Tag: Laufey Like The Movies

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Laufey Shares Cinematic and Dream-like Visual for “Fragile”

22 year-old Laufey Lin is a rapidly rising Reykjavik-born, Los Angeles-based, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as Laufey. Born to a Chinese-born violinist mother and a Icelandic-born, jazz-loving father, Lin grew up immersed in both classical music and jazz — and unsurprisingly both genres are major influences on the rising artist and her work.

By the time Lin turned 15, she performed with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. But despite her deep and abiding love of the music that has served as her musical foundation, she yearned to express herself by creating music that seamlessly blended her classical and jazz background with much more modern and contemporary influences.

\While attending Berklee College of Music, Lin began collaborating with some of her peers and recorded her debut single “Street By Street,” a blend of jazz melodies with slow-burning R&B grooves. Making the best of the unexpected downtime as a result of the pandemic, Lin decided to release “Street By Street” through social media. The song, along with a collection of covers and originals quickly went viral. Eventually, “Street By Street” hit #1 on the Icelandic charts — and she began to amass a massive following that includes Billie Eilish, Willow Smith, dodie, and others.

Since then, the Icelandic-born, Los Angeles-based artist has been busy: Last year saw the release of her debut EP Typical of Me, which features the aforementioned “Street by Street,” “Best Friend” and “Like the Movies,” which she performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this year.

Lin’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Everything I Know About Love is slated for an August 26, 2022 release through AWAL Recordings. The 12-song album will reportedly see Laufey effortlessly blending contemporary song structures and sensibilities with the classic and jazz stylings she learned as a violinist, pianist and guitarist. The end result is an album’s worth of material that translates the intimate feelings, thoughts and observations of a young, modern woman into grand, cinematic moments, seemingly inspired by both the jazz age and Hollywood’s golden age.

Everything I Know About Love‘s latest single “Fragile” features samba-inspired arrangement featuring strummed acoustic guitar and rhythms, twinkling piano paired with Lin’s gorgeous and expressive vocals. But much like Lin’s critically applauded work to date, “Fragile” manages to be deceptively old-timey: while indebted to jazz, the song’s swooningly heartsick narrator talks of falling for someone much older, and not knowing what to do or how to act — with the tacit fear of making a complete fool of yourself.

Directed by Erlendur Sveinsson, the accompanying cinematic video for “Fragile” was shot in some stunningly gorgeous and entrancingly dream-like locations including Iceland’s foggy, rocky shore and an ornate seaside home.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Laufey Performs “Like The Movies” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Laufey Lin is a rapidly rising, 21 year-old Chinese-Icelandic singer/songwriter, cellist and pianist, best known as Laufey. Spending much of her childhood in Reykjavik, Lin grew up influenced by classical music and jazz, and by the time she was 15, she performed with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Interestingly, despite her deep and abiding love of the music that has served as musical foundation, she yearned to express herself by creating music that blended her classical and jazz background with more modern and contemporary influences.

While attending Berklee College of Music, Lin began collaborating with some of her peers and recording her debut single “Street By Street,” a blend of jazz melodies with slow-burning R&B grooves. Making the best of the unexpected downtime as a result of the pandemic, Lin decided to release “Street By Street” through social media. The song, along with a collection of covers and originals quickly went viral. Eventually, “Street By Street” hit #1 on the Icelandic charts — and she began to amass a massive following that includes Billie Eilish, Willow Smith, dodie, and others.

Adding to a breakthrough year, the Reykjavik-born artist landed her own music series on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds. She won Best New Artist at the Icelandic Music Awards. Amazingly, those accomplishments took place before the release her acclaimed debut EP Typical of Me, which has amassed over 10 million streams across all digital streaming platforms.

Last week, the rising, young Icelandic artist made her late night, Stateside TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where she performed Typical of Me track “Like The Movies.” The old-timey, jazz-standard-inspired song — and it’s gorgeous arrangement — continues a run of classic Hollywood-inspired ballads with modern sentiment: in the case of “Like The Movies,” the song’s narrator recognizes that the old movies she loves has distorted her ideas of what love is and can be. Besides that, the song reveals a songwriter and vocalist, who displays a maturity and sensibility beyond her relative youth.