Reykjavík Grapevine - nov. 2021, Side 12

Revitalizin! Jazz For The
Modern Era
Laufey is on a mission to make jazz and classical music
approachable to people of all ages.
Words: Reetta Huhta Photos: Art Bicnick
While many of us might see jazz
as a genre listened to mostly by
middle-aged men with a glass of
whiskey in hand, up-and-coming
Icelandic musician Laufey Lin is
here to skew that image. Currently
based in Los Angeles, she compos-
es songs that fuse elements of jazz,
pop and classical music.
Growing up in an intensely
musical family, Laufey started her
musical journey early on. She be-
gan playing the piano at the age of
four and added other instruments
to her repertoire along the way.
Nowadays, she is a multi-instru-
mentalist with an ability to play
the piano, cello and guitar, among
other instruments. At first, learn-
ing to play music felt like going to
school, a routine that was included
in most of her days.
“I definitely enjoyed playing,
but I hated practicing when I was
young. It wasn’t until I went to the
Tónlistarskólinn í Reykjavík and
started focusing on cello and vocal
jazz lessons, that I began to actu-
ally love what I was doing,” Laufey
recalls.
Resonating with jazz
Even though Laufey’s life was
heavily influenced by classical
music, she did not feel like pursu-
ing it as a career. She had a desire
to create something on her own,
something that did not play by the
strict rules of classical music, but
still had similarities to the genre.
That ‘something’ she found in jazz,
and especially from the music of
artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and
Billie Holiday, whose low voices,
similar to her own, resonated with
Laufey.
“Jazz was that special middle
ground I had been looking for,”
she explains, “It felt familiar but
had a new twist to it. I completely
fell in love with jazz.”
Laufey’s background in clas-
sical music turned out to be an
obstacle that needed to be over-
come when she began writing her
own music. The rigorous nature
of classical music did not pair well
with jazz, which Laufey realised
at Berklee College of Music where
she was accepted as a student af-
ter finishing high school in Ice-
land.
“I had become such a strict
rule-follower because of classi-
cal music and its theory. When
I started my studies in Berklee,
they encouraged us to improvise,
which was hard for me at the be-
ginning. I didn’t want to do any-
thing wrong,” she says. All of a
sudden, the music was based on
what she came up with, rather
than what she was made to play by
other composers.
Making timeless music
for all ages
Laufey had a vision of composing
music that connects all three of
her favorite genres—jazz, pop and
classical music. She also aspired
to write music in a way that would
please people of all ages. “I wanted
to make these genres accessible
to young people through modern
storytelling. It’s a shame that jazz
and classical music have become
quite old-fashioned. I want to
show that they can be cool, too,”
she says.
Initially, composing the music
she desired to create was difficult:
“It was surprisingly tough. I knew
what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t
find a way to land there at first. It
took a lot of trial and error to dis-
cover my sound.” Laufey believes
she also needed to grow as a per-
son in order to create music she
was pleased with. Moving to the
United States, living on her own
for the first time and experiencing
heartbreak pushed her to open up
and get comfortable with writing.
“I had to go through a little bit of
life to be able to write about it,” she
laughs.
Once she had found her style,
she started writing her first al-
bum, ‘Typical of Me’. It was born
in the midst of the pandemic, at
the same time her career started
to take off. Ironically, Laufey was
able to capitalize on COVID, unlike
many other artists. “I don’t like to
say it, but the pandemic definitely
benefited me in many ways,” she
admits. With so much time on her
hands, she started posting videos
and live streams of her playing
music on Instagram and TikTok. “I
thought that the best thing I could
do was to write and release as
much music as possible. I’m lucky
that everyone else was stuck at
home as well, with nothing better
to do,” Laufey summarizes, adding
that she hopes her music offered
some sort of comfort for her au-
dience during the worst parts of
COVID.
Overwhelmed by the
support
A while after introducing her
songs and performing online, her
following started to grow rapidly
and her music was noticed by in-
ternational artists like Billie Eil-
ish and Willow Smith. “Everything
kind of snowballed from there. My
dreams came true during the pan-
demic, and for that I am ever so
grateful,” Laufey says. Nowadays,
she has hundreds of thousands of
followers on her social media plat-
forms, and she has started to get
recognised by fans while out and
about. “It was quite overwhelm-
ing to realise that behind those ac-
counts are real people. Coming out
of the pandemic, I’ve met many
fans and it’s slowly sinking in that
something truly remarkable has
happened,” she says.
Laufey says that composing and
recording the album was surpris-
ingly painless, considering it was
her first time doing anything like
that. The pandemic spiced the
process in its own way as well, as
most of the recordings were done
online. “The album was made in
many cities around the world,
such as Boston, London and Reyk-
javík. All in all, it was a collabora-
tion from a distance,” she states.
Laufey says she learnt a lot dur-
ing the process: “Now I know what
sounds right for me, what to ask
for and when to take a step back.”
She also reveals that songwrit-
ing serves as therapy for her: “For
me, it is a way of getting my feel-
ings out and making sense of the
things that feel a bit puzzling in
my head.” Translating her feelings
into art has offered her a new way
of processing them.
Although the album was re-
leased in late April, Laufey hasn’t
been able to perform much due to
pandemic restrictions. However,
she will launch her first tour at the
beginning of November by per-
forming at an event close to her
heart, the Iceland Airwaves’ Live
From Reykjavík festival. “I grew up
going to Airwaves events. Never in
my wildest dreams did I expect to
play there all by myself,” she says,
adding that she is excited to begin
touring: “I love performing, it’s my
favorite thing ever!”
Laufey is thrilled to see what
the future holds for her. She has
just started her journey and hopes
she will achieve her goals: “I want
to continue making music, devel-
oping my style and bringing all
these worlds of music together.”
Culture
“My dreams came true
during the pandemic,
and for that I am ever
so grateful.”
12The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 11— 2021
Laufey jazzes up her hair for the next shot