MUSIC - Luscious Jackson

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Laufey is in New York after playing a sold-out show last night at the Town Hall on 43rd Street. She has another one tonight. The Icelandic-Chinese musician combines her love of classical music, jazz, and bossa nova and makes it her own. Her latest album is called Bewitched. Here's one of the most popular songs from the release. This is From the Start.

MUSIC - Laufey: From The Start

Don't you notice how

I get quiet when there's no one else around?

Me and you and awkward silence

Don't you dare look at me that way

I don't need reminders of how you don't feel the same

Oh, the burning pain

Listening to you harp on 'bout some new soulmate

"She's so perfect," blah, blah, blah

Oh, how I wish you'll wake up one day

Alison Stewart: She's a classically trained cellist who played with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra growing up. Laufey went to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. As an official member of Gen Z, naturally, while in school, she posted videos on TikTok and YouTube singing her favorite jazz standards plus originals, and she earned quite a fan base. After graduating in 2021, she released her first album, Everything I Know About Love, in 2022.

Following its success, this new album came out this fall. Both albums were recorded at a studio that happens to have Frank Sinatra's old pianos, which she got to play. She played and sang with the China Philharmonic and the LA Philharmonic. Laufey joins me in studio for a listening party for her album Bewitched. It is so nice to meet you.

Laufey: Thank you so much for having me.

Alison Stewart: I had to let the blah, blah, blah part get in.

[laughter]

Laufey: Yes, that's my favorite part, too.

Alison Stewart: You took off here in the States before being recognized in Iceland, where you largely grew up. You were here in D.C. for a couple of years in the States. When did you realize your music had made a mark in Iceland?

Laufey: I don't know. Oh, well, the first time I heard my song on the radio, it was in Iceland. It was the summer after I'd released my first song and we were just driving around and I heard it come on the radio and I couldn't believe it. I thought my friend had just turned the song on from streaming or something, but it was on the radio, and I almost started crying. I think I did start crying because I was very shocked, but I think the first time I really noticed it was when I played on Jimmy Kimmel and I got to do it quite early on. I was very, very fortunate and I just remember all of a sudden all the news outlets in Iceland wanted to interview me.

I think that was the first time where I was like, "Oh, I think they're noticing something."

Alison Stewart: When were you first given a cello?

Laufey: When I was seven years old, I got a cello.

Alison Stewart: Did you ask for it or were you given it?

Laufey: I did ask for it because, well, my mother's a violinist and both my twin sister and I started playing piano when we were four. We always did piano, and then at age seven, we were both given violins, or six or seven and I refused to play it. I think I wanted to have my own thing. I always had a lower voice and I was the older twin, so I thought, "I'm bigger, I should play the cello." I thought secretly, I thought if I played the cello, my mother wouldn't be able to teach me because she's a violin player. I was later proven very wrong. Yes, so I received a cello instead.

Alison Stewart: That's so interesting to be that independent, that young. Does that streak stay with you?

Laufey: Yes, I'm definitely quite independent and I'm indecisive in all walks of life, actually, except for my music. I'm very decisive with that.

Alison Stewart: That's so interesting. As part of your family's story, your grandparents, they both were professors of music, correct?

Laufey: Yes, at the Central Conservatory in Beijing.

Alison Stewart: They had a very difficult life. I'm going to let you tell the story. I want to make sure it's in the right context.

Laufey: Yes, yes. Well, my grandparents and my mother grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China, where Western influences were not really allowed. Of course, my grandparents were both trained and professors of Western classical music. As they were considered the elite because they were professors, they actually went to re-education camp and became rice farmers for a couple of years. My mother grew up without that music, at least for the first few years, and my grandparents couldn't play.

I've heard all these wild stories about how there was a professor that was listening to Schoenberg, which is this 12-tone, atonal music. Some people from the military came and poured hot water in his ears, and he lost all hearing. Just all these stories of different things, and just sneaking around and listening to the music that they wanted to listen to. I think because of that, I've just been so passionate about-- My family's been so supportive of me just mixing and matching whatever music I want and letting my mind run free because of that history.

Alison Stewart: You were raised listening to classical music at home and you've played with orchestras around the world. We heard when we hear your music got this great jazzy bossa nova vibe. What aspects of classical music do you weave into your songwriting, if any?

Laufey: Oh, well, there are lots of little classical, like direct classical references that I have in my music. There's at the end of my song called Haunted, I have a reference to the Mendelssohn piano trio in D minor. There's a Bach reference in Promise and Lovesick, I think. There's Rachmaninoff and Chopin references in the interlude. It's all kind of woven in there. I like to sneak it in. The end of From the Start, it ends. The whole song is quite wacky, and there are a lot of-- what's the right word? Like a lot of tensions, musical tensions.

The last chord, I almost want to sound like a Dvorak quartet, like just really classical out of nowhere and have almost like that kind of very American, almost prairie sound, if you will, that Dvorak actually wrote a lot of music inspired by that.

Alison Stewart: It's going to be fun to go back and listen.

Laufey: Oh, yes. A lot of little gems.

Alison Stewart: You should make a companion playlist.

Laufey: I know. I want to do that like walking through all the references because there's a lot of also lyrical things that connect it. It's fun.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Laufey. The name of the album is Bewitched. We're having a listening party, so let's listen to another song. Here is the first song off the album. We can talk about it on the other side. This is Dreamer.

MUSIC - Laufey: Dreamer

Let me be a dreamer

Let me float

I can see the whole world

From my own little cloud

Up by the Milky Way

I'll stay here forever and a day

You can't pin me down

I fear all solid ground

I'd rather be alone at tea

Love when nobody's makin' me, oh

Boys just make me cry

Believe me, I have tried

I've made my rounds

Kissed some mouths

Trust me, I don't want a single soul around, oh

I'm giving up

I'm throwing in my hat

Alison Stewart: What made you want to start the record with just voice?

Laufey: I think, I don't know, I wanted to do something memorable, and it all comes back to voice. It's the whole story that I'm telling, it's all through my voice regardless of all the different instruments that I'm playing on the album. I think it's just the perfect opening to have that cold a cappella open and reminiscent of the Ink Spots or the Mills Brothers or even the Andrews Sisters, that kind of sound. The chords are very crunchy, but I really thought it was fun. [laughs] Also quite dreamlike.

Alison Stewart: That it builds. It's like the cake and the frosting is getting put on the cake.

Laufey: It feels like it's anticipating something, and I think I wanted the album to start like that.

Alison Stewart: It's so interesting because your fan base is young adults, and your sound is such a throwback in many ways, and you have versions of covers of older songs. When you came upon Misty I said he was like "Oh Johnny Mathis," and then I went back and I pulled Johnny Mathis, let's listen.

MUSIC - Johnny Mathis: Misty

Look at me

I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

And I feel like I'm clinging to a cloud I can't understand

I get misty just holding your hand

Alison Stewart: Then let's listen to a little bit of your version.

MUSIC - Laufey-Lín: Misty

Look at me

I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

And I feel like I'm clinging to a cloud

I can't understand

I get misty just holding your hand

Alison Stewart: How did you discover the song Misty?

Laufey Lín: Well, I don't remember an exact moment. I grew up listening to the Great American Songbook. I think that one obviously has been done many times, and I think I wanted to try my own hand at a version of it.

Alison Stewart: Do you get a sense from the way younger folks react to these classic songs, what it is they're reacting to?

Laufey: My theory is that they're reacting to a sense of timelessness in a time that seems quite bleak to many, I think. This is maybe just something that happens to young people, regardless of times, if you think back to the peace movement of the '60s or whatnot. Young people always want, there's always something that seems quite bleak, and honestly, there is currently. Yes, I think especially during the pandemic when I was doing a lot of these jazz standards, everything that felt very now like Zoom computers felt quite bleak. Anything in the news felt really sad. I think this music felt timeless in a way, harked back to a simpler time. That's my theory.

I think the second part of it is simply that I think Gen Z is just very receptive to all music. I think it's no longer the youth listen to pop music. I think now with access to the internet and access to just the archives of older music, ears have just expanded and opened up so much more.

Alison Stewart: When you approach a cover, what is your approach to a cover?

Laufey: My approach to a cover is somewhere balancing the line of honoring, the composer, honoring the versions before you. Also, I think, finding a way to bring your own unique touch. Why are you recording a cover of it? What are you going to add this time that's different than the last?

Alison Stewart: That's interesting. The why of it, because you have to think about that. You have to put your intellect towards the song. It's not just because it sounds great.

Laufey: Exactly.

Alison Stewart: Especially when it's a cover. It's like, oh, people know the song. It's already a good song or a song that's got an audience attached to it. Now you have to really think about what can I do with it? That's could be daunting, though.

Laufey: Yes. A lot of people ask me like, aren't you scared to put out that song that everyone knows and has been done by all the masters? I didn't think too much of it. I think maybe my why was simply that I really liked the song. I think I had the unique positioning of having a young audience, and that maybe hadn't heard the song before. I wanted to write an album of songs that had to do with love. I think Misty is such a beautiful way of describing love.

Alison Stewart: You have a song called Lovesick-

Laufey: I do.

Alison Stewart: -on the album. Let's listen to a little bit of Lovesick from Laufey.

MUSIC - Laufey-Lín: Lovesick

Floorboards creaking in my home

Deathly silence when alone

Oh, I wish that you were here right now

So, unlike me, somehow I

Fell in love in just three nights

Those November days still haunting me

When the gold rays fell on your skin

And my hair got caught in the wind

The choir sang a melancholic hymn

(Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah)

In the morning, you would be gone

I'd be mourning, tryin' to hold on to

The memory of your lips

God, I'm so lovesick

What have you done to me?

Let me in your atmosphere

Alison Stewart: That is Lovesick from Laufey album Bewitched, my guest is Laufey. Does writing music help you work out your emotions?

Laufey: Oh, definitely. I think it's the best form of therapy. It's like if I'm going through something, or it's upsetting me and I write a song about it and turn it into something I'm proud of, it's immediately healing. Then eventually when I put it out into the world and I hear that others have gone through the same thing, that also feels very validating.

Alison Stewart: Are you someone who, do you write on your phone? Are you a person who puts pen to paper? How do you write your music?

Laufey: Well, I write always from a title or a concept. I have a list of both in my journal and in my phone. I have just a list of titles. For example, Lovesick, that was just a word that I thought would sound like a cool song. It depends, I write either on my phone or in my journal depending on how I'm feeling.

Alison Stewart: How have you found writing while you're on tour?

Laufey: I am not a tour writer. I'm one or the other. When I'm in writing mode, I'm in writing mode. When I'm in touring mode, I'm in touring mode. It would be cool to find time to write, but yes.

Alison Stewart: That's just the way you work.

Laufey: That's the way I work. Yes.

Alison Stewart: There's a recent TikTok mashup of people putting visuals to a very melancholy song. A lovely song by Mitski - My Love Mine All Mine, and you're in it. You're in it in one of the mashups listening to it. Did you know that?

Laufey: No, I didn't.

Alison Stewart: You're listening to it, and you seem really, and you know the song, yes?

Laufey: Right. Of course.

Alison Stewart: Let's play a little bit. Do we have it? Yes. No, maybe so. We don't have it. I'm sorry. Well, what do you like about that song? Let's start there. I'm sorry. I thought we had it.

Laufey: No. I'm not surprised. There's definitely a lot of fan crossovers with Mitski and I. We both sing sad songs. There was a joke on the internet that I was the less depressed version of Mitski, which I thought was quite funny. I actually covered My Love Mine All Mine, recently at a show in Salt Lake City, and it was wild. I think it's maybe the most viral video I've put on TikTok this year. The fans definitely like me singing Mitski. I think that song is so beautiful and it's so encouraging that it's doing so well. Both as a fellow Asian woman, but also the music, it sounds timeless. It's so beautiful.

The message, the lyrics, I think I heard her talk about how nothing in this world is completely hers, these material items, except for her love. One day she'll die, and that's the only thing that was truly hers. That's what she has to give, and I thought that was so beautiful.

Alison Stewart: You have a collaboration on the song A Night to Remember.

Laufey: I do.

Alison Stewart: You wrote, during the release, someone checked the pulses of Indie Asian kids this week, which is really funny, but it also speaks to representation because the other artist is also Asian. How have Indie Asian kids let you know they feel seen?

Laufey: How have Indie Asian-- I think even just when I go to my concerts and I look out, and I just see that there are a lot of Asian kids who that look like me and have that space. I think it's just so special. I grew up mostly in Iceland and in communities where I was the only Asian, and me and my identical twin sister as well. It's just so special to get, to have these spaces where I feel represented. It's truly, I feel I've built a community of like-minded people.

I think a lot of us have gone through either similar stereotyping, and similar experiences, like the one stereotype that you do grow up playing an instrument does ring quite true. I think, a lot of my music has classical influences like that. That within pieces that a lot of us grew up playing. I think there's something there, and it's really cool. I did not have a community like that growing up, and I love it.

Alison Stewart: Your collaborator on A Night to Remember is?

Laufey: Oh,

Laufey: beabadoobee. [chuckles]

Alison Stewart: Let's listen.

MUSIC - ​beabadoobee/Laufey: A Night To Remember

Somethin' in your eye

Reminded me of somebody I used to know

You touched my back

I took your hand

Somethin' from your touch felt shockingly familiar

And I swore I'd seen you before

Oh, I swore I'd seen you before

Underneath the sheets

You enchanted me

And whispered sweet nothings in my ear

Alison Stewart: That is from Laufey, my guest. You've mentioned your twin sister a couple of times. She works with you, right?

Laufey: Yes, she's my creative director.

Alison Stewart: What is it like to have your twin sister as your creative director? From what you can tell, what is good about having your twin sister as your creative director?

Laufey: Oh my God, everything, it's like an extension of my brain who is more creative and understands me better than anyone on this earth. It's such a gift to be able to have somebody that can relay my thoughts by barely speaking to me. Talking to music video directors, photographers, makeup artists. Yes, it's such a gift. I trust her so much to make these decisions for me, really. She is maybe the one person in this world that can say anything to me and be very, very honest. That's such a gift in this job.

Alison Stewart: In this industry, keep her close.

Laufey: Yes, exactly. It's funny, I was thinking as you grow further into being an artist and find more success, people are less incentivized to tell you the truth. I'm always on my toes, making sure that I'm always getting the truth because I don't ever want to-- I just want to hear the cold hard truth and my sister will always be able to give me that.

Alison Stewart: Tomorrow, we're going to hear some Christmas music dropped from you.

Laufey: Oh, yes. [chuckles]

Alison Stewart: You post a little sample of it on TikTok. Let's listen.

MUSIC - Laufey: Christmas Dreaming

I'm doing my Christmas dreaming

A little early this year

No sign of snow around

Alison Stewart: Is this a one-off or are we going to get a whole Christmas album EP?

Laufey: I promise that there will be, even this year, a lot of Christmas music, a lot of holiday tunes.

Alison Stewart: [laughs]

Laufey: I always say, I love the holidays because that's when the whole world wants to listen to jazz music. [laughs] I won't leave this earth without leaving a couple of Christmas albums. I promise that.

Alison Stewart: Well done. We're going to go out on California and Me. What would you like people to listen for in this track?

Laufey: Well, first of all, New York, it's a shout-out because it's about someone leaving me in California for New York and their ex-lover. I'm not dramatic at all. I wrote this on the piano very much like a composition. There are a lot of list references in the piano, and in the orchestra, I recorded with a Philharmonia Orchestra, so it has this very almost concerto-like sound. That was the goal with this.

Alison Stewart: The name of the album is Bewitched. My guest has been Laufey. Thank you for coming to the studio.

Laufey: Thank you so much for having me.

Alison Stewart: This is California and Me.

MUSIC - Laufey: California and Me

Should've figured that you'd go back to New York

Don't consider me when you run back to her-

Alison Stewart: That's All Of It for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate you, and I'll meet you back here next time.

-You don't have to hide it, I know why you went

Said you needed space, I know better than that

Mm, mm, mm, mm

Could've fought--

 

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