What was your childhood like? Was there someone in your life when you were growing up that encouraged you to be artistic?

I had a lot of space as a kid. My mother worked with human rights, for the government and my dad had a book publishing company, but they weren’t really musical. I did have a great uncle who was a carpenter, though, and whenever we came to his house he’d always make all these ‘inventions’, he called them. I would take a Coca Cola can and turn it into a crossbow or whatever I wanted. He always told me I can do anything. He had a shed full of things and we built all sorts of things together. I was an only child for five years until my sister came and during that time I had a lot of space and I could basically do what I wanted. If I wanted to sew some pants my mom would help me. My parents were definitely encouraging with creativity.

Was there a moment where they realised this wasn’t just you expressing yourself, this was your life?

I kept it a secret for a while. I wouldn’t tell them when I uploaded videos. They knew I had a studio in the basement, but they had no idea what was going on. Then there was an article and it mentioned my dad’s name. The girl who wrote the article knew my father and she said “Yung Lean can’t go out now because he’s on parole,” which was a lie, “and guess who his father is! Swedish author and publisher Kristoffer Leandoer.” Dad was at home googling his own name and he found it. So he called me and he was super angry about the fact that it had anything to do with drugs and his name. But when I came home I heard him listening to all the songs and liking them, so then it was all ok. And my mother didn’t believe in any of it. She thought it was very cute but didn’t believe it. Even when I got booked for my first show in Gothenburg she still didn’t believe it until she saw it. Then when I showed her footage she was proud.

Why did you keep it a secret to begin with?

I don’t know. I didn’t feel like uploading something and running to my parents. I wanted it to come naturally.

So it wasn’t that you were worried they’d tell you to get a job?

Probably, subconsciously.