Lykke Li Issue #37

Burgeoning career in tow, the Swedish singer-songwriter is happy living in the moment

By Jenny An
Published: September 1st, 2008 | 10:29am

“I don’t know. I could be pregnant. I could be dead. I could be in love,” Lykke Li says when asked what she’ll be up to five years from now. “I see myself the same as now, wondering what to do next. I’ll probably be as confused as I am now.”

Right now Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson is in the midst of an international tour and the owner of the blog hit “A Little Bit.” She released her debut album, Youth Novels, in the States in August on her own label, LL Recordings, after the record had already charted its way onto the U.K. Top 200.

Success has kept the 22-year-old busy. But Li is not going to be the one to talk about what fame and fortune the future holds and frankly, she doesn’t give a damn.

Youth Novels is a mix of pop, funk, lo-fi, avant-garde, and electronica matched with deeply personal lyrics. The final product is heartbreaking but utterly catchy and danceable. Produced by Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John fame, it focuses on a chaotic two-year relationship and its fiery end, but the album is about more than that. “It’s about finding yourself,” Li says. “Being lost and being heartbroken. It’s about everything and nothing.”

Largely written and recorded in Li’s hometown of Stockholm, Sweden, Youth Novels shivers from its Scandinavian, frost-bitten setting. “That’s where my love affairs take place and it’s like escaping Sweden,” she says. “It’s cold and it’s dark. I just want to escape to a world that’s cinematic and dramatic.” But an album influenced by Sweden is not what was expected.

Born to a photographer and a touring musician, she spent vacations in India, Nepal, and Morocco. She also lived in the mountains of Portugal for five years. “It was normal for me, going everywhere,” she says. “That was just growing up.”

Maybe getting acquainted with extraordinary experiences as a kid is what lets her take a booming career in stride. Lykke Li won’t let stardom mess with her head. She’s happy living life day by day. “My plan is just to experience life.”

Lykke Li garnered the music industry’s attention during her performances at South by Southwest. Backed by three handsome gentlemen, Lykke Li played finger cymbals and kazoos, performed mini choreographed dances, and head banged.

“I live out everything I have [in my performances],” she says. “It’s a special moment. There’s no other time of the day that I can be totally in the present.” Those shows exemplify her music — intimate, raw, and dramatic, but infectious and fun — and her outlook on fame.

Though she won’t predict the future, Li’s present is certainly a lot different. “I haven’t not performed in such a long time,” she says, that she can’t remember what everyday things she likes to do. But that doesn’t bother her much.

In the midst of a tour that will keep on trucking until the end of the year, she’s found her comfort zone — a unique blend of the extraordinary life of a rising musician and her everyday life of walking around, having dinner, and watching movies. “I’m happy. [If I could do anything] I would do what I’m doing right now — on my way to a festival and talking to my dad.”

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MAD LIB WITH LYKKE LI
True emotion makes a good song.
Life, love, a crush, movies, and weed inspires my music.
Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Cat Power’s “Good Woman” are my favorite love songs.
The best performance I’ve ever seen is Lauryn Hill. She’s just so good. It reminds me of a time when artists took their job seriously.
Lately I’ve been listening to Bon Iver, Nina Simone, the Shangri-Las, and A Tribe Called Quest.

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