Q&A: Paula Jivén Boldly Navigates the Complexity of Growing Up in Her Enchanting Debut EP ‘The Duality In Me’
FINDING YOUR PLACE IN THE WORLD CAN BE CHALLENGING — but for 18-year-old Swedish singer-songwriter Paula Jivén, music is the perfect vehicle through which to channel all the strong and conflicting emotions that come with growing up and trying to define who you really are.
In the midst of uncertainty, music has always been a constant. Jivén started playing violin at the early age of three, later learning the piano and singing in choirs all throughout her childhood. By the time she was 11, she had already started writing her own songs. Her big break, however, came at the age of 13, when she won the golden buzzer on Sweden’s Got Talent. Soon after that, Jivén began working with co-writers and producers in Stockholm and Los Angeles. Now signed by Universal Music Sweden, she has released four singles and accumulated more than 1 million total streams, over 31 million views and 200k followers on TikTok.
The Duality In Me is Jivén’s debut EP, a candid and sensitive portrait of her coming-of-age. With her intimate and sincere storytelling, she takes us on a soul-baring journey as she navigates the complexities and contradictions of her own self. Her sweet yet powerfully gripping vocals meet dreamy electronic instrumentation to create an ethereal and spellbinding pop sound. This body of work marks the end of an era — a powerful and bold rite of passage into adulthood.
Read below to learn more about Jivén’s process and the inspiration behind her songs.
LUNA: First of all, congratulations on the upcoming release of your debut EP, The Duality in Me. You must be super excited!
JIVÉN: I am, yeah! I am so happy to finally get to do this!
LUNA: Can you tell us a bit more about it, your creative process and influences?
JIVÉN: Absolutely! This EP is the first body of work that I’m putting out, and it’s been in the works for maybe three years or something. I started writing and then I kinda came to a point when I felt like, “Oh, but I’m ready to release stuff!” and then we looked over what I had written, and I created this EP of songs that I felt had to be released; said a lot about the project and were statements that I was proud of. Just songs that I thought were great.
LUNA: If you had to describe it in three words, what would they be?
JIVÉN: I’d say childhood, challenging, and I’d probably have to say duality because it’s such a coherent theme through the entire EP and this cycle.
LUNA: I wanted to ask you about the title of the EP — where did it come from and how do you relate to that duality you talk about?
JIVÉN: The duality is something I’m talking about in two ways. One part of the duality is the obvious one, because this is an EP about my youth, growing up and finding out who I am, and a big part of me as an artist was learning that I can be many things. Growing up you have all these different places where you feel like you are different people because you’re adjusting, but you also feel like, “Am I ever myself?” Like, am I ever being true to myself or am I just adjusting to everyone? I guess what I ended up understanding and figuring out is that it’s totally fine to be many things. You can be many things, you can say many things, and you can want to sound like many things. That’s the second part of it.
For a while, it was very hard for me to define what my sound was because I’m doing so many different things. I thought, OK, well maybe I’m an artist who does songs like “What Are You Hungry For?” and “Someone Always Knows,” but then I wrote stuff like “Breaking Up With A Friend,” and that is not the same type of music, but it’s still so true to me. I just wanted to be very clear with that from the beginning of the artist project, that this is gonna be broad, and I’m gonna make sure that I’m always free to release whatever track I want and it can sound like anything. That’s important to me, so that’s also why I chose that title.
LUNA: Listening to the EP, you tackle so many deep issues: eating disorders, self-destruction, abusive relationships, friendships falling apart. Where do you get inspiration for your songwriting, and how do you approach it?
JIVÉN: I think I kinda see songwriting as a therapeutic situation. You walk into the session room and you’re like, “What do I wanna write about today? Let’s see, what hurts?” This first cycle of writing is a lot about me and the people closest to me and our experiences. And I think that is the stuff that you always write first — you always write about yourself first because you see it as a form of self-expression. It’s like, “Today I feel like this, I’m upset with this.”
“Breaking Up With A Friend” is one of the first types of songs that I wrote. Like, “I’m very upset with this situation and this is why, but I also understand this.” Taking a situation that you’re in and finding the right perspective that you want to have on it and then sort of evolving. Today I don’t write like I wrote on this EP, but I’m still very proud of all these songs, and I’m still very happy to have all of them out. I also think as you grow as a person and a songwriter you start to wanna write about different things, and that’s completely normal — to not want to say the same thing for your entire life.
LUNA: You’ve been doing music for a really long time. You’ve been playing instruments since you were a child and you appeared in Sweden’s Got Talent at age 13. That’s so impressive! Does music run in your family? How do you think growing up with music shaped you as a person?
JIVÉN: No one in my direct family was really doing music. I come from a pretty academic childhood, but my parents — especially my mother — were very keen to have both me and my younger sister play instruments because it’s a great way to develop and it’s great to participate in art. It’s the same as having your kids play football — it’s just something that you do. I played the violin, but it’s not like it was my identity, that I was a violin player in any way. I was just doing music, and then as I got older I started joining choirs, leading kids’ choirs, taking singing classes and just bathing in music. Then I guess at some point I realized that I really really liked this and wanted to make a career out of it, but I had no musical context, no contacts in the music industry. I felt like I kinda had to make my way into it. That’s why I did Sweden’s Got Talent, and I’m forever thankful for that experience because it gave me the connections I needed to do what I wanted to do.
LUNA: Have you ever thought about doing something else or was it always music? Do you have any other interests?
JIVÉN: I have many, and I love studying — it’s one of my favorite things. I’m graduating high school this spring; we have a little bit of a different system in Sweden, but I’m still seeing if I do university or not. I love studying, I love to do many things, and maybe I will do them later in life. I’m interested in economics, psychology, architecture – there are a lot of things that I think are very fun, but I think the nearest possibility is probably for me to work as a songwriter instead of an artist, and I’m kinda doing both, but we’ll see.
LUNA: Have you always written songs in English, or do you have any in Swedish?
JIVÉN: I only write in English. To me it’s a lot easier because writing in Swedish, my first language, I become a lot more self-conscious of what I’m saying. I had a much easier time writing in Swedish when I tried that out, but I never liked what I wrote. In “Breaking Up With A Friend” the bridge is in Swedish, and I remember recording that — it was so brutally painful because I know exactly how to do my vocals like I want them when I sing in English, but when you sing in Swedish it’s a completely different tonal perspective. I sang a lot in Swedish in choir but never in front of a microphone, and those are two very different things. That was just so brutal and I don’t want to do it again (laughs). I’m sure I will at some point, but right now no, it’s only in English.
LUNA: You’re playing in Stockholm soon. Do you have any track that you’re most excited to play live?
JIVÉN: I’ve never performed my stuff live before. This is not only going to be the release part, it’s gonna be my debut live as an artist. I love getting these questions about performing live and where I wanna play, but I have no clue honestly, I think I’m gonna have to figure it out.
LUNA: And how do you feel about it?
JIVÉN: I’m so nervous! Because I don’t know how it’s gonna be, and we haven’t figured out all the songs yet. But I have great company! I’m doing this with one of my best friends and it’s gonna be fun.
LUNA: Who have you been listening to lately? Any artist that inspires you sonically or aesthetically?
JIVÉN: I’ve been listening a lot to Charlie XCX. She’s one of my idols, not because I wanna sound like her or have a career like her, but I like how she’s always placed herself in the forefront of pop, and she’s done a lot of very inspiring sonical things. I’ve been listening a lot to Childish Gambino, I’m very inspired by his lyrics; I think he’s an amazing lyricist. I’ve been on very strange adventures recently — I just let the Spotify algorithm take me on a little journey, and then I just listen to all the things it thinks I would like, and I’m like, “What is it in this that I should like?” (laughs), but I just keep listening because it’s fun. Yeah, I’ve been listening to weird stuff.
LUNA: I noticed you are quite active on TikTok. What do you think is the impact of social media on artists of this generation?
JIVÉN: I think that today, TikTok especially is one of the key roads in the music industry and we can’t deny the power that the platform has. A lot of the artists that are getting signed to the major labels today are TikTok creators first. It’s an amazing platform because it’s very democratic; anyone can blow up, it’s not about who has the most funds, it’s about who’s the most creative. Of course you can cheat with money, you can always do that, but since every post has the opportunity to go viral, every post is a shot to make your song heard, and I think that’s amazing. Then of course there are always downsides to new technology. I think a lot about how many hours we all spend on those apps and what it does to us, our self-worth and our brains, even. I feel like I’m having a social interaction when I’m actually just looking at my phone. I think it can be dangerous, and if I didn’t have a TikTok as an artist I’m not sure if I would still have the platform because I’m very much addicted to it. It’s an amazing tool, but you have to be careful, and there are always ups and downs.
LUNA: What are you working on next, and what can we expect to see from you in the future?
JIVÉN: I’ve been writing a lot, and there are a lot of tracks that I’m very excited to release, but I couldn’t say exactly what the next cycle is gonna look like; there’s still a lot of things to be decided. Honestly, I think I’m gonna have to take a little break before I get back on it again. Not too long, but a little bit. I’m gonna chill out on the Mediterranean.
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