I have bad memories of the foyer in a particular large hotel in Melbourne. It's here that I once waited for an escort with one of the biggest bands in the world, only to find out half and hour too late that they'd been waiting for me in the more luxurious hotel up the road with a similar name. Oops. Those memories come back as I meet up with Swedish singer Lykke Li and her management in this grand lobby in the Melbourne CBD, just a short trip from the Parklife festival stage that Li and band will be gracing later this evening.

Now approaching the end of the promo cycle for her excellent second album Wounded Rhymes, Li and band have been on tour ever since its release in May 2011. Having clocked up over 60 shows since then, Li is on the home stretch -- the Parklife tour, three dates in the UK and then two weeks through the US will wrap up her current touring commitments. Leading to, the current New York resident says rather hopefully, "finding a place in the East Village and doing nothing." We'd planned to do a fashion shoot with the singer today, but earlier she'd sent word that she'd prefer to take her own photos and send them on as a mini-tour diary of her time in Melbourne (which she promptly did: see the attached gallery for proof).

Expecting to talk with Li in her hotel room, TheVine instead sits with the singer at a dining table in the lobby, whilst families mill around, kids trot by and her team waits for us at another table across the way. Still feeling jet-lagged from the flight to Australia, a demure, reflective Li warms up over a pot of tea to discuss singing, health, the wonders of Terence Malick and the idea that she might not make another record again.

(All pics: Lykke Li)

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TheVine: On TheVine we're currently running a Q&A column in which we're asking singers about how they approach their craft. So I'm going to start with a question from that: is singing for you a physical or emotional process?

Lykke Li: It is physical but it's more, I think, spiritual. It's about going inside yourself and then bringing out something. It's such a spiritual thing for me. And very deep. I don't know if you meditate, but if you hit that, kind of unified feel, I feel like that's the same thing when you sing. It's something greater than you. You can take all your longings and go somewhere with it.

Does that feeling come from your body, or...

No. It's an outer-body experience, I feel.

Because of the words or the sound?

It depends. I mean, we have a brain and thoughts so of course we respond to words. But it's also melodies, something you can't grasp.

Words sometimes gets in the way.

Yeah.

One of my favourite pieces of music is from the Terence Malick film The Thin Red Line. At the start of the film there's a group of islanders singing a choral piece that I can't understand, but resonates in a way that maybe wouldn't if I knew the words.

I love Terence Malick, he's my favourite director. And I mean, In those traditions — spirituals and voodoo — they see it as their ancestors talking through them. It doesn't have anything to do with music; it's like their spirit talking through them. Did you see [Terence Malick's] The Tree Of Life? I feel like that was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. And that was almost like a song on film, and I think that's why people got so irritated with it. Because they didn't like the story or it was so slow. But it was like watching music, almost. Symphony but on a screen. So beautiful. You can't really understand it, but you can feel it.



When you're recording your vocals, are you going for something beyond language? Or is it about getting the notes correct?

Oh no, no, I never think about that. I mean, you wrote the song. So it would be one thing if you were singing somebody else's song, or it was a classical piece. But for me, I know the melody.

I hate recording. The only thing I try in recording is make it honest and vulnerable and real. But to be honest, recording is the worst part. Because it's more like -- I don't know what it is in English. What's it like when you've got to perform? To deliver! And there's so much pressure. You've got to get it on tape. It's not a very free experience.

Do you like the sound of your own voice?

No I hate it. 

How come?

I don't enjoy hearing it. And that's not why I do it. I do it because I want to sing, not because I want to hear it.

Does that make it hard to know when something's good?

Yeah. But mostly when it's not working, it hurts my ear. Or I can hear "Oh this is crap." So when it's alright, and I can let go that it's me and I can just listen to it objectively, then I feel maybe it's alright. But I don't ever think it's great.

Does that mean songs usually start with the music? The instruments, as opposed to singing a melody around the house?

No. It depends on how I write. Sometimes I write melodies in my head. I collaborate with Bjorn [Yttling, producer on Li's two albums and member of the band Peter, Bjorn and John]. So it depends. Sometimes we'll start with the music; we'll sit with guitars and sing. But my songs, they come as melodies in my head. And then I'll record [those melodies] on my cell phone. Garageband or my phone. I [used to have] this really great 8-track. But that was a while ago. Sometimes guitar. Piano. Sometimes my auto-harp.



How are you feeling now after touring for so long? And on the eve of doing a run of festival shows around Australia?

After a while of touring — I've toured for so long, you can't even imagine — you just get into a routine, where the show is the show and that's like the pearl in the oyster. You save that for later and then you've got to figure out routines [around it]. So you don't like, die on tour. Because you feel nauseous, you've been travelling, you miss your friends, you haven't slept. So the days are just about recovering. Staying alive, you know?

Does it feel like that's a waste of time, sometimes?

Yeah, it does. Yep.

It must put a lot of emphasis on the show.

Yeah it really does. I mean, I do it for me as much as anyone else.

Do you like playing that much? If you're sending yourself around the world like this...

I mean, everything is like a crash and burn thing. You learn. So, in the future I will probably play less. I love playing, I love the shows. But the travelling? And just all the dead time? I can't make sense of why...I mean it took me twenty-eight hours to get here. You know, twenty-eight hours! (laughs). And then twenty-eight hours back and every day flying for like seven hours. It's time!

Knowing that's ahead of you when you make a record, does that put undue pressure on the kind of songs that you're writing?

No. I mean when I'm making a record -- I always feel like that. 'After this is done I'll probably die.' I feel like that now too, like I won't ever make another record. But you don't look that deep into the future, you just want to make something great now. I don't think about that [while recording].

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