On my radar: Nina Persson's cultural highlights

Nina Persson is best known as the lead singer of the Cardigans, the Swedish pop-rock band propelled to international stardom by their 1996 single Lovefool, which was was featured on the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet. After The Cardigans' fourth album, Gran Turismo, went multiplatinum in 1998, the five-piece took a break from recording to pursue solo projects, with Persson releasing records as A Camp. In 2006, she became a member of the Cake Sale – a musical collective whose album profits were donated to charity – while other collaborations have included a duet on the Manic Street Preachers track Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, as well as an appearance on the 2010 Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse album, Dark Night of the Soul. Persson's debut solo album to be released under her own name, Animal Heart, is out now.

Musician: Connie Converse

Connie Converse was born in 1924 and she lived in New York for a period. She was a very plain lady who did office jobs but she loved to write songs. She did a couple of recordings in someone's kitchen in the 1960s and those songs have recently been released. In 1974, she wrote letters to all of her friends and then she disappeared. Nobody knows where she went, or if she's alive. She's a mystery. The music is beautiful, very haunting. Of course, her story adds to the mystique. The record that was put out recently was called How Sad, How Lovely... it's worth checking out.

Artist: Helene Schjerfbeck

Helene Schjerfbeck was a painter born in the late 1800s and she's a big artist in Finland. I've got a book [of her work] and I return to it a lot. She did some time in Paris and was very well schooled [in art]. She painted a lot of portraits of women. They're quite traditional-looking but her colouring, the expressions in her portraits, and her technique are beautiful and very interesting. I saw one of her exhibitions in Gothenburg, Sweden – that was the first time I had ever heard about her.

Book: Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist

This is Lois Gordon's biography of Nancy Cunard, who was an intriguing woman. She was a badass: she came from the upper class, and she was an artist and a designer. She did some pretty progressive things: she bought a book printer very early on and published books herself. She also became a bit of a fashion icon. She had a very eccentric way of dressing, she looked cool. I tried to copy her style in one of my videos. She was really interested in African culture – she collected lots of African bracelets and she wore them all, up to her armpits. She also wore turbans and dressed very dramatically. I really like a good biography, especially about women.

Film: Frances Ha

I mostly watch documentaries and TV shows, but this is a great movie based around really great acting. It's in black and white and I'm sure it was low-budget. I like Greta Gerwig; you sort of get a girl-crush on her, she's so charming and clumsy. It's set in New York and, if you live here, it's really fun to see art based around living here. I'm a different generation [from Gerwig's character, Frances], I'm more settled, but moving between couches is a very New York thing. I was on tour recently and that, for me, is always a wonderful time to read and see movies.

Chocolate: François Pralus

François Pralus makes a lot of different chocolates, but the one that is absolutely insane is called Barre infernale noire. It's like a gold bar of praliné. It's perverse how good it is. You have to cut slices with a knife to eat it. There are two places in New York that I know sell it and I make special trips there. It's pretty pricey, but it's worth it. I've developed a habit where I need to eat chocolate after each meal. When I try to be healthy, chocolate just doesn't apply.

Writer: Alice Munro

Alice Munro has just been awarded the Nobel prize in literature and I was really psyched that [the winner] was someone whom I had actually read. She writes a lot of short stories; I'd recommend one called Too Much Happiness. They're all about women who have committed some kind of crime. It's striking how, in very short pieces, she can describe a whole scenario or a whole world. She uses very direct, pregnant language. I don't usually pick up short story books but this is like the only way in which her writing could exist. I read too little these days, but I sometimes read on the subway and I'm the kind of person who reads before they turn out the light.