Aftonbladet - Darin: "She's a bad girl and I like it"

Darin celebrates 10 years as an artist with a hot music video. Nöjesbladet joined him during the recording.


Sex, sun and fast cars. For Darin Zanyar, it's a regular day at work. As the only media, Nöjesbladet got to join the Swedish star while he recorded the music video for his latest song "Mamma Mia" in the desert outside of Los Angeles.

"Now she owns you. Now she does whatever she wants with you"
Darin, 26, nods at the instructions he's given from the Norwegian director Alex Herron.
The next moment the singer's co-star pushes him down in the motel bed and straddles him. Later they start simulating hot, passionated sex.

Outside, the sun has set over Palmdale's cactuses, located one hour from Los Angeles. The bedroom scene was the ending of a long day of recording with up speeded engines, police cars, mini helicopters and a team bigger than at the making of a Swedish movie. The production has a cost of half a million Swedish kronor (approx. 79 000 US dollars/57 000 euros) and it's his kick-off for the summer, as well as a mark for his 10-year-anniversary as an artist.

"I originally wrote the song for my last album. But I didn't really have time to finish it and I thought it felt like a summer song" he says during a break of the recording. "Even though it's a pop production you can still hear both latin and oriental influences."

DRIVES AN ESCAPE CAR
It almost looks like he's blushing when we start talking about the song's lyrics. "It's a girl who makes me feel things that I've never felt before." In the video she also makes him do things he'd never done before, like driving the escape car after a robbery.

"She's a bad girl and I like it" says Darin, who took part in choosing his costar. He smiles when we ask him if the girl in the music video is someone he dreams about. But he simultaneously shakes his head. "She's the one you think that you want, someone you fantasize about. But in reality, you don't want that."

BONNIE AND CLYDE IN THE DESERT
Together with director Herron they worked on the idea for the video, where the rapper Prophet does a featuring. "I wanted a kind of "Bonnie and Clyde" in the desert. It would be cars, a little rough, a little edgy" he says, mixing English and Swedish.
"Originally it's a love story, that I sing about in the song in a kind of extreme way."

This must be the most expensive music video you've made?
"If I'm going to do something, I feel like it's important to do it to the fullest. If I didn't have this crew, all the cars and the actors, it would be a totally different story."

TURNED DOWN A FILM ROLE
The video takes more than just singing for Darin. It's also, partly, an acting mission. He says that he likes this, while we're walking around among camera tripods, statists and recording crew members. "In 2006, or maybe 2007, I got requests of playing a role in a movie. I was close to accepting, but it didn't happen because I decided to focus on the music." He doesn't want to reveal which movie it was, but he tells us that he took drama lessons. It might have been a well invested move.

FOLLOWED HIS GUT FEELING
"It's not impossible that I'll do something like that in the future. I always follow my gut feeling when I'm making decisions, but this has truly been great fun."

Director Herron calls Darin back to the bedroom. They're gonna take close ups of him and his costar on the bed. Even though he has to repeat everything, he doesn't seem to suffer.
"Mamma Mia" is released April 14th.

Interview in Swedish here (by Magnus Sundholm). Watch the photo gallery from the interview here.
Translated by Nathalie Pentler.