Swedish rapper Yung Lean has matured artistically since the divisive sad boy aesthetic went viral back in 2013.

If you want to listen to Yung Lean’s most honest and emotive work to date, you can listen to his latest album Stranger. If you want to read a conversation with him about haunted hotels, acid trips and meatball recipes, then please read below.

Favourite member of Slipknot?

The clown.

What was the first record you truly fell in love with?

Dookie by Green Day.

Last movie that you watched on a plane?

Beetlejuice.

What was the name of your first musical project?

I had a band in fourth grade. We called ourselves The Ice Cubes.

And what was the vibe with The Ice Cubes?

It was very embarrassing. We had one hit which was called Södermalm, which was the area where we grew up. And, it was basically about very middle school activities, like skipping school. I kind of jumped off the band right before we were the opening act at a show in IKEA for this rapper called Adam Tensta, who was kind of big at the time. We were all like 11, 12-year-olds. It was weird.

What’s the worst hotel you’ve ever stayed in?

I remember one in Dallas that was haunted. Yung Sherman was on the fourth floor, and he read on the internet that someone was killed there in the 60s or something. Someone knocked on his door so he came and slept in the same bed as me. We met this, like, old hotel lobbyist and asked him if he was a ghost and he just said in this really bored and scary voice, “The question is, am I real or not?” and then he vanished. We looked for him. There was no way or him to escape that quickly.