Lykke Li
Lykke Li
Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson, known as Lykke Li, is a Swedish singer, songwriter and model. Her music often blends elements of indie pop, dream pop and electronic; instruments in her songs include violins, synthesisers, tambourines, trumpets, saxophones, cellos, and African drums. Li possesses the vocal range of a soprano. Li's debut album, Youth Novels, was released in 2008. Her second album, Wounded Rhymes, was released in 2011, followed by her third album, I Never Learn, in 2014...
NationalitySwedish
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth18 March 1986
CityYstad, Sweden
CountrySweden
I had a period after touring the first record where I didn't agree with the way things worked in the music industry as far as how you release music, demand, the pace of everything. You don't know who's talking to you. Who's Spotify? Who's iTunes? Who are all those bloggers? Who says I have to do this? Why do you have to do all this press? Why do I have to do so many shows? Why do I have to do a regular album right now? I don't understand it.
I feel it's so important to have strong women around you.
I was totally romanticizing the idea of Los Angeles when the Doors, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young were hanging out there.
Los Angeles is such a mysterious place because there's so much evil in that city, but there's also so much light. You can be totally alone on a hillside and I love that kind of secluded, deserted rawness.
You can't stay in the desert, you go nuts after 24 hours.
I hung out with some crazy desert people. One guy was just walking around with only shorts on - he'd been walking with bare feet for the last two years. He was totally scarred and eating on all fours like a dog.
I probably thought that about most of the things I did. But you wind up in situations where you have to make decisions very quickly, and you just go for it a lot of the time.
I'm not so interested in being indie just for the sake of being indie.
I do it live on tape with a band. It's not like I'm doing electronic music with a laptop.
I remember watching Romeo + Juliet when I was 14 and listening to the soundtrack. When I hear that soundtrack now, all those emotions come back. It's really beautiful when you're at a certain point in your life where most of the adventure lies ahead of you. And it's a sad thing when you feel like you've lost that. But you can get it back.
I was inspired by [Michelangelo] Antonioni's Red Desert - very big and moody.
I'm really depressing. Some people watch comedy to relax. I watch 21 Grams. I can recognize sadness and tragedy really easily because it's been with me forever.
When I play, I'm so in the moment that I can't really remember what happened afterwards. It's a rare experience for a thinking person like me.
The profession I have keeps dragging me into drama and taking me away from baking, flowering and gardening.