ELLE<\/a> about her third studio album, A Matter of Time. (\u201cMadwoman\u201d was just released as a track from the deluxe version of the album.)<\/p>\nShe shared her response to some jazz purists saying her music doesn\u2019t fit the genre. \u201cAt the end of the day, what are genres?\u201d she asked. \u201cI\u2019ve spent my whole life trying to fit into some sort of box. Am I a classical musician, a jazz musician? Am I Icelandic? Am I Chinese? Am I American? I\u2019ve never been able to fit into a box. So I\u2019m trying to distance myself from that. I think that\u2019s quite old-fashioned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laufey also spoke more broadly about the importance of representation, noting that as she was growing up, \u201cI always loved pop music; I just didn\u2019t think I could make it. I distinctly remember these girls dressing up as Hannah Montana for Halloween and me thinking, \u2018Oh, I can\u2019t, because I have dark hair.\u2019 It\u2019s so simple when you\u2019re a kid. You look at someone and you\u2019re like, \u2018This is not a reflection of who I am. I love it, but I can\u2019t be them for Halloween.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She continued, \u201cI think about that moment more and more as I grow older and I grow further into this career, because I\u2019m like, \u2018That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the representation that matters.\u2019 I believed that I could be a classical musician because I saw so many older women who were doing that, who looked like me and had similar backgrounds. But I didn\u2019t see a single woman in pop music. No one cool, no one who stepped onstage in a fun outfit that I got to try to copy, or whose lyrics I could really listen to and have them resonate with me, because no one was writing about those experiences….I write a lot about the experience of being the only Asian girl in my class, in my year, in Iceland, and feeling really odd. This pressure of being perfect, I think that\u2019s something that\u2019s pushed a lot upon Asian kids and Asian Americans especially. My music is a lot about that push and pull of doing the right thing, but feeling the wrong thing. But I really do think it\u2019s as simple as, \u2018Oh, hey, I also celebrate Chinese New Year.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have an Asian community like that growing up, and now I have it, and it\u2019s through my music,\u201d she continued. \u201cThat\u2019s another reason I love living in L.A. and I love living in the States. I get to be Asian.\u201d<\/p>\n
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