NPR’s A Martinez speaks with singer Laufey about making jazz extra accessible to youthful generations. She has a brand new album referred to as Bewitched.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The singer Laufey has a easy objective. She needs to deliver jazz and classical music to a youthful technology.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BEWITCHED”)
LAUFEY: (Singing) You bewitch me each rattling second you are with me.
MARTÍNEZ: Her new album of affection songs is named “Bewitched.” Her type grew from her early publicity to music. Her mom’s a violinist and her father loves jazz. When it got here time for Laufey to search out her voice, she considered it as an instrument.
LAUFEY: I did not have singing classes, actually, rising up, however I had heaps and many cello classes. I feel after I began singing, I approached singing like I approached cello.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PROMISE”)
LAUFEY: (Singing) It hurts to be one thing – it is worse to be nothing with you. I’ve accomplished the maths, there is not any resolution. We’ll by no means final. Why cannot I let go of this?
MARTÍNEZ: , I feel jazz and information, they’ve the identical problem. We’re making an attempt to seize younger ears whereas not alienating our core, older viewers. So how are you doing that with jazz?
LAUFEY: , I at all times really feel like I am form of balancing the 2 worlds. I at all times honor the legends, you recognize?
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
LAUFEY: I am not making an attempt to recreate what they did. Go take heed to, you recognize, Miles Davis and Chet Baker and Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Vacation. Like, go take heed to these unimaginable recordings that I draw inspiration from.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MY FUNNY VALENTINE”)
CHET BAKER: (Singing) My humorous Valentine.
LAUFEY: My hope is that an older viewers form of finds a sound in my music that reminds them of after they had been youthful. And my hope for a youthful viewers is that it is introducing one thing new, however then additionally one thing that may simply deliver audiences collectively.
MARTÍNEZ: There’s this scene in “La La Land” – have you ever seen “La La Land?”
LAUFEY: After all.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, I simply was questioning. I needed to ask.
LAUFEY: I like “La La Land.”
MARTÍNEZ: So the scene the place Keith, performed by John Legend, is speaking to Sebastian, performed by Ryan Gosling…
LAUFEY: Proper.
MARTÍNEZ: …They usually’re speaking about jazz.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “LA LA LAND”)
JOHN LEGEND: (As Keith) You say you wish to save jazz? How are you going to save lots of jazz if nobody’s listening? You are so obsessive about Kenny Clarke and Thelonious Monk. These guys had been revolutionaries. How are you going to be a revolutionary when you’re such a traditionalist? You are holding onto the previous, however jazz is concerning the future.
MARTÍNEZ: Do you suppose jazz wants saving?
LAUFEY: I do suppose jazz wants saving, personally, simply because I am such a giant jazz fan. And the factor that I do is I take inspiration from outdated jazz traditions, and I make one thing new out of them, you recognize, write songs with the identical varieties however with trendy lyrics, stuff like that. However then, like, on every of my albums, I’ve at the very least one jazz customary.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MISTY”)
LAUFEY: (Singing) I am unable to perceive. I get misty simply holding your hand.
, the historical past of music basically is it does at all times transfer ahead. I feel so long as you form of honor the roots and know the place it is coming from, that is the vital half.
MARTÍNEZ: You must document an album in a restaurant like that Chet Baker album the place you’ll be able to hear the clinks of…
LAUFEY: No, I do know. I wish to so badly.
MARTÍNEZ: The clinks of, like, glasses and folks, like, chopping their meals.
LAUFEY: Precisely.
MARTÍNEZ: That will sound so unimaginable.
LAUFEY: I wish to a lot, and I positively will.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUFEY SONG, “FROM THE START”)
MARTÍNEZ: You and I are, like, a quarter-century aside in age. In case you might have a message to somebody who’s 24 after which somebody who’s round 50 that’s listening to this new album, what is the message you’ll ship to every one?
LAUFEY: For somebody that is my age, I hope they get an escape. Children that had been my age, you recognize, missed years of highschool, of school. I graduated on-line, you recognize? And we actually worth discovering one thing that does not remind us of a sure time, one thing that may be a little bit timeless or reminds us of simply being in a film scene or one thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FROM THE START”)
LAUFEY: That after I discuss to you, oh, Cupid walks proper by means of and shoots an arrow by means of my coronary heart.
I feel, for an older technology, I hope it brings them an escape, too, however form of perhaps to a youthful time. , the lyrics are very – instantly my experiences lots with, like, younger love and heartbreak and stuff. I hope it will probably remind them of their youth.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FROM THE START”)
LAUFEY: (Singing) I do know I’ve beloved you from the beginning.
MARTÍNEZ: You wrote a letter to your 13-year-old self?
LAUFEY: I did, yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: What did you say in that letter?
LAUFEY: I used to be simply considering form of about what I have been doing this 12 months or prior to now two years and the way I am doing precisely what I dreamed of doing, however by no means, ever, ever thought I might do after I was 13.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LETTER TO MY 13 YEAR OLD SELF”)
LAUFEY: (Singing) You may develop up and develop so robust and appeal them.
, I simply want I might return and provides myself a squeeze and be like, hey, like, have a look at what we have accomplished now. Like, one of many lyrics, you recognize, I am writing about myself as just a little lady and the way I am getting picked final, and the way all these women are sharing their, like, first kiss tales and I hadn’t had mine. And other people would make enjoyable of my identify. After which within the final verse, I say, like, sooner or later, you may be up onstage, and little women will scream your identify.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LETTER TO MY 13 YEAR OLD SELF”)
LAUFEY: (Singing) Little women will scream your identify.
Perhaps a few of the youthful women who pay attention will discover consolation in that tune.
MARTÍNEZ: One final thing for you, as a result of your identify in Norse mythology is the mom of Loki.
LAUFEY: Sure, it’s.
MARTÍNEZ: Loki is the hero that – effectively, Tom Hiddleston performed him in all of the Marvel motion pictures.
LAUFEY: Sure, precisely. Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: In case you ever have a toddler, would you think about naming…
LAUFEY: Oh, I considered this a lot.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Good, good.
LAUFEY: I’ve realized it is relying on my stage of fame – proper? – as a result of I feel when you ever get to a degree the place you are, like, very, very well-known, you form of purchase your self a proper to call your kids humorous names, proper? I might should be a sure stage of…
MARTÍNEZ: You are not there but?
LAUFEY: No, no. I do not know. Lord is aware of if I will ever get there. However I determine, you recognize, perhaps I will get a canine and identify him Loki.
MARTÍNEZ: Laufey – her new album is titled “Bewitched.” Thanks a lot for stopping by.
LAUFEY: Yeah, thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DREAMER”)
LAUFEY: (Singing) I fell proper down the rabbit gap. Legends say I fell so quick I misplaced my soul.
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