Lykke Li is not happy. Not in the sense that she is depressed, but in the sense that she is frustrated with her life presently. The 23-year old sweedish singer responsible for underground-gone-mainstream hits such as “Little Bit”, “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “Let It Fall”, has been touring for what seems like ages, and she is tired of it. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t still in good spirits. I meet her in one of the only shady areas of Grant Park (home of Lollapalooza) that day, the media tent. This has to be one of the hottest days of the year, but Lykke doesn’t seem to be phased at all. Looking quite fashionable and calm, she sits down in the lawn chair across from me. But the biggest suprise about Lykke Li is that she could care less about the mainstream audience. In fact, she plans to steer her musical direction away from pop altogether with her sophomore effort, which she is currently working on. And as she complains about her inability to sit down and write as a result of a busy schedule, obviously something that causing the songwriter inside of her great distraught, I can’t help but smile. Despite Lykke’s artistic complexities and confusing conflicts, the passion for her art shines through with every word she utters- refreshing would be the best word to describe it.
URB’s Interview with Lykke Li from URB Magazine on Vimeo.
How are you? Are you excited to be here today?
I’m very happy to be in Chicago today. I’ve been here before, it’s my fourth time actually. So I know it all.
What’s the main difference between a regular gig and a festival?
I think everything around the whole gig is very different. Fast sound checks, you can’t control the weather, and things go wrong. But at the same time, me and my band are always like “Let’s fucking kill it” so we kinda do the same thing- we trash something or a mic goes wrong, so I think it ‘s really good training because it’s just like punk- you just do it.
What’s been your most memorable festival experience?
The ones that you remember are the ones that went to hell. Coachella was so hot, I was about to die. But we’ve had some really amazing festivals, like All Points West was really great for us. But a lot of bad ones, especially last summer. It’s raining, there’s nobody there- we played Glastonbury at 12 in the morning, nobody was awake.
Won’t have that problem today.
No no, tonight is gonna be amazing.
Excited to see anyone?
Animal Collective, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Really excited.
Your career blew up very quickly. What’s been the biggest change for you?
The thing is, it’s gone so quick for me and I’ve been so busy, I have to like take a break in my creative mind, I have to put it on hold and just be boring and do interviews. It’s like, I’m not allowed to be so creative anymore because there’s been no time. I’ve been sleeping in hotels every night. For me, it’s like amazing for me to be able to do all this, but I kinda miss-
…Having that space?
Yeah, having that space. I think my next album is gonna be such a reaction against this, because I’m the type of person who likes to move forward and dig deeper. And I’ve been doing the same thing, so I’m quite frustrated at the moment.
So you work best when you’re moving slowly as opposed to now.
I can’t even work now. When would I have time to write a song? There’s never a piano around either (laughs).
Do you prefer performing to recording?
I am a performer, that’s what I do. So that’s the hard thing: I know this is very much my element, but I love writing as well. It’s two difference things. It would be great to find a balance, which there hasn’t really been.
How has your music changed in terms of your sound?
Taking away all the baby fat and digging deeper and getting even more minimalistic. No more pop music.
But you’re a fan of pop music, right?
Not really. I’m a fan of blues music, and like Neil Young, and Nina Simone. I’m kinda over pop at the moment. But it depends on what you mean by pop- I love 50s and 60s music. If that’s pop, I love pop.
To me, songs like “Complaint Department” can be considered dance-pop. You’re saying you’re not interested in that type of music anymore?
Maybe I’m over the dance pop. There’s other people who do that better than me. I wanna do something really different.
Drake recently sampled your song, “Little Bit”, for his mix tape, and has been getting a lot of acclaim as a result. How do you feel about someone sampling your music?
It’s interesting. It’s not what I thought. I don’t really know anything about that- I hope that the people know that it’s my song as well. I don’t think they do. But I think that’s interesting because that’s always gonna be the case in mainstream music. It comes from somewhere, but the source never gets recognition.
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