Linnéa Handberg Interview

First off, what is your favourite song by Miss Papaya?

I think I loved "Machoman" a lot, it was the first song we wrote as an ironic gimmick really... it sorta wrote itself. My producer went out to fetch us some pizza and when he came back I had written the track. :-)

Is there any chance that you might make a return to the bubblegum dance scene? :)

Probably to do a one-off if ever given the right opportunity, but only if I really honestly believed in the project.

What is the most difficult thing about being a famous singer? What is the best?

The most difficult thing was probably being labaled as "just" a bubblegum singer. Since my Papaya days I have been singing pop and doing features on house and dance projects as well, so thankfully I have been able to show people that I can do more, that I'm not only able to do one single thing. The best is definitely meeting the fans and getting fan mail on my Myspace page. That is heartwarming!

What's the funnest thing you've ever done?

Going on tour in Japan was really one of the highlights of my career. And meeting Madonna when I was signed to her label in the US.

What is your favorite song to dance to?

Into The Groove - By A Certain Madonna

Everyone is a little confused about your association with Bambee. Was she a project of yours, and were you good friends with Desirée? We understand that you wrote many songs for her. Do you know what happened to the Bambee project, and why she stopped releasing music?

Desiree was signed to the same label, only the Norwegian Area - as I was signed to the Danish Department. Bambee needed a follow up on her first single and ultimately the label asked me and my producer if we would be interested in doing some stuff for her. We agreed, met up with Desiree in Jutland and recorded tracks for her first and second album.

Unfortunately, I lost touch with Desiree over the years, I remember her as a sweet and nice person to work with. I did the backing vocals for some of the tracks as well!

Would you consider writing bubblegum dance music again?

For other artists, sure!

If you could change one thing about the Miss Papaya project, what would it be?

That I had never been involved with Maverick Records. The whole thing was blown out of proportion and suddenly all the fun was taken out of the project instantly. When I flew to L.A. to do the Videoshoot for Hero, I had such a bad feling in my gutt that turned out to be true - that they were going to mess up and they did. We had all the major dancelabels in the palm of our hands, and when Maveric came along and took it all away, I instantly knew this was the wrong way to go. We should have stayed at the smaller labels and it would have been a far better decision for the project and for my career as Papaya.

Did you come up with the song subjects of Miss Papaya songs? What was some of the inspiration behind songs such as "Pink Dinosaur" and "Hero"? Any interesting/favorite stories about how any of the songs were inspired/created?

Pink Dinosaur was just a gimmick track, Hero however was truly inspired by Me & My, Aqua, and other Danish dance projects at the time. I can't really say any of the tracks were inspired by "True Stories" except for maybe Operator which was inspired by me, always calling my B-F at the time on the phone, whenever I was travelling long distance.

How long have you been writing music?

Since I was 16. I began with 2 guys, Asger & Thomas in Elsingore where I was raised and they used to have a big fat cat running around in the studio. Whenever I would record a demo and start singing, the cat "Batman" would run up and start miauwing next to me .. - All my old demos have the sound of Batman singing along with me in the background. It's really funny to think about!

Have you seen anyone playing your songs on a DDR machine? Impressions? Try it yourself?

No and I would love to, and love to try myself!!!

While writing under Miss Papaya, what was some of your musical inspiration?

Life, love, fun, music, ... anything not complicated!

And lastly, do you have a favourite candy? =)

I DO= ALL CANDY HA HA!!!