Q&A: Swedish indie-pop star Lykke Li
Categories: Concert Preview, Q&A
Photo by John Lindquist
Written by Duke Shin
Is indie pop-tart Lykke Li is just another kewpie-faced ingénue with a delicate voice?
She hails from what seems to be the new home of indie classicalism, where sparsely tuneful arrangements extract criminally efficient hooks that conquer the Blogsphere, then advertising, then motion pictures and soccer moms. We're talking about Sweden, whose previous pop-life gave us the likes of ABBA and Ace of Base, and whose current reincarnated cultural commodities are talented musicians of a different sort, like Jens Jenkman, Peter Bjorn and John, and now Lykke Li.
Lyrically, Lykke Li (full name Lykke Li Timotei Zachrisson) crams her spry 22 years of life into 14 songs of unrequited love, tears, break-ups, dancing, shyness, more tears, isolation, and forgetting a tainted heart (by rhyming it with "legs apart.") Add in her breathy, cooing voice, and Youth Novels might seem easy to judge--and dismiss--by its cover. But producer Bjorn Ytlling (the Bjorn in Peter Bjorn and John) is a wizard of arrangement; perfectly placing Lykke Li's limited vocal instrument in provocatively sparse spaces, with bare-boned rhythms sublimely tent-poled with eclectic flourishes. A handclap here, a harpsichord there, a theremin here...
But while the album is a hugely successful debut, Lykke Li has been dogged by comparisons to other Scandinavian songbirds. Robyn. Annie. Nina Persson.
"Its like a sexism thing that I really do not like at all," says Lykke Li, venting rapidly from her home in Stockholm, Sweden. "It bothers me a lot. But at the same time, there's a lot of people who don't even get a chance, and I feel I do get taken very seriously, but then I get compared to other people. But it's a thing I have to struggle with as well [because] I'm not very fond of my own voice, and I want to sound like Tom Waits, but then I sound like this really young girl, and I feel like this big, black man inside--[a] crazy lunatic, and then I look in the mirror and I look like 17! It's a struggle for everybody involved..."
Lykke Li speaks rapidly, pausing not for punctuation or sentence endings, but for further thought or the need for air. Defiant, precise, and...adorable. Staying objective is difficult, but perhaps the energy in Lykke Li as a performer will carry her future successes. So after this tour, what's next?
"There was no pre-start, you know. No warm-up, it was just 'bing-badda-boom,' like, tour for 14 months in a row, so after this tour I'm going to take just a small break and try and get somewhere to stay and make some tea and read, and the music will start flowing again... I want to start thinking about my next album and try to do some research about that..."
What kind of research? Surely new producers, artists that get her going...
"No," she cuts in, "where to go out at night. 4:00 A.M., 5:00 A.M., that's where it happens!" And it's all happening quickly for Lykke Li, who's also to be featured alongside Santogold and Kanye West on a track for Squeak E. Clean's anticipated N.A.S.A. album The Spirit of Apollo, and on Royksopp's next album as well. -- Duke Shin
Lykke Li will play with Wildbirds & Peacedrums on Sunday, February 8 at the Varsity Theater. $20. 6 p.m. doors.
"Its like a sexism thing that I really do not like at all," says Lykke Li, venting rapidly from her home in Stockholm, Sweden. "It bothers me a lot. But at the same time, there's a lot of people who don't even get a chance, and I feel I do get taken very seriously, but then I get compared to other people. But it's a thing I have to struggle with as well [because] I'm not very fond of my own voice, and I want to sound like Tom Waits, but then I sound like this really young girl, and I feel like this big, black man inside--[a] crazy lunatic, and then I look in the mirror and I look like 17! It's a struggle for everybody involved..."
Lykke Li speaks rapidly, pausing not for punctuation or sentence endings, but for further thought or the need for air. Defiant, precise, and...adorable. Staying objective is difficult, but perhaps the energy in Lykke Li as a performer will carry her future successes. So after this tour, what's next?
"There was no pre-start, you know. No warm-up, it was just 'bing-badda-boom,' like, tour for 14 months in a row, so after this tour I'm going to take just a small break and try and get somewhere to stay and make some tea and read, and the music will start flowing again... I want to start thinking about my next album and try to do some research about that..."
What kind of research? Surely new producers, artists that get her going...
"No," she cuts in, "where to go out at night. 4:00 A.M., 5:00 A.M., that's where it happens!" And it's all happening quickly for Lykke Li, who's also to be featured alongside Santogold and Kanye West on a track for Squeak E. Clean's anticipated N.A.S.A. album The Spirit of Apollo, and on Royksopp's next album as well. -- Duke Shin
Lykke Li will play with Wildbirds & Peacedrums on Sunday, February 8 at the Varsity Theater. $20. 6 p.m. doors.
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