapist Ebba – the only character not played by Dreijer in the video – hope to achieve by getting them together?
tQ caught up with Ebba, who offered to share some insights on these characters, and the process of bringing them together for therapy.
Let’s start with Demona Lisa. We previously saw Demona in the video for ‘Even It Out’, in which they threaten a school bully for tormenting their child. They appear to kidnap that bully, bury them, then urinate on their grave. While we’re not going to condone that kind of violence here on tQ, I imagine many people reading this article have had vengeful fantasies about the people who threaten their loved ones. What’s your assessment of Demona’s behaviour, and how would you address those violent impulses?
Ebba: Clearly something horrible has happened to this woman as a child. She’s showing clear symptoms of being stuck in her childhood. No adult should ever hurt a child or condone violence. A grown-up woman should dress appropriately and learn to listen more, then react. We had a really hard time getting to the bottom of Demona Lisa’s issue – I don’t give up, but clearly having second thoughts.
During the therapy session, I noticed two elements of Demona’s behaviour consistent with ‘Even It Out’. The first is they frequently touch their breasts as if aroused. The second is that they cradle a cake: food featured prominently in ‘Even It Out’, where Demona was seen chopping up cake and vegetables. What’s your read on those two things, and is there a relationship between them?
It’s interesting – I’ve noticed the same thing. I think it’s some kind of insecurity, and instead of trying to be taken seriously she touches her tits. We did try some cognitive behavioural therapy assignments, where I would be telling her triggering things or talking about traumatic memories, and she had to sit on her hands in front of a cake, and not touch her tits or cut the cake, but it was unsuccessful.
Moving on to Main, we saw them in the video for ‘What They Call Us’. Their bleak office-job leads them to fantasise about being in a strange and beautiful jungle, but – during their hedonistic retirement party – that office becomes its own kind of primal environment. What effect do you think that oppressive office job had on Main psychologically, and what’s your course of action from here?
Well, they thought love would set them free – I smell weakness. They thought love was the answer to everything, and that it would somehow magically cure them. Let me tell you, the work starts at home. Clean your own house first. No one wants to move into a dirty home. Perhaps it was a good lesson, but I don’t think so.
On to Snusis, we saw them sat in the Swedish tundra in the video for ‘North’. They claim there is nowhere they’d rather be than “with you,” but seem to have isolated themselves in the middle of nowhere. What’s your take on the relationship between Snusis withdrawing from the world and wanting intimacy?
My analysis of Snusis is that they withdraw from reality, instead of facing the reality and doing something about it, they escape and withdraw. I call it hermit syndrome.
Snusis is perhaps the most inscrutable of the group. They seem far more haggard and unmeasured in the therapy session than the video for ‘North’, but also have a playful side: sticking their tongue out and folding their hands down, mimicking a cat’s paws. What’s your assessment of them, and do you think they were taking the session seriously?
Maybe the wild took its toll on the troll? No but honestly, they have no shame – sticking their tongue out like that to me and Demona? Disgusting behaviour. Were they raised by wolves?
Romance appeared in the video for ‘Kandy’, dancing onstage in a pink suit, and seems like the most confident, conventionally outgoing of the group – entertaining Main and even coming onto them. What’s the relationship between the pair of them, and what drew Romance to the therapy session?
I completely agree with you, Romance is the one I personally relate to the most. A handsome gentleman, he knows what a woman wants and how to give it. I think Main projects a lot onto Romance – maybe Romance is all they want to be, but can’t?
Romance’s bearing changed a lot through the therapy session. They entered the room with confidence, but soon became agitated – twitching their fingers and jiggling their legs. By the end, they seemed to have entirely shrunken in on themselves. How would you account for those changes in behaviour?
Well, I know I didn’t like that. The others really went for him, but that’s normal. If you’re not doing well you don’t want others to do well, so that’s what happened. It’s a flaw in my exposure therapy method. I have to let it play out, let them experience it. But maybe I could change this? To make it better? Anyways, it’s awful what the others do to poor Romance.
And that brings us to Fever Ray. They seem warily fascinated by the other members of the therapy group, looking around with interest but gritting their teeth with discomfort. What’s your psychological assessment of Fever Ray, and how they relate to these other people in the room?
Well, my very professional opinion of Fever Ray is that they just draw in others’ energy, and become like them. They adjust. I’m currently in private sessions with Fever – we are working on some boundaries. “I END HERE, YOU STOP THERE”. It’s very hard, but my methods will succeed eventually.
How would you summarise your approach to helping these five patients, and could you share one piece of advice you gave each of them?
It’s been one of the biggest challenges of my life. I think they, in a way, represent everything that’s wrong with this world. But I tell myself every morning when I look into the mirror, “Ebba, if you can do this – if you can cure these people, and clean up their inner rooms – you can clean the world.” I repeat this twenty times, after I drink my coffee with melted butter and cream. I’m on a KETO diet now – it’s great, I get so much energy from it. Sorry that was a sidestep. I want to finish up by saying I don’t see my job as a job. I see it as my hobby and I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I get paid to live out my hobby, a true dream come true.
*For this feature, Ebba was inhabited by Dreijer.
A special publication designed and edited by Fever Ray and Martin Falck, diving deeper into the creative process behind the making of the Radical Romantics universe is available for order now.
The Year Of The Radical Romantics will received a limited edition vinyl release on 5 December via Rabid, and can be pre-ordered here.
