Tove Lo: ‘The rumour I hear the most is that I’m either pregnant or in rehab. I want both of those to not be true’

The Swedish electro-pop singer-songwriter on eloping to Vegas, checking cupboards for murderers and her spooky party trick

The one that comes to mind is a fan in Austin who I met on one of my first tours there. He ran up to me and said, “SIGN MY ARM!” I signed his arm and then when he came back to the show the next night he had it tattooed – there was plastic over it. I remember saying, “I would have done a better job if I knew you were going to get it tattooed.” Then we took a picture of us, with me pointing at the tattoo.

The next year when I was playing at Austin City Limits, the sound broke down and I was talking to the crowd for quite a while, and I saw him – he had a T-shirt on with the photo of me and him pointing at his tattoo. He’d made a T-shirt for me as well, so he threw it up on stage … I still have that T-shirt in my closet.

Is there a rumour you’ve heard or read about yourself that you wish were true?

The one that pops up the most is that I’m either pregnant or that I’ve gone to rehab, so right now I want both of those to not be true.

Probably get married. We eloped to Vegas and took a group of our closest friends with us and had a party weekend. We went to the Little White Chapel and just did it, I think within two weeks of us talking about getting married.

Your latest single is called DNH, meaning “drunk and horny”. When was the last time you were drunk and horny ?

Last weekend. I was at this party in downtown LA called Midnight Lovers – they throw parties in an outside venue under a bridge – and a DJ that I love called Azzecca did a really great set. We were dancing, hanging out and then went back to my friend’s house for an after party. We got in the hot tub when we got home. It was a very typical LA night for me and my crew. It was fun and sexy.

If it’s late, I check under the bed and in all the closets and the bathroom to make sure that no one’s in there ready to murder me – and then I will pour a drink and take a bath.

I would be a lynx, the Nordic wildcat. It’s what Lo means in Swedish. It’s the animal that I’ve always gone back to, my favourite animal since I was kid [shows a tattoo of a lynx on her hand].

I have this one right here of Sunshine Kitty [the name of her fourth album] with Super Ted. The rest of my tattoos are hearts, bunnies, vaginas and aliens.

Having food poisoning and needing to run off stage to puke. I was playing a festival in Bali and I got sick like five minutes before. I was thinking, I’ve done the initial spew so I probably have an hour until I need to puke again, so let’s go! I got through the whole set, ran off to spew, ran on again and did the last two songs. Afterwards I was like, “Get me to bed.”

Out in space. I don’t know why. Maybe because it feels like I’ll be floating and slowly suffocating, whereas drowning for some reason feels really painful. I think I will just be mesmerised that I’m even out there.

I do. I don’t know if we have yet figured out their shape or form. But I don’t think that we’re the only ones out there. I think there’s already proof that we’re not, we just haven’t found anything that we can communicate with.