00:00There was a trend going around the internet of girls dressing up as in like period dress,
00:07usually in like male period dress and like painting beards on themselves and singing
00:15Best of Women and I of course participated in the trend being a big Hamilton fan
00:21which should surprise literally no one I definitely was a little bit at first I think the first
00:37concert I played I was like whoa who do I think I am to be playing here but then it
00:44became quite
00:46natural after that and I got over the imposter syndrome of it pretty pretty fast and you know
00:53especially when I'm in the middle of the room it's it's like a theater in every direction I get to
00:58be
00:58surrounded by the fans and they get to experience like kind of every side of me and I I've kind
01:05of
01:05felt like that experience actually really lended itself to my music and my world because it was
01:11it's a whole lot more immersive so but I still love playing theaters and I will for the rest of
01:16my
01:16life so I think it's it's good to have both because both give me opportunities to show different sides
01:22of myself I think about you always tied together with a string I thought the lilies died by winter
01:29then there were a couple of ways I think you know knowing when to make things big and knowing when
01:36to make things small is really important when you have a big number with dancers and a big orchestra
01:42or with with strings and the band and and big visuals you know you want to make those as fantastical
01:48as possible and we do a lot of inspiration from opera from ballet from from musical theater to like
01:54make those moments feel really big and then in contrast the moments that are small you make them feel
02:00really really intimate and they feel so small because you've just offered up something so big
02:04and those moments I think taking the time to speak directly to the audience you know explain what
02:12songs are about how you came to that you know that lyric or something like that or even just talking
02:19about the day kind of humanizing the experience of coming because arenas are quite big and it can feel
02:25very vast and daunting not only for for the artist but also for the audience and I think just humanizing
02:33myself and showing them that I'm just you know I'm I'm a little shocked that I get to be on
02:38this stage
02:38as well I think that's you know how I make it feel intimate I really made sure to have those
02:44moments
02:44where I was playing alone with a guitar alone with a piano no no one else singing no one else
02:51playing
02:51and just really connecting with the fans the way I saw it was and making sure that those moments are
02:57you know as close to the audience as possible you know getting into the pit and walking and you know
03:03holding hands with the fans and singing with them those moments make it feel really intimate and
03:09honestly like I couldn't even get that close to fans in theaters I get to be a lot closer to
03:14them
03:15strangely in the ring
03:24sometimes when artists tour there can be a wall between the artist and the fans which I think for
03:31many acts that totally works and can be a great thing you know you want the allure of you know
03:36who
03:36is this person behind this curtain but my whole project is just about honesty and authenticity and
03:43to be able to to break that wall between the the music and the audience is so important to me
03:50well I really wanted to transport the audience to a different world if you will and something that
03:58felt quite timeless so I think these like big set pieces that are you know moved by people and and
04:04kind of reminiscent of what you see in opera and ballet and theater were really important to kind of create
04:08that timeless feeling like you don't want to come in and just see everything on a screen
04:14especially in times like this when I think audiences are really wanting to find things that
04:19feel really real and connected like these are all set pieces made by real people and real hands
04:25and every single part of the stage is an opportunity for storytelling and I think that is something that both
04:33me and and Junia my twin sister and the whole production team like we really were really
04:39honest about and and from the very beginning like every that's how I view my music too every single
04:45lyric could be someone's favorite lyric every part of the stage could be someone's you know what they
04:50zero in on so you know on the on the staircase we have etchings of emblems from the lyrics from
04:58the A Matter
04:59of Time album on the stage itself it's a big um like compass essentially which has the many different
05:08ways that different cultures tell time we have of course we have north east south west but then we also
05:13have uh the different the and the calendar and we have the lunar calendar we have um also like the
05:21the
05:21Norse like the Icelandic way of of art like very old calendar and so it's just finding those moments to
05:31put myself and my storytelling into every part I mean this stage in the US it's gonna be a little
05:37different in every different uh leg of the tour because well there are a couple more constraints when
05:42you're flying everything back and forth but um in the US tour we had this you know this stage that
05:50stretched out and mimicked the scroll of a cello so which is the instrument I grew up playing and
05:55I play on stage and always want to have and if you look from a top it looks like the
06:01scroll of a cello
06:02and then at the end of the scroll it's a clock and you know I spin on the clock and
06:07the clock was kind
06:08of this opportunity to get really close to the fans and that's where we had the jazz club set in
06:14the
06:14middle of the show that kind of reimagined the songs and that was the the part of the show where
06:20I wanted to feel the most intimate because what could be more intimate than a small jazz club the
06:26fact that every part of the stage every part of the show from the second you walk in I wanted
06:31them
06:31to be immersed also people spend so much time and so much money and so much you know heart learning
06:38the
06:38lyrics getting getting ready getting dressed getting their outfit ready that it needs to be the best
06:44show I can possibly put on my favorite moment from tour I mean there's so many so many favorite moments
06:54I think having my mom and dad come out to Madison Square Garden was like definitely quite life-changing
07:03like I had so many people send me photos of my parents in the pit looking at me because I
07:08obviously
07:09couldn't be there and and um because I was on stage but um I uh that definitely felt special
07:18seeing them in the same room as all my fans was just felt like there's so much love in the
07:25world and
07:25I felt very very lucky and I hope kind of hope that um everybody gets to experience that feeling of
07:32everything coming together at once I'm from I'm from Iceland it's a very small country
07:37um I think I sold almost the same amount of tickets on the U.S. tour as the population of
07:42Iceland so
07:43it's definitely very overwhelming to I still can't digest how many people there are who know who I am
07:52um and it's especially hard coming from a country that is that small
08:06it's such an intricate web of you know is are there artists that are already in the city are they
08:11playing the arena the next day the day before are they still there have they moved will they stay an
08:16extra day to come on stage like it's all a really intricately woven map of our guest artists I think
08:26for
08:26me I love being able to play perform with artists who do something very different from me um because it's
08:34my
08:34opportunity to hear my voice in another light or bring my or or um opportunity to have you know like
08:43I made Benson Boone sing a jazz standard like and he killed it his voice lended it so well to
08:49that and
08:50and like in LA I had a song called Magnolia that I knew Hozier would be able to make like
08:56even more
08:57devastating and beautiful and but then like when will I ever get to sing with Cat's Eye with a girl
09:03group like that's so sick and so I think those are all mini opportunities to show the world also that
09:12I'm not in some hole or some in some box I don't see myself as above or different from any
09:20other artist
09:23in that we're all like friends and we all work together and when I look back in the past my
09:28favorite videos to watch are like two random artists coming together like that's every time I step off
09:35stage with another artist I'm like wow people are gonna look back at this one day and think whoa these
09:40two completely different artists that I love have like sung together and know each other I think that's
09:46one of the most beautiful like collaboration is one of the most beautiful things in the world
09:51it was my first choice because there was a trend going around the internet of girls dressing up as
09:59in like period dress usually in like male period dress and like painting uh must beards on themselves
10:08and singing best of was best of woman and I of course participated in the trend being a big Hamilton
10:14fan
10:14which should surprise literally no one um and so when it came to New York I like I think the
10:23first person
10:23I asked my manager I was like do you think we could like maybe get Lin-Manuel Miranda and
10:29we were all like there's no way but we're gonna try and then yeah I mean I also had Pink
10:36Panther that
10:37night and I really wanted to do a legal with her so I was like okay why don't we just
10:42do that exact
10:43thing like no one's heard it live for a while I'll bet you every single person in the arena is
10:49a Hamilton fan
10:50or at least knows the song and really create like this this moment and I'm such a big fan of
11:00his that
11:00I was so shocked and happy that he got to do that but also hearing a full arena a full
11:07Madison Square Garden
11:10screaming it has never been louder like we out of all the guests that was the loudest guests by far
11:16like the reaction to it and everyone was singing along I've never heard that many people sing along to
11:21a musical theater song and that brought me so much joy because we need more people to love theater so
11:30it was great
11:40well the question is about finding the correct project right which is I'm I feel so lucky that I've
11:48afforded myself that opportunity because for a long time when I was starting out as an artist you know
11:56and I think many artists experience this we grasp onto every opportunity that comes to us and absolutely as a
12:03young
12:03artist you should do that but I'm I feel very lucky to be in a place now where I get
12:08to choose the projects that
12:10make sense for me and for my audience and for my music I mean the LA Phil is like one
12:16of the best orchestras
12:17in the world I never thought I'd be able to play with them in any capacity let alone like get
12:22to see
12:23them at Coachella let alone getting to play with them at Coachella and I think it was a really emotional
12:30moment for me because growing up as an orchestra kid I always thought that something like Coachella was
12:35a little far from what I liked or what I what was familiar rather and to get to see that
12:41come together
12:42and to get to be a part of it was just so emotional because I think I had a lot
12:47of like identity splits
12:49growing up and there in that moment singing with the LA Phil these songs that I've written in front of
12:55a Coachella audience that grew the second weekend like more people came it I've never felt more whole in
13:03my life like I've never felt more me I didn't have to give up any part of myself to achieve
13:09the goals
13:10that I wanted so it felt really it felt it was it was quite profound so I'm excited to return
13:17with my own set
13:18and to be able to yeah have my own have my own show I'm so excited well it's in the
13:26middle of tour so it
13:28definitely will be and and with the same music so it will definitely be have the same essence but I
13:35want to make sure that it is I will only play my first Coachella okay I'm kind of playing my
13:41first
13:41Coachella twice I'll only play my first set my own set at Coachella for the first time once and
13:50I'm like definitely planning some little little fun things and want to make sure it feels like a unique
13:56experience and and I'm so excited at this at this project of making
14:05Löwe and Coachella come together in as whole of a way as standing on stage with the LA Phil at
14:11Coachella film
14:21absolutely I think every artist nowadays is an innovator we all have something new to bring
14:28to the table and that is why I think when artists have something new to bring to the table they
14:33they rise and they find success so in that I think every artist especially this new crop of artists
14:40right now are all innovators and we I think for me I started out from my bedroom with a phone
14:47and was posting videos on the internet and you know was answering emails from labels and managers and
14:55figuring it figuring it out myself like for a while and slowly started adding team members on to
15:03to um build this structure and then you know I've been independent for these last three albums and
15:12being an independent artist has been a really huge part of who I am and that involves an incredible
15:17amount of innovation not only for myself but like very much from my team I think when I started in
15:24the
15:24music industry I was so the number one thing I was the most shocked at was how DIY it was
15:30every single
15:31person every artist does things differently people have different management structures different
15:38label structures people have publicists people don't have publicists like people post on the internet
15:45other people don't like some people are fashion leaning some people lean into sports or gaming it's
15:50truly so DIY that it's definitely felt like that I mean I run my own company I run my own
15:58label
15:58in a sense and and I have all these things that are attached to it whether it's touring or or
16:08merch or
16:09you know putting out a movie or you know putting out a movie or my social media presence my brand
16:15partnerships my bunny
16:17um may may uh writing a children's book these are all parts of of the world of levee and it's
16:25definitely
16:27I mean I don't know if it's innovative but I'm definitely thinking like an entrepreneur
16:33and I think all artists have to that that that is asked of us but what we get in return
16:40is a whole
16:40lot more control over our careers
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