Lykke Li接受pony tail采访

                
                
Swedish pop sensation, Lykke Li can’t keep still. In between non-stop touring, she set up her own record label, released a worldwide critically acclaimed debut album, and even managed to pick up a Swedish Grammy nomination for Best Female Artist. Even when she is not on tour, she’s pursuing her visions and searching for her next adventure. I manage to catch her on her very rare day off, right in the middle of her moving into a new house.
M: So you’ve just come back from quite a lengthy world tour. How long were you away for in total?
LL: It depends on how you count it... I’ve been on tour for like fourteen months, but the last one was about three and a half weeks maybe? I have been touring constantly though.
M: So how was that? Being away from home for so long?
LL: Erm, how was that? I mean, I’m never at really at home. It was hard you know, and good, and it’s an adventure. It was all the feelings you could ever possibly imagine, you know? Everyday is a different day.
M: Looking back do you have a best memory or a worst memory of the tour?
LL: I have no memory. I’m like a goldfish. So I only see things that are ahead, I’d need some time to dwell on that and I haven’t had the time to do that yet.
M: Yeah, that’s understandable. It’s a lot going on...
LL: I just got back and I moved on the first day. So I’ve just been packing, carrying things, you know. I’m standing outside right now with the vacuum!
M: So your album Youth Novels was released on your own label LL Recordings. How did you go about setting up your own record label?
LL: Well, basically I’ve been watching from afar the whole industry for many years. So I said to myself if I ever get the chance one day to do it all, I’d want do it on my own label. I think it’s a really important thing for artists to own their rights, you know?
M: Of course...
LL: So when the time came... It really helped that at the time I got a lot of offers, so I had a choice, you know? I had good people around me advising me, teaching me and that all helped me a lot.
M: On the album you use a lot of different instruments and experimented with flutes and harpsichords and stuff. By the end of recording it, did you have a favourite sound? Or do you always like trying something new when you work?
LL: I don’t really want to try something new, just because it’s new. My favourite instrument is the piano. So it was more that I wanted to create some kind of soundscape. But I didn’t have a favourite instrument, it think it’s more to do with the tone and the emotion. The voice is probably the best instrument.
M: So do you play any instruments yourself?
LL: I do, I play piano. I write on the piano also.
M: Also, on the album you worked with Bjorn Yettling (of Peter Bjorn & John). Did his sound influence you at all and what was it like working with him on the album?
LL: I think maybe I influenced him more! Because I have tons of ideas that I want to try out and I don’t really know how to work the studio. So I have to have somebody there, pulling everything together. And then I tell him emotions and he regulates the sound and I tell him if I like it or not. So I think it was very much collaboration.
M: That sounds amazing.
LL: Yeah! It really was.
M: Who would you say are your main musical influences? Particularly those that influence or inspire the way you write songs now?
LL: I have about one million influences. I don’t have just one, I don’t think you can tell. I can be just as easily influenced by a night on the town with my girlfriends drinking wine, or by a Bob Dylan song or it can be... you know, whatever. I don’t stick to one thing at all.
M: Has music always been your number one priority? Did you have other interests, or passions that you pursued?
LL: Expressing myself has always been my one priority. I think for me as an artist, I’m not only that. I express myself in many different ways, not just through my music. Music is my base and I spring from there.
M: What are the other ways you choose to express yourself then?
LL: I do videos, I take photos... I have a lot of visions. And even just “being”, and getting dressed in the morning I have a vision. When I decide what cups to buy or whatever, I have a vision. I think being an artist is not just about one art form... It’s a way of living.
M: So, what would an average day involve for you? That is if you have an average day!
LL: I really don’t have an average day actually.
M: Tell me about today then, what have you done so far?
LL: Today...well... I never really got a place of my own. I’ve always been drifting around. So I was up all night packing bags and then, I woke up this morning and went to an interview for Elle Magazine in Sweden. Then... I was just buying things like batteries, lights or whatever. And now... well, I’m here.
M: Have you literally just moved into a new place?
LL: Yeah, yesterday.
M: Have you managed to unpack anything yet?
LL: Yeah, I was up all night doing that.
M: So, slowly settling in?
LL: Yes, but only for a few weeks. Then I’m off again.
M: Where are you off to then?
LL: Coachella Festival in California and then we are going to Bermuda... Then Miami and then... the whole festival summer is going to start, and tons of things are going to happen.
M: It seems you’re on tour for really long periods of time. Does that make it hard for you to fit back into your normal life in Stockholm, when you get back?
LL: I don’t really have a normal life. It’s not like I have to go back to work or anything. I haven’t been home for a while; this is the first time for one and half years that I’m going to be home for a few weeks. I haven’t been home at all really. So every time I have been home, for about five days, it’s been just stress. I tend to run around with my hoodie on because I don’t have time to meet anybody. I have to get ready for the next tour and there is always tons of stuff to do.
M: Is it hard to keep up with your old friends?
LL: I don’t know. You meet new friends, and friends that are real, you have for no matter long. It’s fine you know. Life is life.
M: Your debut album has been really successful across the world...
LL: It’s been pretty successful, but I’m not Duffy I haven’t sold tons of records!
M: How do you personally cope with the vast amounts of publicity and press attention that you get?
LL: I ignore it because I have things to do: I have a vision to follow, I have songs to write, I have clothes to buy, I have men to love, and places to go. And then sometimes I bump into something and it’s all really boring because they all say the same thing: “oh she’s a hippie child, she’s lived there, there, and there”. They don’t teach me anything I don’t already know about myself.
M: Have you ever felt any pressure from the industry or the media to sound a certain way or look a particular way?
LL: Pressure is all around. It’s hard even just being a woman without being in the centre of things. So definitely I feel the pressure. But then it’s all about the choices you make. Nobody is going to force you to do anything. People have a free will but the pressure is there for every young girl to be pretty and thin. You just have to act upon it differently.
M: Do you have a style icon or someone who you really look up to or admire?
LL: With that, it’s the same thing as my music. I have ten thousand so I don’t want to name one because then they will be connected to me. I change my mind everyday. I think you should just follow your instincts.
M: You have travelled a fair bit already, is there anywhere that you haven’t visited that you would like to?
LL: I’ve only been to Morocco in Africa, so I would like to travel to the different parts of Africa. I’ve also never been to South America so I would love to see different parts of that too.
M: What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
LL: Mostly touring, and then I have to start working on my new album. I haven’t even written the first song for that yet.
M: Where do you see yourself a year from now? Can you even imagine that far ahead?
LL: No...I really don’t know. I don’t even know where I am tomorrow night. But I do believe in miracles!