Laufey was an ‘odd fish’ in native Iceland. Now she’s a jazz-pop star

Transcript:

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. My guest, Laufey, is a singer, cellist, pianist, guitarist and songwriter whose 2023 album, “Bewitched,” was the first album ever to top Billboard’s jazz and traditional jazz charts in its first week of release. But is she a jazz artist? Only partially. Her 2023 album, “Bewitched, ” won a Grammy for best traditional pop album and was named crossover album of the year by Variety. Her music resembles her personal identity in that both are hard to categorize. Her songs draw on her deep knowledge of classical music and jazz, as well as from pop and classic musicals. She grew up in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Washington, D.C., with a mother who emigrated from China and is a violinist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Her father is from Iceland, and Laufey grew up listening to recordings from his jazz collection.

She started piano lessons at age 4, Cello lessons at age 8 and performed on cello with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra when she was 15. She describes her music as taking inspiration from the past, with lyrics firmly rooted in the present. Her concerts are filled with listeners in their 20s who may not know or care much about jazz or classical music. Laufey is 26. She started attracting an audience during the COVID lockdown when she began posting videos of her singing jazz standards and originals, accompanying herself on cello, guitar or piano. She brought her guitar with her today to play and sing some songs, including music from her new album, “A Matter Of Time.” Let’s start with a track called “Clockwork.” It’s an upbeat love song with an obvious jazz influence. So here’s “Clockwork.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CLOCKWORK”)

LAUFEY: (Singing) Swore I’d never do this again – think that I’m so clever I could date a friend. He just called me, said he’s runnin’ late. Like me, he probably had to regurgitate. I know it’s irrational. At least I’m self-aware. I’m shivering. Maybe I’ll stay home. Oh, no, he’s here. My head’s a wild place. I’ve considered every way words I’ll forget, deeply regret, he’ll run away. And nothing brings me fear like meeting with my destiny. But like clockwork, think he fell in love with me.

GROSS: Laufey, welcome to FRESH AIR. It’s a pleasure to have you on the show, and thank you for bringing your guitar with you. We’ll hear some music in a couple of minutes. You’re so popular, especially among people in their 20s. Your first music festival was when you performed at Lollapalooza, and you brought an orchestra with you. What insights does that offer about who you are and about your music?

LAUFEY: Well, thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure to be here. I mean, Lollapalooza was such a perfect moment for me of showing exactly who I am to the world because, I mean, Lollapalooza’s a music festival that I would say is for modern music and for young people. I’ve never viewed myself as anything other than a modern artist. But I’ve always, of course, loved classical music and jazz music and had a love for all things a bit older. So to get to bring an orchestra and that sound onto such a modern stage – I mean, we had a K-pop act playing after us and a rapper before us on that very same stage. I think it’s so beautiful that all of these different styles of music can exist in one.

GROSS: And what does it say that you’d never been to a music festival?

LAUFEY: I mean, I’d been to Newport Jazz Festival, so…

(LAUGHTER)

LAUFEY: That might answer your question. I guess – I mean, I grew up in Iceland, so I just wasn’t very close to that culture.

GROSS: Yeah. Yeah.

LAUFEY: We had our own smaller festivals.

GROSS: Let’s talk a little bit about your musical origin story. Your mother plays violin in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. What did you learn about music from hearing her practice at home?

LAUFEY: I learned a couple of things, I think. Like, hard work is really, really important, and it’s something you need to keep up. I mean, my mom is – has been in the orchestra for almost 30 years, and she still practices every single day for every single concert. It’s not something you shelve after you grow up, and – but it also has taught me that it’s something that never really leaves you. Growing up in a musical family – I mean, my grandma’s 80-something now, and she still plays piano every single day, just like – as she did when she was 7. So it’s taught me that it’s kind of this thing that can follow you forever.

But my mom always talked about, especially, like, the beauty of music and how it has to come from your heart. And I think that’s been such an important throughline with my music, no matter what genre it’s leaning towards.

GROSS: Did you grow up backstage?

LAUFEY: Oh, absolutely. I grew up onstage, I think. I have stories of my mom playing some contemporary Icelandic composers, and it was really loud, and every break, she would, like, check her tummy. Like, I have a twin sister. So the two of us were in there, and she was like, are they still moving? Like, did we silence them?

GROSS: When you started taking music lessons, would your mother ever holler from another room, wrong note?

LAUFEY: Every single day.

GROSS: Really?

LAUFEY: Not from another room – the same room.

GROSS: Oh.

LAUFEY: She…

GROSS: Yeah. Did that make you self-conscious, practicing with a pro within earshot all the time?

LAUFEY: It was like having a teacher every single day. I would practice piano while my sister was practicing violin. And then we would swap, and she would practice piano, and I would practice cello. And my mom spent the entire afternoon just drifting back and forth from the piano room to the string room, to the piano room, to the string room. And it was very disciplined, but I’m so thankful for that. And my mom still tells me if I’m playing out of tune, and I’m so thankful for her for that. And I think it’s one of the reasons I’m the musician I am today.

GROSS: So I think your grandparents are both music professors in China. Is that right?

LAUFEY: Yeah.

GROSS: So how much time have you spent in China? And did you take any lessons while you were there?

LAUFEY: Yeah, I did. I spent a lot of time in China. Every summer growing up, I would go spend two to three months there and just immerse myself in properly learning the language and also properly learning classical music. So, definitely, like, my first cello lessons were in China, and I received all my cellos there.

GROSS: Is it a different style of teaching than in the U.S.?

LAUFEY: Yes and no. I mean, my grandfather was known for a very specific technique that was full of idioms and metaphors, and he taught mostly, like, young prodigies. And so it was a very, like, poetic way of learning. Like, he would talk about how vibrato needed to feel natural and flow like wind flowing through the branches of a tree, and pronating properly on a bow, it felt like pouring water out of a kettle, things like that that kind of taught me how to learn music in a very poetic way, which I think has had such an effect on me as a songwriter, as well, ’cause I think so much about how music and physical movement come together.

GROSS: Well, here’s what I’d like to do. Since we’re talking about classical music and orchestra, I want to ask you to sing your song “Snow White.” And then I want to play – in the middle of the album, there’s an interlude called “Cuckoo Ballet.” It’s almost like an overture with melodies from your songs interwoven. And it’s just orchestral. So there’s a really nice orchestral passage of the song “Snow White”…

LAUFEY: Yeah.

GROSS: …With you on cello. So I just want to contrast the two to show two of your side, like, the singer-songwriter side and then transforming that into something, you know, much more classical-sounding.

LAUFEY: Absolutely.

GROSS: OK. So let’s start with you doing “Snow White.” Do you want to introduce the song?

LAUFEY: Yes. So it’s a song that I wrote about my never-ending kind of battle with beauty standards and this idea of perfection. And it was very – I was a little scared to put this song out because it’s very honest. And I never want to show especially all the young women in my audience that I don’t believe in myself, ’cause how can they believe in themselves if I have trouble believing in myself? But I came to this realization that it was perhaps comforting to know that other people feel the same way. So this is “Snow White.”

(Strumming guitar, singing) Can’t help but notice all of the ways in which I fail myself. I fail the world all the same. I don’t think I’m pretty. It’s not up for debate. A woman’s best currency is her body, not her brain. They try to tell me, tell me I’m wrong. But mirrors tell lies to me. My mind just plays along. The world is a sick place, at least for a girl. The people want beauty. Skinny always wins. And I don’t have enough of it. I’ll never have enough of it.

GROSS: Well, thank you for that. So I want to compare that to what you’ve done when you had it orchestrated. And this is from a medley called “Cuckoo Ballet” in the middle of your album. And this is the excerpt in which you’re playing, in an orchestral setting, that part of the song, and you’re featured on cello.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUFEY’S “CUCKOO BALLET (INTERLUDE)”)

GROSS: So that was my guest, Laufey, on cello, and that’s from an orchestral interlude in the middle of her new album. And the album is called “A Matter Of Time.”

So now that we’ve heard you on cello, you started playing cello when you were 8. Did you choose that? Was it chosen for you?

LAUFEY: I chose it. I think I wanted to be different from everyone in my family. My sister chose violin, and I think – ’cause I’m the older twin, so I thought I should play the bigger instrument.

GROSS: Older by seconds?

LAUFEY: Yeah.

GROSS: So let’s take a short break here, and then we’ll talk some more and hear more music. We’ll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUFEY & ICELAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SONG, “EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE (LIVE AT THE SYMPHONY)”)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let’s get back to my interview with Laufey, a singer, songwriter, cellist and pianist and guitarist. She grew up studying classical music. But now she’s a pop star who brings her cello, and sometimes orchestral arrangements, to her recordings. Her new album is called “A Matter Of Time.”

So you listened to a lot of jazz growing up because your father had a big jazz collection. What era, or what songs or singers, particularly influenced you?

LAUFEY: I think Ella Fitzgerald was the very first singer that I really felt that I vocally resonated with. I think she just sounded like a cello. So I immediately was like, oh, I want to sound like her. And I was having trouble finding songs in my range to sing. But Ella’s range, though more than – bigger than mine, still my – the – her singing style – I seem to fall most naturally into that kind of style. Same with Billie Holiday. And I also loved Nat King Cole and Julie London and Peggy Lee and Doris Day. It was kind of, you know, that type of era of mid-century singing that I really was drawn to.

GROSS: Would you play a standard for us that you particularly liked?

LAUFEY: Yeah.

GROSS: Do you want to do “It Could Happen To You?”

LAUFEY: Yes.

GROSS: And…

LAUFEY: Absolutely.

GROSS: Let’s mention here that this is one of the things that kind of put you on the map because this – you recorded this on your phone during COVID. And I think it’s the first, and one of the first videos that you put out on YouTube.

LAUFEY: Yes. COVID started, and I had a – what I thought would be a two-week break. So I thought I’d use that time to just post videos of myself singing online, and it started with a lot of jazz standards. And I was playing the jazz standards on cello and singing along. And, yeah, I did a cover of “It Could Happen To You,” and also of the song “I Wish You Love.” And the two of those kind of hit the algorithm, or whatever you say. They kind of definitely were the first things. I think people were like, what? Why is this girl, this young woman, playing cello and singing? It was, like, multiple things they hadn’t seen combined together.

GROSS: Yeah. And Chet Baker has a great recording of this.

LAUFEY: Yes.

GROSS: Yeah.

LAUFEY: Yeah. That’s my favorite Chet Baker album, the “It Could Happen To You” one. So…

GROSS: OK. And this is Laufey.

LAUFEY: (Playing guitar, singing) Hide your heart from sight. Lock your dreams at night. It could happen to you. Don’t count stars or you might stumble. Someone drops a sigh, and down you tumble. Keep an eye on spring. Run when church bells ring. It could happen to you. All I did was wonder how your arms would be, and it happened to me.

GROSS: Thank you. That was Laufey singing and playing guitar. And she has a new album called “A Matter Of Time.”

So, that video that you posted, like, before you actually made studio recordings, you accompanied yourself on cello when you sang that song but you strummed and kind of picked as if it was a guitar. So I’m wondering if the opposite has happened. Since cello is your first instrument, your main instrument, have you taken any cello techniques and transferred them to guitar?

LAUFEY: I – you know, I haven’t bowed a guitar yet, but maybe I should. I think I’ve tried it as a joke before.

GROSS: Really? I was thinking, too, of the kind of cello vibrato.

LAUFEY: Yeah. I mean, I don’t think I’ve directly put it into guitar, but I’ve definitely – when – I started playing cello before I started singing. So I think my singing style has always kind of been something similar to cello playing. And whether it’s the vibrato style or the legato and kind of sliding into notes, like, that’s very much my vocal style, and I think it is quite similar to my cello style.

GROSS: So you grew up in two extremes. You grew up in Iceland, but you also spent a lot of time in Washington, D.C. What were you doing there? What was your family doing there?

LAUFEY: My father was working for the Icelandic government there, but my mom would sub with the Baltimore Symphony when she was there. So I kind of got to be a little bit of an American kid for a bit, which I think having a childhood in America is really where I fell in love with The Great American Songbook.

GROSS: What was your father doing in the government?

LAUFEY: Oh, he was working for the IMF.

GROSS: The International Monetary Fund?

LAUFEY: Yes.

GROSS: So two extremes, like, Iceland is, like, remote. It’s a small country. It’s very cold. Washington, D.C., is one of the capitals of the world, not just the capital of the U.S. And it’s so busy. What was it like growing up in two pretty opposite worlds? It’s certainly a lot warmer and swampier than…

LAUFEY: Certainly. Yeah.

GROSS: Than Iceland, yeah.

LAUFEY: I think it’s one of the most important experiences that I’ve gone through. I had a very deep understanding of how big the world was from a very early age ’cause I would still spend my summers in China. And the three are so, so, so, so different. I think from – what I really learned from Washington, D.C., I think, especially, was just how multicultural it was. I mean, I went to a public school in D.C., and even within just my neighborhood school, I think 90% of my class was international kids. And I was such a naturally multicultural kid. It made me quite happy. I also loved all the museums. And I remember going to the ballet at the Kennedy Center and the symphony. And I just have very beautiful memories from growing up there, and like, I remember moving back to Iceland when I was 8 or 9, and I remember it felt like the world felt dark for a little bit because there was so much brightness in Washington, which sounds like a crazy thing to say right now, but I think it really just opened my eyes up to how very big the world is ’cause Washington, D.C., is also such a unique city within the United States.

GROSS: Well, since you’re half Chinese and half Icelandic, and you grew up in Iceland, not a lot of Chinese people in Iceland. So being half Chinese was probably considered unusual, maybe even, like, quote, “exotic.”

LAUFEY: Yeah.

GROSS: But growing up in Washington, there’s, like, lots of people from China and other Asian countries. So what was it like for you to be so unusual in such a homogeneous place as Iceland?

LAUFEY: It was really difficult. I think Iceland is so small, and it’s lovely, and I miss it every single day, but it was very hard as a kid to comprehend why I didn’t look like everyone else or how my interests were different. There weren’t many kids around me taking a competitive pre-professional classical music route. There weren’t many kids around me whose – who had to go back home and practice every single day. And I often felt like my voice wasn’t being heard, and I was ready to do anything to get my voice to be heard. And I knew that the first step to that was trying to get out of Iceland and see if perhaps my voice would resonate more in the big world where I wasn’t an odd fish.

GROSS: Let’s take another short break here, and then we’ll be back for more music and conversation with Laufey. Her new album is called “A Matter Of Time.” I’m Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOVER GIRL”)

LAUFEY: (Singing) The skyscrapers causing…

(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS QUINTET’S “IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU”)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. Let’s get back to my interview with singer, songwriter, cellist, pianist and guitarist Laufey. She grew up studying classical music, with cello as her primary instrument, and also listening to a lot of jazz. But now she’s a pop star who brings her cello and sometimes orchestral arrangements to her recordings. At age 15, she played with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Her mother is a violinist with the orchestra. Laufey won a Grammy for best traditional pop album for her 2023 album, “Bewitched.” Her new album is called “A Matter Of Time.”

I’m going to ask you to do another song for us, and this is “Castle In Hollywood.” Would you give us the backstory for the song?

LAUFEY: Yeah. This song is written about a friendship breakup. I found that there are not many songs about breaking up with a friend, but it’s a pain that can sometimes be more painful than breaking up with a romantic lover. So I wanted to write about this experience that I had. And I think especially when women fall apart with women, there’s such an interesting line of empathy that’s between them. It’s kind of like, I’ll love you forever, but just not – don’t be around me.

(LAUGHTER)

LAUFEY: (Singing) I rack my brain, spend hours and days. I still can’t figure out what happened that year in our house. Still learning to live without you. I wonder what you tell your friends, which version of our fairy story. The one where you walk out in glory or the night I moved out in a hurry. I think about you always tied together with a string. I thought that lilies died by winter, then they bloomed again in spring. It’s a heartbreak. Marked the end of my girlhood. We’ll never go back to that castle in Hollywood.

GROSS: Thank you. That was Laufey performing for us. And what was the “Castle In Hollywood”? Was that a fantasy of what you wanted your life to be?

LAUFEY: No. I lived in a – the first apartment I moved into was this English storybook house in West Hollywood that had a turret. And it was commissioned by Charlie Chaplin, actually, in 1928, I believe.

GROSS: Wait. The first apartment that you rented was one that Charlie Chaplin commissioned. How did that happen?

LAUFEY: Yeah. Pure internet luck, I think. It was definitely a little scary. It was very dark, but my bedroom was circular. It was inside a turret, and I had a tiny little window with bars on it, like a proper Rapunzel window.

GROSS: (Laughter).

LAUFEY: And, yeah, it was a really, really weird apartment but so charming and exactly what I – what my storybook heart craved when I first moved to LA.

GROSS: So you compose on guitar, even though that’s not your first instrument. Cello is your first instrument. You’re a very good pianist. Why do you compose on guitar as opposed to, say, piano, which would be the more obvious choice?

LAUFEY: Yeah. I compose a lot on piano, too, I think increasingly now. I started writing a lot on guitar, I think, because it was this unknown instrument to me where I wasn’t following a set of rules that I had learned over my years of classical training. I wasn’t going back to any habits. I was just letting my heart and fingers wander. So I think also, it’s a fairly soft instrument. So singing over it, it’s easy to hear myself and hear the lyrics and really understand what I’m trying to say. It didn’t get in the way of my songwriting.

GROSS: You’ve performed to a lot of different audiences, like jazz, classical, pop, and therefore to different ages as well. Like, the jazz audience tends to be older. Ditto for classical music audience. Your pop audience, I think, is largely made of people in their 20s. Do you become a different self for each type of audience?

LAUFEY: No. I think I’m pretty similar in every single setting, and I’m very unapologetically myself, like, when I’m on stage with an orchestra. And I really do try to play as many concerts with orchestras because I just want to get young people into those buildings, into those rooms, get young people used to that sound of, you know, 60-plus instruments playing and musicians playing at the same time. There’s nothing quite like it. And then at the same time, I kind of push against the classical medium of just kind of blabbering on stage. Like, in between songs, I’ll explain what the songs are about and just to feel that connection with the audience and just to further show them that this is something – classical music, orchestral music is something that can be theirs, too, and doesn’t need to feel like this foreign thing that exists behind a wall.

GROSS: I might be totally wrong in thinking this, so you can tell me after I explain, OK?

LAUFEY: (Laughter).

GROSS: So you’re capable of singing, you know, pretty high up. But also, when you sing full out in a low voice, it’s a very strong voice and similar to, like, a cello, which was your ambition. But the dresses that you wear, a lot of the clothes that you wear are very, like, diaphanous and flowy, almost, like, angelic. And the contrast between, like, the deep voice that you can have and those, you know, kind of diaphanous clothes reminds me of ballet. And I know at some point you were studying ballet, right?

LAUFEY: Yeah. I’ve always loved ballet so much. And I grew up dancing ballet very badly but just being completely enamored by it because it was the physical answer to classical music.

GROSS: Right. So here’s where the comparison is between your deep voice and the contrast with your clothes. And ballet – ’cause in ballet, you have to be really strong.

LAUFEY: Yeah.

GROSS: And you have to have incredible endurance and be willing to live with pain and be incredibly disciplined. But with a tutu on and with a lot of the classic ballet choreography, you’re supposed to look totally weightless and, like, princess-like or angelic. And the contrast between the strength that’s required and the image on stage of the ballerina, it’s a huge difference, kind of like your voice and the way you often dress. Does that make any sense to you?

LAUFEY: No, it absolutely does. I think like ballet, I go to lengths to make my performance look effortless (laughter). But, yeah, I mean, ballet costumes, dresses – I’m very inspired by that in my dressing on stage for multiple reasons, the first being comfort. You can move in them, and I need to be able to breathe and move around. But I think, you know, when I’m playing with – whether it’s a string quartet or an orchestra, in those little moments in between, the movement of a tutu, the movement of a dress, the movement of clothing, it’s – it just adds to the performance. And it’s something I think about a lot.

GROSS: We…

LAUFEY: I don’t like wearing stiff clothing ’cause it pulls the music down, and it pulls my performance down, too.

GROSS: Let’s take another break here, and then we’ll hear more music played by Laufey, who is my guest. She’s from Iceland. And this – Laufey, this sounds like a very Icelandic name.

LAUFEY: Yes. It’s from Norse mythology.

GROSS: Oh, meaning what?

LAUFEY: It’s also my great-grandmother’s name. But the god of mischief, Loki, or Loki – his mother was named Laufey.

GROSS: Oh. I’ve heard of Loki.

LAUFEY: Yeah. His – if you look up his full name, it’s Loki Laufeyson. Son of Laufey.

GROSS: And what’s your full name?

LAUFEY: My full name is Laufey Lin Bing Jonsdottir.

GROSS: So the Lin Bing is the Chinese part?

LAUFEY: That’s the Chinese part. Bing means ice. So I’m named after Iceland.

GROSS: Oh.

LAUFEY: Lin is my Chinese family name. And Jonsdottir means daughter of Jon. My father’s name is Jon, and I am his daughter.

GROSS: Right. OK. We’ll be back after a break. And her new album, by the way, is called “A Matter Of Time.” This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUFEY’S “CUCKOO BALLET (INTERLUDE)”)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let’s get back to my interview with singer, songwriter, cellist, pianist and guitarist Laufey. She grew up studying classical music, but now she’s a pop star who brings her cello and sometimes orchestral arrangements to her recordings. Her new album is called “A Matter Of Time.”

I want to play another song from your album. And this is a song that I think is very different from the other songs on the album. It’s more of – it has more of a soul influence to it. And the song is called “Silver Lining.” Do you want to talk about writing this?

LAUFEY: “Silver Lining” is one of those very rare songs that I wrote to kind of perfectly complement my voice. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than just wanting to write, of course, a love song, and I wanted to get those feelings off my chest. And I’m a very naturally sarcastic person, so it carried through in a very sarcastic way. But with lyrics like when you go to hell, I’ll go there with you, too – that’s my way of describing how much I love you. I’ll follow you anywhere. But I really wanted to write a song that was just built around my vocal performance. I think something that I didn’t get to explore as much in my last album was my vocal range. And I don’t use reverb often, but the voice is seeped in reverb but with intention.

GROSS: OK, let’s hear it. This is “Silver Lining” from Laufey’s new album, “A Matter Of Time.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SILVER LINING”)

LAUFEY: (Singing) I’ve been falling in bad habits – staring into the abyss, drowning in red wine and sniffing cinnamon. We’ve been kissing on the playground, acting like little kids, making dirty jokes and getting away with it. So I propose – it’s long overdue – when you go to hell, I’ll go there with you too. And when we’re punished for being so cruel, the silver lining’s I’ll be there with you.

GROSS: That was “Silver Lining” from Laufey’s new album, “A Matter Of Time.”

Are you on tour now?

LAUFEY: I am on tour right now. And it’s my first arena tour, so it’s definitely different and a little bit daunting. But I feel like I’ve been able to show every part of my artistic vision at once, which makes me so happy. I have ballerinas on stage with me, jazz dancers. I have my band, and I have a string quartet, and I have a jazz club in the middle of the stage. And it just feels really, really special to finally get to kind of show the world exactly what I’m about.

GROSS: Oh, it’s, like, 360 degrees of view with the ballet dancers and jazz dancers…

LAUFEY: Exactly.

GROSS: …And, yeah, a jazz set in the middle. What kind of reaction do you get to that?

LAUFEY: I think at first, some people were confused because I’ve – previously, due to, of course, budget restraints and other things and room restraints, I’ve just been showing a more muted side of myself or acoustic side of myself, which I absolutely love and adore and will continue to do, too, whether that’s concerts with orchestras or concerts at jazz clubs or just solo. But I’ve always been inspired by golden age films, the va-va-voom of it all. And I’ve also always loved pop music and how I feel, like, at pop concerts, that the artists can go all out and be unapologetically themselves. I’ve always wanted the same. I think I gained a bit of a reputation as this very soft artist with my last projects. And though I am that, I am so much more than that as well.

GROSS: Since you have a jazz set in the middle of your concerts now when you’re on tour, I’m going to ask you to play a jazz original that you wrote. And this is one of your early songs. It’s called “Valentine.”

LAUFEY: I’ve been playing a much more swingy version of this on tour, so it’s going to be weird to go back to this version. But this is how I wrote it, so it is how it shall be performed.

(Singing) I’ve rejected affection for years and years. Now I have it, and damn it, it’s kind of weird. He tells me I’m pretty. Don’t know how to respond. I tell him that he’s pretty, too. Can I say that? Don’t have a clue.

(Playing guitar, singing) Every passing moment, I surprise myself. I’m scared of flies. I’m scared of guys. Someone please help, ’cause I think I’ve fallen in love this time. I blinked and suddenly, I had a valentine.

GROSS: That’s a nice song.

LAUFEY: It’s sweet. It’s very naive. It reminds me of being 21.

GROSS: Falling in love for the first time?

LAUFEY: Yes.

GROSS: Do you get back to Iceland much?

LAUFEY: I do. I go home a lot. It really grounds me, and I write the best there. I wrote half of the album there.

GROSS: And your music’s popular there, right?

LAUFEY: I don’t know. I think so (laughter). I don’t know if my music is very popular, but I think there’s definitely a lot of hometown pride. So when I go home and play concerts, I think it’s always very special because they’re very proud of different artists or athletes who have kind of gone past – gone outside of the country and made their mark there.

GROSS: Well, Laufey, I want to thank you so much for talking with us and for doing some songs for us. Thank you so much. I wish you well on your tour, and, you know, thank you.

LAUFEY: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been such an honor.

GROSS: Oh, my pleasure.

Laufey’s new album is called “A Matter Of Time.” After we take a short break, our rock critic, Ken Tucker, will review Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life Of A Showgirl.” This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF ERROLL GARNER’S “IT’S ONLY A PAPER MOON (REMASTERED 2019)”)