Every Wednesday, Tove Lo has a ritual. Whether she’s on tour in Japan, recording in Los Angeles or promoting her latest hit in Europe, as a member of Wolf Cousins -- the Max Martin-affiliated songwriting and producing collective -- the 28-year-old Swedish singer-songwriter is required to take at least one shot of Chartreuse, a green, potion-like liqueur not for the faint of liver. “It’s called the Wednesday Initiative,” she says with a raspy laugh. “I’m really bad at sending proof -- they’re giving me shit. I have to remember to do it tomorrow.”
Tove Lo: The Billboard Photo Shoot
As the lone female member of a crew that has contributed to countless chart-crushing records -- Tove co-wrote Ellie Goulding’s smash “Love Me Like You Do” with Wolf Cousins, is all over Icona Pop’s hit 2013 LP and sang on Coldplay’s 2015 track “Fun” -- her career would be plenty impressive. But a few years ago she wrote a song that felt too personal, too specifically her, to share with another artist. Released independently in 2013, “Habits (Stay High)” -- which chronicles an alcohol, weed and sex club-fueled attempt to erase the pain of a broken heart and sounds sort of midway between Lorde and Lana Del Rey -- caught on online, first slowly and then all at once. A year after it came out, the song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100; its video has notched more than a half-billion views on YouTube. Now, with her follow-up, Lady Wood (Island, Oct. 28), Tove is out to prove she’s no one-hit wonder. “She’s a true free spirit,” says Island Records chief David Massey, who signed her in the wake of “Habits.” “The way that she’s able to depict the modern world through the eyes of a new, modern woman is quite unique.”