The Heartbreak Kid

A blonde chanteuse dressed in loose-fitting black and white sways to the sounds of luau music, faintly playing from a handheld tape recorder. She places the recorder on a table, switches off the music and steps to the center of a group of sleepy-eyed, pale musicians. Someone hands the singer a megaphone, and she clears her throat before speaking a couple of lines through it in a monotone voice. The musicians knock on their instruments and clap out a soft rhythm; and as the singer loses the megaphone and grabs a mic, the acoustic band jumps in with the song’s low, ascending melody.

Her voice sounds like it belongs to a little girl—a precocious child who should be singing in a holiday pageant instead of standing in the middle of a group of adult musicians, wearing fake, feathered eyelashes. But the 22-year-old singer is Lykke Li (pronounced Lick-ee Lee), and her bandmates in this music video, for an acoustic version of her song “I’m Good, I’m Gone,” include members of the Shout Out Louds, The Concretes and even Swedish pop star Robyn. And you might think Li is a hot new find, especially with her album just released officially in the States on Aug. 19, until you notice that the video was posted on YouTube at the beginning of this year. Add the fact that her debut album, Youth Novels, came out in Sweden in January, and you begin to realize that instead of being among the first to discover the young performer’s talents, you’re arriving late to the party.

Lykke Li Zachrisson, known to the world as Lykke Li, or “LL” to close friends, was born in Ystad, Sweden, in 1986. Her parents, Karsti Stiege, a photographer, and Johan Zachrisson, a musician, moved to the small town in southern Sweden because of her mother’s interest in nature photography. The family lived in Ystad for two years, followed by a stint in Stockholm until Li was around 5 years old, and then they lived in Portugal for five years before returning to Sweden. The Zachrissons also took holidays in India, Morocco and Nepal. When she turned 19, Li moved to New York City, living in Bushwick and taking a handful of improv classes at HB Studio in the West Village. For Li, the question of whether she prefers acting or singing seems nonsensical. “I don’t really separate art,” she said. “Either you like being on stage or you don’t.” She left New York after three months, and while she currently shares an apartment in Stockholm with her brother Zacharias, 19, she still has places to try on for size. “If you’re a soul of the world, it’s hard to live in one place.”

Li sees no point in settling in one country when the world is so big, and she applies the same philosophy to her musical influences: What’s the use in choosing a favorite musician when there are so many out there? “I change my mind all the time,” she said. She rarely delves into an artist’s complete catalog, often preferring single tracks to full albums, although she did go through phases of listening to a lot of Edith Piaf and Nina Simone. She does listen to other musicians in her downtime, but when she’s in the throes of composing something herself, she concentrates on her own work. She noted, “You’re too busy doing your own music to be inspired by someone else.”

Much of the inspiration for Youth Novels came straight from her personal life. The 14 songs on the album follow Li through relationship turmoil, telling off significant others and being left brokenhearted. “The songs are about my life,” she said, which includes some painful moments. She credited her age with a lot of the melodramatic themes on the album. “When you’re young, everything is dramatic.” She explained that a lot of the instances that occur when you’re young, like chopping off your hair, hating it and convincing yourself that it will never grow back, are traumatic and elicit strong feelings that might seem ridiculous to adults. “My problems are big in my world,” she said, adding, “You’re never too young to experience heartbreak, I think.” But she doesn’t feel that writing out her life’s details serves a therapeutic purpose. After completing a song, “You feel the same,” she said, “but you make something out of [the feelings].”

Li recorded Youth Novels at studios in Stockholm and New York City, and her production team included Lasse Martén and Peter Björn and John’s Björn Yttling. Li liked Yttling’s previous work and managed to get him involved in her recording process. “He was like a mentor,” she said. Li would send tracks to Yttling for review, and Yttling was not shy about telling her when “things were crap.” Yttling’s unabashed criticism opened Li up to the idea that not every song she produced was sacred. “He made me learn how to kill my darlings,” she mused, admitting that Yttling’s straight talk only helped to make the album stronger.

When it came time to name the album, Li knew she needed the word “youth” in the title, since the songs reflected a lot of what she had experienced in her younger years. The word “novels” was a natural choice, since she described the album’s songs as “short novels of experiences in my life.” Lyrics are a big thing for Li, who said that one of her latest creations “Until We Bleed” is one of the best she’s ever written. “I wanted [Youth Novels] to be like you’re reading someone’s diary,” she said.

With a hectic touring schedule, set to last through December, Li’s current diary would read more like a travel log. “I’ve seen a lot of airports,” she said, “and I’ve drunk a lot of whiskey.” The nomadic lifestyle has left her little room for a personal life but plenty of chances for people to tune in to her performances, convincing themselves that they’re among the first to discover this hot new singer, when really she’s just been Sweden’s best kept secret.

Lykke Li August 28, (Le) Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. (betw. Thompson and Sullivan Sts.), 212-796-0341; 9:30, $18.