For Karin Dreijer, Fever Ray is not just a cool alias. Fever Ray is a character—many characters, actually. These guises are brought to life through the Swede’s sinister art-pop, as well as through costumes and visual concepts that complement her music’s subversive pull. When she first emerged as Fever Ray in 2009, Dreijer took several forms: a bleach blond gothic witch, a painted skeleton, and, memorably, a gurgling enigma with a melting mug. These outlandish looks filled out the foggy world of Fever Ray while simultaneously making it even more mysterious.

Since then, Dreijer’s life has vastly transformed: The Knife, her beloved project with her brother Olof, disbanded; she divorced her husband; and she embraced a long-simmering queerness (and Tinder). Those changes are reflected in her new LP Plunge, a radiant emanation of Dreijer’s reclaimed carnal desires, a celebration of community, rebellion, and sex. “At one time I thought the album name should be Fun,” Dreijer explains over Skype, referring me to a photo of French artist Thomas Mailaender’s butt tattooed with the word. “It was a very, very, very important direction, as a contrast from the past.” She decided that Plunge’s physical manifestation would need to express the same excitement and joy of sexual freedom and curiosity.

This reincarnation is most apparent in album trailers and her video for “To the Moon and Back,” where she takes the form of both a smiling, bald sex slave and a self-described “monster” whose cracking skin is largely covered by latex. Talking about the nature of her various characters, she says, “They are very different, but they also have many similarities. It’s more about the character of emotions, like you how wake up and feel that specific day. There can be very many different ones that fit into one body.”