LYKKE LI OPENS FOR EL PERRO DEL MAR MAY 11 AT THE MOD CLUB (722
COLLEGE). $15 FROM
TICKETMASTER, ROTATE THIS, SOUNDSCAPES. DOORS 8PM.
Who is she?
Bravely exceeding the five-letter maximum typically accorded female singers from Scandinavia (e.g., Björk, Robyn, Annie), Lykke Li is the stage name of Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson, a 22-year-old upstart who was born in Stockholm but partially raised in Portugal, Nepal and India thanks to her free-spirited artist parents. On her first EP, Little Bit, and her forthcoming album, Youth Novels (already out in Europe), she applies her wan but compelling voice to beguiling electro-pop songs that manage to sound spartan despite the presence of everything from a theremin to a kazoo. The man responsible for the tasteful production is Björn Yttling.
IS HE THE BJÖRN I’M THINKING OF?
Probably, unless you’re thinking of Björn Borg. This one is in Peter Bjorn and John, which may be why the EP’s title track is the most irresistibly winsome indie-pop single since “Young Folks.” Li and Yttling met while she was searching for a producer for her music. (She’s also sung for Röyksopp and Kleerup, the producer behind Robyn’s “With Every Heartbeat.”)
Says Li in an interview from Stockholm last week, “Someone got a hold of my demo and said, ‘Yeah, it’s really cool but it’s bad as well. You should work with this guy I know, Björn — he’s great.’ This guy was asking me what kind of sound I wanted. I said I wanted it to be dirty and raw. I was listening a lot to Cody Chesnutt at the time so I told him, ‘I want to be Cody Chesnutt but a girl.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, Björn is the guy.’”
When she met Yttling, Li told him she wanted to be Patti Smith, Madonna and Prince, too. He was intrigued but busy so she kept at him. “I didn’t have a record deal or anything,” says Li. “I had two songs and a lot of hopes. If I hadn’t emailed him a lot, then this thing wouldn’t have happened.”
SO DID HE HELP HER SOUND LIKE CODY CHESNUTT?
Apparently not, though Lykke Li’s sound is still raw in a delicate, unadorned kind of way. “I don’t like to hide under lots of layers,” she says. “Other people want to add more stuff to my music all the time. I’m like, ‘No, take everything away.’ I just want feelings and space. I’m really compelled by voices. I don’t think I have the nicest one, of course — I wish I had Karen Dalton’s or Cat Power’s. But I just want to hear someone sing, hear what they mean, hear what they feel.”
AND WHAT DOES SHE FEEL?
More than a little bit sad by her own account. “I’m very melancholy,” she says. “Everything I listen to is really depressing. There has to be some kind of pain or struggle in everything for me. There has to be a darker side or I won’t like it.”
Even so, online footage of her in performance suggest that she’s an unusually magnetic young performer who’s not afraid to add some shimmy to her blues. “Even if I do a slower song,” says Li, “I never sit down with a guitar and be like [moany voice], ‘Yeah, this is a song for my mom.’ I’m always up there and really giving soul. I’m really physical on stage.”