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Off the record
Evening Standard 25.04.08
Bohemian upbringing: Lykke Li grew up with prog rock from her father's band and raves in India with her mother
Cartoon caperes: Johnny Rotten in full cry in Jim McCarthy's graphic biography
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LYKKE IS READY FOR LIFT-OFF
For the past few years, British girl singers have come up with the sound of the summer: Kate Nash's troubled teen tunes last year and Lily Allen's streetwise ska-pop before that. Now, in 2008, the sunshine will be sound-tracked by a far cooler musical talent from Sweden.
Lykke Li Zachrisson is a mouthful but it is a name you'll be hearing a lot more of in the months to come (and to make things a bit easier, she just uses her first name, pronounced “Licky Lee”).
The stylish 22-year-old sings minimalist pop, somewhere between the down-to-earth tones of Allen and the out-there hyperactivity of Björk. She was first championed by the music blogs, who picked up on her sparse, beguiling track Little Bit, and now the online support is helping her break through in the UK. Tonight she performs a stunning, stripped-back version of that song on BBC2's Later ... with Jools Holland.
Earlier this week, she duetted with fellow Swede Robyn, at the Camden Crawl, but while she's proud to be part of a thriving Scandinavian scene, Lykke Li tells me she's more at home in London than Stockholm. “In Sweden you're not allowed to be anyone — when I have my fur on, they are like who does she think she is?'” she complains (it's vintage, by the way). “There's no underground culture. That's what I love about New York and London.” She was back in New York late last year to record her debut album, Youth Novels, with Bjorn of Peter, Bjorn and John (released 3 June).
She grew up listening to Madonna, although she now says “her music is not for me any more” and prefers The Shangri-Las. But despite her innocent, girlish vocals, Lykke Li is clearly as ambitious as the Eighties material girl. Her hairstyle, “the Lykke Li bun”, is already a hit in her homeland — and she reveals that when she went on her first trip to New York at 19, she told everyone she met that she was a huge star in Sweden. “I just lied.”
It's not hard to trace her eccentricities to her bohemian upbringing. Her father was in a cult Swedish prog band and the family lived in Portugal for five years. There were also trips to India, where Lykke Li says she joined her mother at raves aged 10. Perhaps that was good training for her teenage career as a dancer on Swedish pop TV.
These days, she compares her performance to Iggy Pop rather than Legs and Co. “I feel like a rock star on stage,” she laughs. “I dance ugly — but it's free.”
Her show certainly displays a different side to her, as does her live cover of A Tribe Called Quest's Can I Kick It? Next she wants to try Dizzee Rascal. “I'm very hip-hop, I think,” she adds.
“I almost cry sometimes when I sing it,” she tells me of the beautiful Little Bit, which may yet prove the song that strikes a chord with fans of Lily and Amy and turns her into a proper star.
Still, she claims not to be overly troubled by her English rivals. “I love Amy,” she says. “But they're all the same age as me so I don't really look to them. I'm already searching for new sounds and I'm living life in order to write songs.”
Lykke Li plays the Scala (020 7833 2022) on Monday
SID AND JOHNNY'S COMIC SIDE
Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious always resembled cartoon characters, so it was an inspired idea to turn their violent, chaotic story into a graphic novel.
The Sex Pistols graphic biography by Jim McCarthy and illustrator Steve Parkhouse is a handsome dramatisation of the filth and the fury. The late Sid Vicious would probably have loved it: he apparently devoured comics as eagerly as amphetamine sulphate.
“It's such a great story and they looked like a bunch of cartoons — Lydon with his spiky look and safety pin,” says McCarthy.
Lydon may now be more of a caricature than a menace to society now but I still enjoyed the more rotund Pistols' recent comeback at Brixton Academy. Perhaps the younger generation needs a re-telling of their story, though, just as Shakespeare has recently been updated with comic book versions of Macbeth and Henry V.
“If you didn't know anything about them, I hope the book makes people go back and listen to the music and, instead of reading it just like a comic, maybe check out some of the things that happened socially then,” says McCarthy.
The graphic novel can be preordered at Amazon and there's a signing by the writer and artist at Forbidden Planet in Shaftesbury Avenue on 31 May.
NEW ON THE NET
Brazilian electro-rock outfit CSS are providing a taster of their new album Donkey on Monday evening. A free download of Rat Is Dead (Rage) will be available from www.csshurts.com.
London singer-songwriter Jont's video series of free gigs at fans' houses has been a hit on YouTube. You could be part of the latest event tonight when he plays Clapham — details are at www. myspace.com/jontmusic. The new single, Candlelit, is available from iTunes and 7digital.
The Consequences track for homeless charity Crisis is now available from download stores. If you think you can do better than the indie supergroup, create your own remix using components including Beth Ditto's vocal and Graham Coxon's guitar solo at www.umyx.com/news/2008/04/crisis-consequences/
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