As she gears up for the release of A Matter of Time, her second album, on 22 August, jazz-inflected Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey has been discussing her writing process and how she’s managed to stay in control of her career.
In an interview with Elle, Laufey says that most of her songs begin life as Voice Memos on her phone. By way of example, she plays us the very first Voice Memo of recent single Silver Lining.
“Everything comes at once for me,” says Laufey. “I've never really done music first or lyrics first - I always write melody lyrics and chords at the same time.”
Reflecting on how Silver Lining came to be, Laufey says: “I wrote it in New York City at Electric Lady. I had a full studio day just to myself, and I just wanted to challenge myself to write and kind of be inspired by my surroundings.”
It turned out that it wasn’t only the vibe of the famous studio - which was commissioned by Jimi Hendrix in the ‘60s and has been the recording setting for classic albums from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, D’Angelo, Daft Punk and Taylor Swift - that inspired Laufey, but also the gear she found there.
“I saw this old guitar in the corner and I plugged it into the amplifier,” she recalls. “And whoever was playing it before had this very warm kind of soulful setting on the amplifier. And I was like, I kind of want to write like a love song that's very vintage, for lack of a better word. Something that feels kind of old school.”
This turned out to be the song that announced the arrival of Laufey’s second album era, and she says that there was a reason she chose it as her comeback single. “I thought Silver Lining just did a really good job at bridging the worlds of [debut album] Bewitched and this new sound together,” she says.
Elsewhere in the interview, Laufey reflects on her career to date - she built a loyal following by posting frequent performance clips on TikTok - and how she’s managing to steer it in the way she wants it to go.
“I look back and I’m so thankful that I've been able to have so much creative control over my journey, whether it's, you know, the visuals or the music,” she says. I'm putting this album out with an independent label, and I've been able to do that because I had grown an audience on the internet, and that's something that's at everyone's disposal.”
What would be her advice for anyone who wants to harness the power of the internet and use it to make a name for themselves, then?
“If you can find something that feels unique and if it feels maybe even a little bit wrong, you're probably doing something right,” says Laufey. “Make that your strength.”
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