Laufey strolls up to us with a series of small waves. Her elfin frame is swamped in a cosy outfit of baggy jeans and a navy blue jumper cheekily bearing the name of German composer George Friedrich Handel. She would later change into a floaty black dress for the evening’s performance, but for now, the singer-songwriter is all about comfort. When I comment on how fresh she looks, Laufey grins, “I just got my makeup done, that’s why. And I’m actually not jetlagged.”
Just like singing legends such as Shakira, Madonna, and Beyonce, Laufey Lin Jónsdóttir is best known by only her first name. Blending jazz, classical music, and bedroom pop, the 24-year-old blew up when her single From the Start trended on TikTok. Since her graduation from Berklee College of Music in 2021, it’s been a whirlwind of success for Laufey – she released her debut EP Typical of Me that same year, her debut album Everything I Know About Love in 2022, and most recently, her second studio album Bewitched just earlier this month. [Editor’s note: After our interview, Laufey has since gone on to win Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 2024 Grammy awards.]
To say that music is in Laufey’s blood would be a bit of an understatement. Her parents and her grandfather were all violinists, while she was trained at the cello. “I wanted to stand out and do something different from them,” she says. Her own music is an arresting blend of modern jazz, sultry vocals, and dreamy lyrics that read like Laufey’s personal diary.
We catch up before the second Hong Kong night of her sold-out Asia and Australia tour to chat about the dark side of love, introducing jazz to a wider audience, and her best Hong Kong memories.
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It comes from the Chinese side of my family. I took lessons every day with my mother and my parents were musicians. There was an understanding that I should practise every day and I was definitely pushed hard – but I’m so thankful for that now because I’m still riding off of that technique and stamina on a pop stage.
I don’t speak Cantonese. My grandparents always spoke Cantonese together and my mother speaks a bit of Cantonese, but unfortunately I don’t. I wish I could understand though, especially being in Hong Kong right now. There are just some phrases that I pick up when listening, but in general, no.
Oh, this is not my first time here. I came here quite a few times growing up and both my parents used to live in Hong Kong before I was born. My mother comes and teaches violin here frequently. It’s my first time playing here though, which is really cool.
When I came here when I was younger, I kind of just followed my parents around wherever they went – basically going from restaurant to restaurant. All my memories [involve] sitting at a large table with like 20 aunties and everyone fighting for the bill! That’s my most potent memory – that and being so stuffed and falling asleep on the couch in those dining rooms.
I need to rediscover it as a young 20-something year-old. I really want to experience a bit of the youth culture here. One of my favourite things to do is take the ferry from Kowloon over to Hong Kong. My best memories of Hong Kong are at night, on the ferry, with wind in my hair.
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A lot of jazz artists like Chet Baker and Ella Fitzgerald; and composers like Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter – I think they’re the main influences. There’s also a lot of classical references like Ravel, Debussy, Chopin, and Liszt. With modern musicians, songwriters like Carole King, Sara Bareilles, and even Taylor Swift – they’re modern storytellers. I always want to mix that craft with the old sounds of jazz or classical.
I think jazz is a bit gatekept. Personally, I think that everyone has space in them to enjoy jazz and jazz-adjacent music. It just hasn’t been presented in a way that seems like it’s for everyone. Jazz can feel like something that you have to be educated into, [in order] to speak on or listen to it – something that isn’t very accessible, especially for young audiences. Jazz music was created out of wanting to break from the rules and make something new and modern and for the people, and that’s gotten lost into a more ‘educated’ world. I think that’s the reason it’s underrated now.
I hope I’m doing my part in making jazz and classical music more accessible! What I do has lots of different references, very rooted in jazz music, but I like to also use my platform to encourage young people to listen to the greats of the past in both jazz and classical, go to jazz club, or go to the symphony.
That’s so difficult! I have a really soft spot for the song Bewitched, just because it’s everything that I love in one song, and it’s a simple love story. Currently I also love California and Me, which is a song that I did with the Philharmonia Orchestra – I put so much work into arranging and producing it that I’m just extra proud of it.
I wanted Bewitched to show a more mature side of me. Like you mentioned, the first album was a bit more naive and young – because I was a bit more naive and young. Now that I’ve grown and experienced more, my songwriting and musical journey also reflects my personal journey as well.
Bewitched also leans more into my classical and jazz roots. It’s me daring to take that step but also just not overthinking what the music is. With my first album and EP I was always thinking ‘Who am I making this for?’, and how I can bring a younger pop audience into this sound without losing listeners.
For this album, I was just writing straight from my heart, I wasn’t thinking too much about how cohesive it was. I figured at the end of the day, what’s going to be the common denominator is my songwriting and my voice, whether it be something that’s more jazz-leaning, pop-leaning, or classical-leaning.
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For Bewitched, it was love but in a way that shows love’s imperfections. On the surface it might be love but I think it’s very natural to go through these twisted feelings and feelings of doubt and confusion underneath. That’s the dark side of Bewitched that I wanted to paint.
The reason why the album’s called Bewitched is because I thought it’s such a perfect word [describing] the feeling of being in love but almost feeling like you have no control over it – like someone’s cast a spell on you or you’ve been hexed.
It’s just a human story – my personal story. I have a letter to my 13-year-old self in it as well. It speaks to the audience and shows them that perfection isn’t necessary.
It’s incredibly validating! V is such a sweetheart. He reached out afterwards and we’ve been sharing music, which is really really sweet. He put out a project the same day as me, which sounds amazing. Seeing someone from BTS – which is this huge, huge phenomenon with a large, global, and young audience – actively speak out and share jazz music is so encouraging and so cool. It’s a win for jazz.
Norah Jones. I’m a big fan of hers, I think that’d be super cool. I’d also love to collaborate with Lady Gaga – I’d love to do a jazz song with her.
I’m going on tour for a bit. I’m starting my Bewitched US tour on October 8 until December, and then early next year I tour Europe, which is exciting. I was born into classical music where everything leads up to the performance, and performing is still my favourite part of the job. Everything makes sense when I get to sing and be on stage.
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