Laufey's new album of love songs is called 'Bewitched'

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

The singer Laufey has a simple goal. She wants to bring jazz and classical music to a younger generation.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEWITCHED")

LAUFEY: (Singing) You bewitch me every damn second you're with me.

MARTÍNEZ: Her new album of love songs is called "Bewitched." Her style grew from her early exposure to music. Her mother's a violinist and her father loves jazz. When it came time for Laufey to find her voice, she thought of it as an instrument.

LAUFEY: I didn't have singing lessons, really, growing up, but I had lots and lots of cello lessons. I think when I started singing, I approached singing like I approached cello.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PROMISE")

LAUFEY: (Singing) It hurts to be something - it's worse to be nothing with you. I've done the math, there's no solution. We'll never last. Why can't I let go of this?

MARTÍNEZ: You know, I think jazz and news, they have the same challenge. We're trying to grab young ears while not alienating our core, older audience. So how are you doing that with jazz?

LAUFEY: You know, I always feel like I'm kind of balancing the two worlds. I always honor the legends, you know?

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.

LAUFEY: I'm not trying to recreate what they did. Go listen to, you know, Miles Davis and Chet Baker and Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Like, go listen to those incredible recordings that I draw inspiration from.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY FUNNY VALENTINE")

CHET BAKER: (Singing) My funny Valentine.

LAUFEY: My hope is that an older audience kind of finds a sound in my music that reminds them of when they were younger. And my hope for a younger audience is that it's introducing something new, but then also something that can just bring audiences together.

MARTÍNEZ: There is this scene in "La La Land" - have you seen "La La Land?"

LAUFEY: Of course.

MARTÍNEZ: OK, I just was wondering. I had to ask.

LAUFEY: I love "La La Land."

MARTÍNEZ: So the scene where Keith, played by John Legend, is talking to Sebastian, played by Ryan Gosling...

LAUFEY: Right.

MARTÍNEZ: ...And they're talking about jazz.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LA LA LAND")

JOHN LEGEND: (As Keith) You say you want to save jazz? How are you going to save jazz if no one's listening? You're so obsessed with Kenny Clarke and Thelonious Monk. These guys were revolutionaries. How are you going to be a revolutionary if you're such a traditionalist? You're holding onto the past, but jazz is about the future.

MARTÍNEZ: Do you think jazz needs saving?

LAUFEY: I do think jazz needs saving, personally, just because I'm such a big jazz fan. And the thing that I do is I take inspiration from old jazz traditions, and I make something new out of them, you know, write songs with the same forms but with modern lyrics, stuff like that. But then, like, on each of my albums, I have at least one jazz standard.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MISTY")

LAUFEY: (Singing) I can't understand. I get misty just holding your hand.

You know, the history of music in general is it does always move forward. I think as long as you kind of honor the roots and know where it's coming from, that's the important part.

MARTÍNEZ: You should record an album in a restaurant like that Chet Baker album where you can hear the clinks of...

LAUFEY: No, I know. I want to so badly.

MARTÍNEZ: The clinks of, like, glasses and people, like, cutting their food.

LAUFEY: Exactly.

MARTÍNEZ: That would sound so incredible.

LAUFEY: I want to so much, and I definitely will.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUFEY SONG, "FROM THE START")

MARTÍNEZ: You and I are, like, a quarter-century apart in age. If you could have a message to someone who's 24 and then someone who's around 50 that is listening to this new album, what's the message you would send to each one?

LAUFEY: For someone that's my age, I hope they get an escape. Kids that were my age, you know, missed years of high school, of college. I graduated online, you know? And we really value finding something that doesn't remind us of a certain time, something that is a little bit timeless or reminds us of just being in a movie scene or something.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FROM THE START")

LAUFEY: That when I talk to you, oh, Cupid walks right through and shoots an arrow through my heart.

I think, for an older generation, I hope it brings them an escape, too, but kind of maybe to a younger time. You know, the lyrics are very - directly my experiences a lot with, like, young love and heartbreak and stuff. I hope it can remind them of their youth.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FROM THE START")

LAUFEY: (Singing) I know I've loved you from the start.

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 was just thinking kind of about what I've been doing this year or in the past two years and how I'm doing exactly what I dreamed of doing, but never, ever, ever thought I could do when I was 13.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LETTER TO MY 13 YEAR OLD SELF")

LAUFEY: (Singing) You'll grow up and grow so tough and charm them.

You know, I just wish I could go back and give myself a squeeze and be like, hey, like, look at what we've done now. Like, one of the lyrics, you know, I'm writing about myself as a little girl and how I'm getting picked last, and how all these girls are sharing their, like, first kiss stories and I hadn't had mine. And people would make fun of my name. And then in the last verse, I say, like, one day, you'll be up onstage, and little girls will scream your name.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LETTER TO MY 13 YEAR OLD SELF")

LAUFEY: (Singing) Little girls will scream your name.

Maybe some of the younger girls who listen will find comfort in that song.

MARTÍNEZ: One last thing for you, because your name in Norse mythology is the mother of Loki.

LAUFEY: Yes, it is.

MARTÍNEZ: Loki is the hero that - well, Tom Hiddleston played him in all the Marvel movies.

LAUFEY: Yes, exactly. Yeah.

MARTÍNEZ: If you ever have a child, would you consider naming...

LAUFEY: Oh, I thought about this so much.

MARTÍNEZ: OK. Good, good.

LAUFEY: I've realized it's depending on my level of fame - right? - because I think if you ever get to a point where you're, like, very, very famous, you kind of buy yourself a right to name your children funny names, right? I'd have to be a certain level of...

MARTÍNEZ: You're not there yet?

LAUFEY: No, no. I don't know. Lord knows if I'll ever get there. But I figure, you know, maybe I'll get a dog and name him Loki.

MARTÍNEZ: Laufey - her new album is titled "Bewitched." Thank you so much for stopping by.

LAUFEY: Yeah, thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DREAMER")

LAUFEY: (Singing) I fell right down the rabbit hole. Legends say I fell so fast I lost my soul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.