Music

She wants to be the next Madge…
Lykke Li might act all cool when she tells us that she listens to hip old records by the Velvet Underground, The Shangri-Las, Suicide and ESG, but what she really wants is to be a platinum-certified pop star like Mrs Guy Ritchie. She’s even been described as a ‘blog-birthed Madonna’. ‘The first tape I got was Madonna’s “Immaculate Collection”. I’m inspired by the way she started from nothing and didn’t have a big musical talent, but had a big dream. That’s why I went to New York when I was 19 – because Madonna did.’
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…but she’s not exactly taking the easy route to get there.
Instead of jumping on bandwagons a year too late like her hero, Lykke Li and producer Björn Yttling (of Peter Bjorn And John fame) have cluttered up the slinky sounds of her debut album ‘Youth Novels’ (due later in 2008) with every strange instrument you can name. ‘There’s a theremin, celeste, flute, kazoo, harpsichord, foot stomps and lots more. The best pop, I think, is a mix of everything, so some songs are hip hop, some are folk, old-school blues. Whatever, it’s very wide.’

She’s the least patriotic Swede we’ve ever come across.
Escaping the stereotyping tendency that had all young Canadian bands hailed as the new Arcade Fire, Lykke Li distances herself from the Swedish pop renaissance – in spite of working with Robyn’s producer Kleerup and Röyksopp: ‘I don’t feel Swedish. In fact, my father tells me to get out of here as soon as I can. I’d much rather live in Argentina, drink red wine and talk about philosophy, or go to New York and play open mics. Sweden is a country where we’ve been influenced by the world, opening us up to all these possibilities.’

The world is Lykke Li’s home.
Having lived a life more interesting than Bruce Parry, Li’s free spirit is informed by her parents’ hippy lifestyle (dad a musician; mum a photographer). ‘I lived five years in Portugal and then spent winters in Nepal or India. I had a very free upbringing, running around naked.
I was going to parties in India when I was ten. My brother would fall asleep by the speakers. We went to Morocco too and met a woman who turned out to be a prostitute. Because all the hotels were booked, we ended up staying in her house.’

If we’re wrong and Li’s gorgeous comedown pop doesn’t go down well, she’s got a back-up plan.
As she tells us on ‘Dance Dance Dance’, which suggests a cuddly Breeders, Li likes a boogie. In fact, she got so bored with music after watching too many of her dad’s concerts that when feigning illness didn’t get her out of going she took up ballet when she was five: ‘Then I started watching Michael Jackson and Madonna and copying them. A few years later I found I was working as a dancer in Sweden dancing behind artists on TV shows. But it was boring – I wanted to create.’

Lykke Li plays Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen on January 31 and releases ‘Little Bit’ on February 18.

Hear Li’s entire forthcoming debut album, ‘Youth Novels’, at www.myspace.com/lykkeli.