Day: August 22, 2025

With the release of her third album, A Matter of Time, Laufey is showing the world a new side of herself. Previously known for her wistful lyrics about unrequited crushes, the 26-year-old sings a different tune on this record: one about falling in love for the first time. “My first two albums are kind of just like, ‘Oh, I wonder what it will feel like, la di da, I’m falling behind,’” she said over a Zoom call last month, fresh-faced and cheery in the comfort of her Los Angeles home. “But this one is a lot more introspective and mature.”

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Born in Iceland to a musical family (her mother is a violinist and her maternal grandparents were professors at China’s Central Conservatory of Music), Laufey (pronounced lay-vey) blends the styles of jazz, classical, bossa nova, and contemporary pop with a precision that goes well beyond just “la di da.” A multi-instrumentalist who plays cello, piano, and guitar, she calls the canon of the Great American Songbook her “bible.” So much so that despite using modern-day lingo and the occasional swear word—”The proof says you’re tragic as f-ck,” she sings about a man with bad tattoos on “Tough Luck”—her music evokes a dreamy nostalgia for a bygone era. Her second album, Bewitched, took home a Grammy last year and she has easily made fans out of a who’s who of musical icons, having befriended Olivia Rodrigo and duetted with the likes of Barbra Streisand and Norah Jonas.

A Matter of Time, out today, sees Laufey at her most lyrically vulnerable and her most sonically daring. She lays bare some of her deepest insecurities on “Snow White” and recalls the time she lost herself to love on “A Cautionary Tale.” Fans may be surprised to hear “Clean Air,” a twangy ode to the “waltzy, bluesy, early country” music that she finds “romantic,” but the real shock awaits them on “Sabotage,” the album’s last track. Laufey’s signature croon—”It’s just a matter of time ‘til you see the dagger / It’s a special of mine, to cause disaster”—is punctured by frantic instrumentals that crescendo in the final minute of the song, ultimately tying the album up in one big, cacophonous bow. Falling in love, we learn, is not always pretty.

“I wanted to take this idea of beauty that’s often around my music and throw it in the fire a little bit, just for the sake of showing the complexity of female emotion… of my emotion,” she said. “I think it’s my most daunting project yet.”

TIME spoke with Laufey about finding creative freedom, her “long distance relationship” with Iceland, and the singer-songwriters she turns to for advice.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

When you announced this record, you said, “I’ve taken my diary and turned it into an album of songs.” What made you want to get so personal?

I just had the confidence to. I also fell in love for the first time, so it’s an album about that, and the self-discovery that comes with it. The whole goal of the album is to illustrate the contrast between this glass-like beauty and chaos that I feel within myself so often; that I am needing to present myself in a very pristine way, but I’m fighting some sort of chaos on the inside because I’m not letting it out. And with this album, I really just wanted to let it all out.

I think that’s very apparent on the song “Sabotage.” The instrumentals sound like the musical version of what you just described.

“Sabotage” was the first song I wrote for the album—that’s where the album title comes from, and it’s kind of the thesis. It’s about the fight between your external and your internal. It’s about the fear of sabotaging something beautiful and of another person finding out your true nature. I had a lot of fun plugging meaning into the music without actually saying words, so with those [instrumental] disturbances, I wanted to interpret anxiety and the noise in your head that kind of blurs everything out.

What is your creative process like when it comes to making music? Do you approach storytelling differently when you’re writing lyrics versus actually playing an instrument?

I always start with writing the song. I write the full song on my own—the skeleton, the structure—and then I bring it to Spencer [Stewart, the album’s executive producer], and we kind of bring it to life together. I always have ideas of how I want the final product to sound, but it’s [at that stage] that we use musical painting to really bring it to the next level. If I’m singing about flying up, we’ll find a flute or a violin that starts to trill up. When singing about something ominous, we’ll use minor chords and dissonance to really illustrate that. It’s stuff like that that makes the music really cinematic.

The single “Snow White” is about the unfair beauty standards that women are often held to. “Letter to My 13 Year Old Self,” a song from your last album, is a heartfelt message of encouragement to the version of you that grew up feeling insecure. Were you thinking about the parallels between the two songs when you were working on “Snow White”?

They are definitely both songs on self-reflection, but “Letter to My 13 Year Old Self” is extremely hopeful: it’s telling young women everywhere that they will be OK and that their drawbacks may be their biggest strengths. “Snow White” is really cynical. There’s no comfort there. But it’s a song that I wrote out of frustration for not being able to reach or achieve these standards that are set for women that tour arenas or walk red carpets. Striving for perfection is a dark, endless road because the goal posts keep moving.

I think even women who aren’t in the industry can relate to that.

We all have these impossible standards thrust upon us, and we all have those moments where we feel like the way we look is way more important than how we speak or how we address people. I often felt like I couldn’t compete in the dating scene because it felt like my body and my looks were measured way higher than my brains, and it felt like the opposite for men. I thought so much about putting this song out, because I’m aware of my position as a role model, and I’m aware of my words being listened to by young women, but I realized that sometimes feeling seen or relating to someone is the best feeling.

Are there any other musicians that you reach out to when you’re wanting to feel seen?

I love dumping my problems on Norah Jones. I don’t know what it is, I think her voice is just so comforting. Claire [Cottrill, who goes by the stage name Clairo] is incredible, I love talking to her. Olivia Rodrigo, she’s just so balanced and beautiful and kind. Conan Gray, as well. Anytime I need to get anything out of my system, Conan is the first person I call.

I saw in the album credits that Clairo provided background vocals on “Mr. Eclectic.” What was it like working with her on that track?

We had the best evening splitting a bottle of wine and singing. I respect her so much as a musician, and she honestly brought so much life to the recording, not only with her beautiful voice but also with her thoughts. We were just riffing and it made the song so much better. It was a level of freedom that I really needed at that moment—I was at the point in the album-making process where I needed [someone] to release me from my overthinking.

Your song “Forget-Me-Not” is a love letter to Iceland, and you even sing a few lines in Icelandic. What does that song mean to you?

It’s about the experience of emigrating from a country, trying to balance two cultures, and the fear of losing the one you moved away from. It’s something that really plagues me all the time. Am I Icelandic enough, now that I’ve lived away from Iceland for seven years? So I wanted to write a love letter to Iceland and tell it, ‘Sorry I had to leave to go chase my dreams.’ And I wanted to hide it within a love letter because, in some ways, it sounds like I’m singing about a person. There’s something beautiful about that to me because it kind of does feel like a long distance relationship. 

In an interview last year, you talked about how you wanted to find some growth with this album while still staying true to yourself and your sound. How did you go about finding that balance?

Lyrically, I really let myself be incredibly honest and not think too much about how it was going to be read or perceived by the world. I really tried to create something unique. There are songs on it where I tried to have the most classical string writing I’ve ever had [within] a pop song. That’s something that I’ve done before, but I really just expanded on this album. I just really didn’t think too much about what box the album was going to fit into. I’ve never been able to fit into one category or another, and I didn’t want to be held back by fitting into one. So I kind of just let myself be free.

There does seem to be a lot of talk about how exactly to label your music, whether it’s jazz or pop. Does that ever get annoying?

It’s hard because I’ve never felt like one thing or another. I’ve never been Icelandic or Chinese or American. I’m always a mix of everything. I’ve never even been an individual—I have an identical twin sister—so I’ve never fit into a box. Musically, I am a jazz singer; not all my songs are jazz. I’m a classical cellist; I didn’t play a lick of classical cello on this album, but I’d fight anyone who told me I wasn’t a classical cellist. So I wouldn’t say it’s annoying, but I think it’s reductive. You’re describing all of me by just a portion of my character. 

It doesn’t seem like your fans care either way.

I honestly think there’s a very small group of people who are always trying to figure it out. I hope that people are just around for the music. That was the biggest difference for this album—I didn’t think about genre. I was just like, ‘My genre is Laufey. This is a Laufey album.’

• The 1870s were a time of great cultural, economic, and technological change.
• During this time, people dressed in formal fashion and traveled by steamboat, buggy, or train.
• Increased interest in leisure led to a rise in various sports by 1875.

In 1875, America was on the precipice of a major transformation.

The Second Industrial Revolution was ushering in new industries, innovations, and cultural shifts.

It fueled the Gilded Age, and the fast accumulation of enormous wealth was reshaping American society. People dressed in formal apparel, traveled by steamboat and buggy, and communicated via telegrams.

Interest in leisure and sports began to rise, a middle class emerged, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 offered hope — albeit short lived — to African American communities.

Take a look back in history to see what life was like 150 years ago, from family life and fashion to transportation and food.

In the 1870s, families were experiencing significant changes as the Second Industrial Revolution moved people from farmland to cities.

After the Civil War, America entered its Second Industrial Revolution. During this time, cities became the place to find a job as factories popped up in urban areas. This sparked a great change in the family dynamic.

Before this time period, families mostly lived on farmland and made a living off their land. But from 1870 to 1920, millions of people moved to cities.

As more people moved into the cities, daily life became crowded and unsafe for some.

People crammed into the streets of New York City 150 years ago, crowding the city. This marked the beginning of tenement housing, which packed entire families into one-room apartments. Most lived in squalor and in unsafe environments.  

“It was all very dense, very crowded, and unregulated — conditions that fostered disease and inhumane living conditions,” the New York Public Library reported.

At the same time, people were moving west as train lines expanded.

Once the railroads were completed after the Civil War, many people moved out west to settle and farm the open land. While some think of these people as cowboys, the Library of Congress debunked that narrative: The people who moved out west experienced tough lifestyles, including “long, hard hours of labor, poor living conditions, and economic hardship.”

The country’s demographics were changing, too, as thousands of people immigrated from Europe.

To combat poverty and hardships, many immigrated to the United States in hopes of a better life. From 1870 to 1900, 12 million people immigrated to the country, per the Library of Congress. At that time, the majority of immigrants were coming from Germany, Ireland, and England.

More than 70% of immigrants entered the US via New York City’s Ellis Island.

African Americans had been freed from slavery a decade prior, but this freedom was still severely limited.

Slavery had been made illegal in 1865 by the ratification of the 13th Amendment, and, in 1870, the US government passed the 15th Amendment, which granted African Americans the right to vote, although many were still unable to do so due to other discriminatory laws in place.

The 15th Amendment states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Five years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 passed, prohibiting discrimination against African Americans in public places, including transportation and accommodations, but it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court just eight years later. It took nearly a century for the principles to be passed into law.

Many African Americans were still unable to vote, and they were pushed into squalor.

Throughout the 1870s and for decades to come, multiple practices were implemented to stop Black people from exercising their right to vote. In some ways, African Americans were free, but in many ways, they were disfranchised.

It would be nearly 100 years before many people of color could exercise their right to vote, with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Voting Rights Amendments in 1975.

Children spent most of their time in one-room schoolhouses.

Before 1870, public education was not a priority. But between 1870 and 1900, attendance at public schools doubled, as people saw the value of an educated society. In fact, the growing number of immigrant families in the US prompted the need for public schools as assimilation efforts demanded accessible education for children across the US.

Public schools were often one room and housed children of all ages. Students learned math, reading, writing, geography, and history. 

For families who were extremely poor, children would sometimes forgo schooling and instead join the workforce to help the family’s finances.

When not in school, children played with dolls that they made themselves.

Most parents 150 years ago would make toys out of items lying around the house. During this time, rag dolls were popular.

If you were wealthier, however, you would have access to handcrafted toys. Abroad, children played with dolls made of china, train sets, and soldiers. It was also common for children to play with toys that represented a story from the Bible.

Women’s fashion was dramatic and elegant, with details focused on the back.

In the 1870s, women’s dresses tended to swoop towards the back and bunch around the buttocks, according to the Fashion Institute of Technology. It was also common that the dress fell flat against the abdomen. The princess waistline, which was achieved by wearing a tight corset, was also popular during this time period.

Menswear of 150 years ago was also more formal.

Some men during this time period also used canes or walking sticks as fashion accessories.

For getting around, horse and buggy were popular.

By the mid-1870s, traveling by horse and buggy had become the most popular mode of transport worldwide. 

At the time, the horse and buggy allowed the whole family to go for a ride.

The Spring Wagon is just one model that people used. It was a carriage that had two benches with one behind the other, per Britannica. 

It wouldn’t be until decades later, in 1908, that the Ford Model T popularized automobile transportation.

The steamboat was another popular mode of transport during this time.

The first steamboat was launched in 1807, so by 1870, the industry had largely taken off.

“Steamboats dominated American river transportation,” the National Museum of American History wrote.

The upstream and downstream systems allowed people to transport goods and people at a faster and cheaper rate.

The mid-1870s saw the rapid expansion of railroad systems.

Before 1871, 45,000 miles of railroad track had already been laid in the US, but from 1871 to 1900, the country laid another 170,000 miles, according to the Library of Congress. As the transcontinental railroads crisscrossed the US, train travel became popular.

The railroad also gave people access to different types of food.

During the 1870s, people were gaining access to foods that weren’t easily accessible in their geographical areas before. People on the East Coast could suddenly consume oranges from California, beef from Wyoming, and fresh milk. 

This led to an expansion in the American diet beyond the previous regional bounds.

Luxury train travel began taking off as elites’ wealth grew exponentially.

Right at the peak of the Gilded Age glamor, 1875 saw the launch of luxury train cars like the Pullman Palace Car Company, which produced high-end rail travel options for the wealthiest passengers.

During this time, women started buying commercially prepared items to eat.

Grocery stores like Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and the A&P opened in the mid-1800s, and they gained popularity by the 1870s.

Around this time, women started buying mass-produced groceries instead of making their own, and “five and dime” stores also became popular around this time period for the same reason.

Many people bought clothing and goods from a catalog called Montgomery Ward.

About 150 years ago, Aaron Montgomery Ward started a mail-order business by publishing a catalog that featured appliances, furniture, and clothing. It quickly took off and became a popular means of retail for people in the 1870s.

New leisure activities, like cycling, were becoming popular.

Cycling got its start 150 years ago, but it became a national craze in 1890 when women began using bicycles as a tool to mobilize themselves freely, per the Smithsonian.

Tennis was also a popular sport 150 years ago.

People who belonged to the upper and middle classes loved to play tennis and golf.

Lawn tennis, which originated in England, spread in the US throughout the 1870s. The New Orleans Lawn Tennis Club — widely considered the first tennis club in the US — was founded in 1876.

At the same time, baseball rose in popularity in various US cities.

Throughout the US, baseball gained momentum during the 1870s after emerging a few decades earlier in 1846, when the first official baseball game was held in Hoboken, New Jersey.

In 1876, the National League was created by executive and later president of the Chicago White Stockings, William Hulbert.

College football was another sport that gained popularity during this time.

The first intercollegiate football match took place in 1869 between Rutgers University and Princeton University, per NJ.com, but it wasn’t until the mid-1870s that college football began gaining popularity across the country.

The first Harvard-Yale football match was held in 1875, and the rivalry between the elite schools brought attention to the game.

With a newfound interest in leisure activities, the US held the first Kentucky Derby.

The Kentucky Derby got its start 150 years ago, in 1875. Today, the sporting event is still held in Louisville, Kentucky, and is considered an American tradition.

The period also saw the rise of shooting as a hobby for many across the US.

Considered “America’s oldest active gun club,” per its website, the Massachusetts Rifle Association was founded in 1875.

Just a few years earlier, in 1871, the National Rifle Association had been founded in New York.

By the late 1890s, shooting competitions began taking off.

Telecommunications saw great improvements during this time.

By 1875, telecommunications technologies had been developing, with telegrams becoming more popular and efficient since the spread of Morse code messages in the 1840s.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, which allowed people to speak across long distances and revolutionized modern communications.

Founded by the inventor, the Bell Telephone Company eventually became what today is AT&T, per the company’s website.