MALMO, Sweden (CNN) -- The breathy vocals of Nina Persson helped launch The Cardigans onto the music scene in the 1990s. The band developed its dreamy pop sound in the Southern Swedish town of Malmo.

Singer Nina Persson finds musical inspiration in love and relationships.

They were catapulted to international success in 1997, when the single "Lovefool" appeared on the soundtrack for "Romeo and Juliet," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. The song's chorus ("Love me, love me, say that you love me") became a pop anthem.

In addition to fronting The Cardigans, Persson, 34, has worked on solo projects under the name A Camp. Now, after a near decade long hiatus, her second A Camp album, "Colonia," is due out later this month.

Persson, who splits her time between New York and Malmo, talks to CNN's "My City, My Life" about music, inspiration and life after "Lovefool."

CNN: How did The Cardigans start?

Nina Persson: We formed the band in this town where we are all originally from -- Jonkoping -- and that was in 1992. Magnus and Peter were the two guys who actually met and wanted to form the band. And then they recruited people and I was one of the first to be recruited, along with a friend of mine who played guitar in the first version of The Cardigans.

I had not sung before that really. I was sort of hired because they knew they wanted a girl singing. And I was like 'I'm a girl' and I guess we got along well and I was willing to learn to sing. So that's how it started really.  Watch Nina take CNN on a tour of her favorite Malmo spots Â»

CNN: How big was music in your life before you joined the band?

Nina Persson: I've loved music my whole life. But I never really listened to a record and thought that was something that I wanted to do. I was interested in becoming a painter, an architect, a designer. Those are the things I was interested in. But music, I never took instrument classes -- it was a random thing to start doing.

CNN: Sometime a career finds you?

Nina Persson: Yeah and I was a person who was really helped by it. I was looking for something but I didn't know what it was and it proved to fulfill what I needed at the time.

CNN: How is A Camp different from The Cardigans?

Nina Persson: It's hard to say what makes it different because I'm still doing the same thing -- I'm still writing songs and singing them -- but it feels like it's a bigger freedom because I am in charge in A Camp. I like both. Both serve good purposes. I like to be in the collective, being part of the machinery, but I also really enjoy being dictator.

CNN: How do you define yourself as a musician now?

Nina Persson: Well I'm not. I'm not one of these people who live and breathe music. In the beginning I was a reluctant musician -- I still haven't bothered to learn an instrument. I'm still only a singer and that's how I write my songs. I'm always superstitious that if I do learn an instrument I would pop the bubble a bit.

CNN: Is there anything else you would have liked to have done if you hadn't done singing?

Nina Persson: At the time when I was found, picked up by the band, I was into art. I was really good at drawing, really creative. I made stuff, I built stuff, I sewed stuff. I thought I would end up in that world somewhere. Photography was a big thing for me. In retrospect, I'm sure that could have been a good career for me.

But recently I've started to wish that I could start over and dedicate my life to medicine. I would have loved to go to med school
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