ALMA: I think I’m super fucking Finnish. I’m so Finnish, so European, so Nordic. There’s always a part of me where I’m like … America—I don’t know how to be here. But I really try.

TAYLOR: What do you mean you don’t know how to be here?

ALMA: You know, the culture is different. Here [in L.A.] the sun is shining all the time and everybody’s super nice and it’s just happy, and in Finland, it’s always dark and snowing and raining and people are not nice. People have their little families and we’re very close to our families and never talk to anybody else. I love that culture because I grew up there. I love that you get to be so much in your own thoughts and in silence in a way. So when I come here I’m overwhelmed with the love, with the happiness, you know?

TAYLOR: Has anyone ever called you out for being cold or bitchy?

ALMA: Yes. When I first started to come here people [I worked with] were like, “You don’t like this song, or you don’t like this beat,” and I’m like, “No! I love it!” In Finland, if someone shows you something you’re like, “Oh that’s nice.” And Americans think [by that you mean], “Oh, it’s shit.” In America you say, “Oh, it’s wonderful, it’s amazing! It’s so amazing!” Now I understand that, but in Finland if you like something it’s like, “It’s nice. It’s good.”

TAYLOR: Is there a kind of Nordic pop alliance between you and MØ and Tove Lo?

ALMA: I just think it’s super easy to work with Nordic people like MØ and Tove Lo and Tove Styrke just because we have the same culture. So I think all the Scandinavian people, we just wanna be close to each other. It’s just easy. It’s super natural.

TAYLOR: I feel like those girls are dominating the pop landscape, and I would include Charli XCX in there as well, because I haven’t stopped listening to Pop 2 since it came out. Why do you think it is—and I’m including you in this—that they are able to push music forward and avoid the formulaic chart-topping stuff that you usually hear on the radio?

ALMA: I think it has something to do with where we’re from. Everybody like me, and at least what I know about MØ and Tove Lo and Tove Styrke—everybody’s making demos and rock songs in their home countries. At least with me, when I’m working in Finland, I don’t think about what this song should look like or sound like; I’m just vibing. That’s where it comes from. When I’m in America, we’re trying always to fit the song [we’re working on] into a box because all the biggest songs come from L.A. When we’re working in Scandinavia and Europe, people aren’t thinking about [that]. There’s no pressure. So people are just doing weird and cool stuff without the pressure.