That was four years ago, when Namasenda released her debut mixtape „Unlimited Ammo” via acclaimed hyperpop bastion PC Music. Right now, the singer and producer sits in her kitchen in Stockholm. Her polished nails glow brightly when she moves her hands in front of the laptop camera, while the silhouette of a flamingo lamp lurks behind her head. She is not a fan of big words, you can tell. But as tersely Namasenda speaks, she is great at keeping an aura of secrecy within the things she tells. 

Sorry for my internet connection, I am currently in the hinterland of Poland.

You’re in Poland? I’ve been there quite a lot. I played at this really weird festival in the middle of nowhere, but I also was in Warsaw a couple of times.

How did you like it?

First time I got there, I really enjoyed it. The vibes were kinda weird, but I had a guy accompanying me the whole trip, so it was fine. The last time it was there, though, it was even more weird. 

You’re in Stockholm right now?

I live here permanently now, but …

You’ve been living in L.A., in London …

Yeah, I grew up in a rather small town in Sweden and romanticized this big places in the world. As soon as you go there, you realize that the entire world is a ghetto. Nothing is working anywhere besides in Sweden. 

Sounds like you love to live there.

I couldn’t live here, if I didn’t travel as much as I do. Since I have the privilege of touring, I love coming back here, though. It’s chill, you don’t have to be afraid of anything – Stockholm is just a calm place.

This appreciation comes with the distance, right?

Absolutely! If I just stayed here my entire life, I don’t think I would have appreciated it the way I can now. I am a patriot. All my friends are like woah, why? but I really love it here.

What do you love about Stockholm?

I never envisioned myself living here, but once I did, it immediately felt like home.

On your Wiki page, it says that you were born in Jämshög, a little town in the south of Sweden.

That’s literally where I was born! I don’t even know how people found out because the only place where it says that I am from Jämshög is my ID. Anyway, I grew up even more south, very close to Denmark. 

More south means more remote, I guess?

You know what I tell people from the US? It’s basically Texas, where I grew up. There is a certain attitude to people that you only get when you’re from there.

Do you have any memories growing up there that defined you as a person?

I was bored my whole childhood, really. I just read books, all kinds of books, until I was 18. Then I moved.

You say books, but I’m sure you had access to the internet already.

I was online, but I wasn’t online as much as my friends that I have now. 

How do you mean that?

I was more of a bystander, looking at what was going on there, but not really engaging in anything because as I said, I was just reading, really.

Until you left for L.A. – a bold move for an 18-year-old from rural Sweden.

I don’t really view it that way, though. It would have been more bold of me to stay. See, I love to do all the things and live life. At the same time, I know that I only have a certain amount of time to do that. So yeah, a lot of people are scared to live and then they just die. I find that scarier than just going places. 

True, but cutting your ties at 18 still is very bold, don’t you think?

Ties? Come on! It’s not like the 1800s! I can fly to L.A. in eleven hours.

I get what you mean, but stepping from a small town in Sweden to the big world must have been something else.

I saw so many things that I had never seen before, yes. I learned what I like and what I don’t like, meaning that I figured out how I want to live my life. That’s probably the most important thing, so yeah, it was something else for a time. Then, after a year, I left L.A.

Why?

I didn’t like to live here any more. It’s that simple. So I left two days after I decided to leave.

Are you a spontaneous person?

I just try to go where my heart leads me. That means, I try not to think too much about the things that I do and don’t pressure myself into following through on things that I don’t want to do anymore.

Before you said that during your time in L.A. you figured out what you like and what you don’t like.

Yeah, I just turned 18 and couldn’t do anything because, of course, the legal age for literally everything cool and fun in the US is 21. I then got a fake ID, but I lost it on the same day. After some time I got bored, I figured, I would rather go back. 

You left for London.

I did, but I only stayed for five months because I hate London more than anything. 

I watched a Boiler Room you did in London. You were going mental on stage, but the crowd was so lame. 

Oh my god, I deleted that from my memories. The crowd was thinking so much about them being filmed, they got self-conscious. To be honest, though, that is not a fair picture of London. I really liked the people there.

You recontextualise a lot. The first time I saw the cover of your latest album, I mistook it for a poster of a new Terminator movie. 

Whether that’s intentional or not, putting things into a new context is something that is natural to creating, isn’t it? Let’s say I go to the museum to see a painting that I love. Something within that painting might come out on a single cover in a year. Still, I see different stuff in a year, though. So things happen in your head and they reassemble in different ways.

You watch a movie every day for breakfast, I heard.

It is true, yes.

You woke up before this interview and watched a movie?

To be honest, this morning, I didn’t. I wanted to, but I had to pick out some pictures and I did that while I was eating my breakfast. I watched a movie last night, though. Don’t ask me the name of it because I have no idea, but Jason Statham was in it.

Do you have a list of movies to watch or how do you come up with new ones?

It’s very hard because I have seen everything, so I just watch what’s new on Netflix and HBO and all. Then again, I just love falling asleep to action movies.

What makes action so alluring to you?

There is a lot of shit going on so you don’t have to pay attention.

I talked to a friend about the first Tomb Raider lately. It was in the early 2000s, but I broke with this heteronormative patriarchy shit in action movies.

This film definitely was on the mood board for „Unlimited Ammo”. I had other movies on it, obviously, but Angelina Jolie was in a lot of photos. This time, things are a bit different because the project is so clear to me.

Why?

It was very clear from the start what it was going to be and that’s exactly what it is now.

Is there something you love about yourself?

I don’t have great confidence all the time, but my sense of self-worth has always stuck with me. I know what I am worth. And this is more important than having great confidence.

Do you know where this sense of self-worth comes from?

It comes from my mom. Building up my own self-worth was super important to her. It’s kind of like I had been brainwashed by her, so no matter what you say to me, you can’t do anything about that.

Because you know what you want.

And what I am capable of or not, yeah.

What are you capable of?

Anything! I am delusional, I think that I can go to space. 

To space?

It’s my biggest dream, actually. I don’t want to be an astronaut. I just want to go to space.

There are ways …

When you have a lot of money. 

Or the right stuff.

One way or another, I will go to space. 

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