Today began just like any other day in Lykke Li’s life: waking up to her six year old son, Dion, kicking her in the face. ‘You don’t want to see me right now,’ the award-winning Swedish singer-songwriter – also an actor and model – insists as we speak on Zoom at 9am her time in Los Angeles, where she lives. And yet, just days before on 20 May, Lykke was having a considerably more glamorous time of it, wearing a Thierry Mugler steel corset and trousers as guests celebrated the release of Lykke Li's fifth studio album, ‘EYEYE’, at a warehouse party hosted by Nylon magazine.
To create an immersive experience, the whole warehouse was scented with a custom-made perfume designed to capture the themes of the album: “Love and devastation… everything forbidden, sex, drugs, romance, intensity”. And what does that smell like? “Tobacco, vanilla and musk”.
The album is Lykke’s first “audio-visual album”, and fittingly the album’s music videos – including the one to accompany the song ‘Carousel’, which features two naked dancers writhing naked, inextricably connected to each other while trapped in a red room – were streamed on gigantic screens on the walls of the warehouse during her album launch event.
The videos were shot in 16mm (a format more typically used for amateur projects, providing an artsy, intimate feel) by cinematographer Edu Grau, whose most popular work include 2009 Tom Ford film, A Single Man. The music itself follows the same raw, faux-amateur style, integrating voice memos and recorded in Lykke’s home without headphones or anything to block out external sounds. It’s a far cry from the heavily-synthesised, trap-inspired music of her last album, 2018’s ‘So Sad, So Sexy’.
‘EYEYE’ has been years in the making, and Lykke describes its release as “monumental”, adding that she’s given herself the opportunity to celebrate properly. The album publicity cycle – the “being out in the world, taking photos, talking about yourself” – is harder for Lykke, a self-described highly sensitive introvert. She’s backed away from fame in the past. After her live cover of Drake’s ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ went viral in 2014, raising her profile considerably, she responded by announcing her temporary retirement in an Instagram post.
She also insists, unusually for someone with half a million social media followers, that she’s “very not famous – barely anyone knows how I look”, maintaining a “completely anonymous” profile as she wanders Los Angeles make-up free, in sliders and cargo pants (much like your average sleuth famous person in LA, I think to myself). Does she ever get recognised? She tells me the bizarre story of when she was out in Mexico City and heard a busker with a violin playing her most famous song ‘I Follow Rivers’. Flattered, she started videoing him on her phone – at which point other spectators recognised her, and started filming her filming him.
There are still plenty of tickets on sale.
Lykke is apparently a woman of few words, much like her trademark song lyrics which are simple, repetitive and, particularly in this latest album, balanced out with instrumental. Her private life is out of bounds, including the rumours that she was dating Brad Pitt earlier this year (although I notice she does not straightforwardly deny this). She has not dated anyone publicly since her ex-husband and the father of her child, musician Jeff Bhasker, whom she divorced in 2016.
What she does tell me, however, is interesting – including her reflections on how motherhood has changed her attitude towards love, and how, as a creative growing up in a nomadic, creative family (her late mother was a photographer, her father member of the Swedish punk-reggae band Dag Vag) who grew up in a nomadic family – they lived in Stockholm, Lisbon, Morocco, Nepal and India, among other places – she’s now searching for quietness and stability.
Your new album is titled ‘EYEYE’. How did you come up with the name?
I wanted a name that would transport you into the landscape of the album and the movies [the music videos created for the songs]. And obviously it’s a palindrome [a word spelt the same backwards as it is forwards], but it has many different meanings. For instance, a third eye - because it’s three eyes. And “I”, is just, you know, self. Obviously it’s a visual album too, so “eye”. Then I also feel it sounds like a mantra; a drug to take you to where you need to go.
Let party season begin…
You’ve said in interviews that your last album, So Sad, So Sexy, is the one where you sound least like yourself. How does this one compare? Is this more “you”?
Yeah. I mean, completely, this is as close [to sounding like me] as it gets. It was in my living room, completely a blank canvas, raw, like no click tracks, no headphones. The minute I finished the lyric, I put down the vocal. And it's combined with my voice memos. It’s the most me it's ever been.
What was it that inspired you to go in such a different direction with this album?
I don't work off inspiration. I work off urgency. So, I need to get this down on paper and I need to follow it wherever it goes. I work more like that. You feel the need to say something and then I kind of chase the story and then that will guide me where I need to go. Sonically.
What was your creative process like? I know you’ve spoken openly about your love of transcendental meditation [a form of silent mantra meditation] in the past.
To be honest, all the practices I do are to help me deal with my life. Actual creativity, strangely enough, is something that comes easily to me. Like I'm creative already. And then it's more like, how can I be balanced and grounded in my normal life? Meditation is more to help me come down.
Your lyrics are very personal. Is it difficult for you that your personal life has become so intertwined with your work and your output?
It's beautiful. I don't understand how people get over heartbreak without writing albums about it. In a way, it's like a tool for me to survive. It's more everything else – when you have to talk about yourself or when you have to take photos or be out in the world. That, I think, is harder. But I'm lucky that anyone even wants to talk to me, so…
Did you always find the fame part of your career hard?
I mean, thankfully I'm very not famous. Barely anyone knows how I look. I think musically… people know my music, but I don't think they know my face. So, you know, I'm completely anonymous when I'm out in the world, which I really enjoy. It's like I have this switch. I just switch off and I don't wear any makeup and I’m in slides and cargo pants and a white T-shirt – a very low-key person.
OK - can we at least say you’ve had a lot of proximity to fame? In January this year, there was a rumour you were dating Brad Pitt. Where did that come from?
I don't know.
Have you ever met him?
Yeah.
So it was made up?
I mean, I can't go into things like that. My private life is private.
I was listening to an interview you did a while ago on the Song Exploder podcast, where you talk about your most famous song, ‘I Follow Rivers’. You spoke about how love and intimacy can often be accompanied by heartbreak and destruction. ‘I Follow Rivers’ came out a decade ago – and yet the songs on ‘EYEYE’ have the same themes. Do love and destruction have to go hand in hand, in your experience?
I don't think so anymore, but I definitely thought so at that time. I really had my wild days. Having a child changes your view on love. I have evolved, thankfully.
In what way does having a child change your view?
Well, I love him. Before I was so obsessed with being loved – trying to get someone to prove how much they loved me and how well they would walk through the fire for me. But, with my son, I love him no matter what he does. Love is an act, you know? Something active that you do and that you have to constantly prioritise. It's so insane to have a child – how it's like other part of love. It’s very challenging and difficult, but it's also transcendent. You don't want to dabble in that romantic love at all, the destructive kind of it, I surely have in the past, but the older I get, I don't want to. It's immature to be in those types of scenarios.
You had a pretty eclectic, exciting upbringing: living in different countries, your parents both in creative careers. Do you crave that kind of variety in your life now?
I mean, I love beauty and life and rich cultures and travelling and being open, but I love being at home mostly.
Is that something that's come out of motherhood as well – that desire for stability?
I've always kind of longed to be a hermit. I had a very wild upbringing and then I toured for 10 years. So, my goal has always been to just land somewhere. I think I'm just quite introverted and highly sensitive. So I need to be alone to rebalance. I get quite tired when I'm around people and out all the time.
Do you agree?
Your Twitter bio reads “I write love songs”, and fittingly you’ve been known for your songs about love and heartbreak for your entire career to date. Will you continue in that vein?
No. I want to be more like, I create worlds.
What do you mean by that?
Well, I was interested in spending so much time and really perfecting the visual side of this. There are also large parts of instrumental on the album. I'm interested in creating an immersive world to step into.
Lykee Li’s latest fifth studio album, EYEYE, is out now.
