Song Exploder - Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers

Episode Date: August 25, 2021

Lykke Li is a singer and songwriter from Sweden. She started releasing music in 2007, and for much of her career, she’s worked with producer Björn Yttling, who’s also a member of the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John. Her second album, Wounded Rhymes, came out 10 years ago. It was named one of the best albums of 2011 by the New York Times, Pitchfork, the Guardian, and more, and it won the Swedish Grammy for Best Album. The song "I Follow Rivers" was the breakout hit from that album, and for this episode, Lykke and Bjorn break down how they made it, with help from co-writer Rick Nowels. I spoke to the two of them while they were at Björn’s studio, Ingrid Studios in Stockholm. For more, visit songexploder.net/lykke-li.

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. This episode contains explicit language. Likki Lee is a singer and songwriter from Sweden. She started releasing music in 2007, and for most of it, she's worked with producer Bjorn Yitling, who's also a member of the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John. Her second album, Wounded Rhymes, came out 10 years ago. It was named one of the best albums of 2011 by the New York. Time, Pitchfork, The Guardian, and more. And it won the Swedish Grammy for best album.

The song I Follow Rivers was the breakout hit from that album. And for this episode, Lickke and Bjorn break down how they made it with help from co-writer Rick Knowles. I spoke to the two of them while they were at Bjorn Studio, Ingrid Studios, in Stockholm. But before getting into the making of this song, I wanted to start a few years earlier and find out how the two of them first started working together. My name is Likili. My name is Bjorn Yuttling. I think I met him when I was 20.

And I had done some demos that I played for this record label guy. And he told me that this is kind of bad. You would really need a producer. And then he put me in touch with Bjorn, who was quite famous in Sweden at the time. It was a very big deal. So I came to the studio and we had a very proper meeting. She played a wordlister and sang a song. And based on that, I guess, you thought I was weird enough to take the challenge.

I didn't really like the songs she brought, but she had something, I guess, star quality or something like that. You know, you had something. Maybe you had the most important thing because you can always. write a new song. That's just something to work with. But that thing that you had is quite hard to achieve if you don't have it. And also I liked your tone, of course, in the voice. So then he started coaching me on how to write songs. And I really like that. Ever since I was a kid, I've always been drawn to be someone's pupil. And that's how he started. I remember laying on a bed in some strange hotel room or something in New York

and we kind of had the riff like improvising a groove. We did a lot on me playing guitar. That's also me playing a really untuned out of harp. And then we sang on the riff there. So we had it, but then we let it sit for a while. And then we got back to Stockholm to really figure out, you know, how to make. a song from it.

It took quite a while before. We even went into rehearsals and did a lot of percussion ideas and stuff. But this one wasn't really finished. It was more like we just created a sound. Because I didn't love this song. She kept it in the garbage can.

Yeah, for quite a while. Yeah. And I think also from personal point of view, I had just gotten mega, mega heartbroken. So that was maybe the headspace, a lot of hurt and anger and, you know, that you want to somehow triumph at the end. And at the end of the album writing process, we had Rick Knowles coming in to write songs with us.

Rick Knowles is a Grammy-winning songwriter and member of the songwriter's Hall of Fame. He had asked to work with us, and I was pretty opposed to it because we're both very protective over the craft, but I looked at his credits. He's worked with a ton of artists over the decades, including Madonna, Adele, Tupac, John Legend, and Stevie Nix. And I'm a big Stevie Nix fan. So then I was like, okay, why don't we, I mean, let him come, let's see, let's try something. and then he flew and met us in the studio here in Sweden. And it was a good trio for like getting results fast too because I could produce fast and they could work on lyrics

and he was really encouraging, you know. And he asked a couple times, so what you think is the strongest part of the song? The riff maybe? Like, da-na-na-na-na-na-na-no-no-no-no-n-no-no-no. Oh, could we sing the riff? You my river running high. Run deep, run wild.

What is really good about Rick from a poetic standpoint is he always asks, okay, what's the title? You paint the whole picture from there from an emotional standpoint, which I find very, very interesting. I mean, I don't actually say I follow rivers anywhere. That's just the title. I think it's more about the theme and the currents of a dark love. It was like I was writing from a very subconscious level about the dynamics and the archetypes of love.

We put in a little guitar. I feel like the cowbell is such a strong hook in this song. It's live played by the studio owner, actually. He was playing in an old jam rock band. So he just took two cowbells that was nicely tuned and just taped him up a little bit. And then he played doodoo-d-d-d-d-t. It was like different layers of live playing. There's a lot of live playing on the whole record.

We both just really enjoy realness and real instrument, real playing, real moments, the imperfections that come out of. of that as well. There's no synthesizer, you know, on this record. Yeah. The piano was miced up. Abba recorded Dancing Queen on that piano, and we distorted the shit out of it,

so you can't really tell. It just sounds really, really cool and good. I think we both kind of have a taste for, like, the fucked up. That's either me or you pitched down. Lyke doesn't like regular snare so much, or regular kicks. So we tried other, you know, like this is maybe a Japanese cheese drum or something, you know. Yeah. We had the two drummers, Lars and John, John in my band and Lars that always plays with Lyke was playing those things.

I feel like too, I don't know what it is. It's like some maracas or something that's kind of thumping and, you know, you're following someone. those vocals? I do. I'm surprised because now I feel I sing softer. I must have been really upset about what happened. I have that kind of tone of a broken woman. You know, I'm just trying to write exactly what I'm feeling. So whenever I sing my own songs, I just go there automatically. I'm like in the emotion. I'm just, you know, 100% just feeling the lyric and the same. And the subtext. Because I'm not also a very good singer. It's not like I can do very much. So for me, it's just about being as honest as possible.

Some plug-in sort of broke and kept Likkes vocals just for infinity. And we look in the studio, what is that? Like, record it, record it. Just, you know, recorded that before we turned it off and it was never, you could never create that again. So it was sort of like a big rug of lickers' vocals from the whole song. So it's like, oh, that's the sound that we need for the intro. You know, like it's sirens calling you out to the bottom of the ocean. Because it's about being with a person that is pretty destructive. And you know that they are going some other place.

It's about intimacy in a way, too. You know, if someone has those types of hidden doors and rooms that they always go towards and I'm standing there and I just want to be close. Even if that means being self-destructive yourself? Yeah, unfortunately at that time, yes. The thing is also when you are an artist, it's a bit dangerous because you are kind of really interested in going to those deep places that make you feel so much where everything is so heightened and cinematic and dramatic and dramatic.

So you kind of see the poetry in those situations and maybe a bad way, but at the same time, all movies, paintings, books, poetry, songs are all made by a bunch of love addicts. Your integrity is a bit, you know, you do everything for the art or for that feeling. And for me, that is the most precious, magical thing about writing songs. It's just tapping in and watching it unfold and not being in the way or caught up, just letting it flow like a river. And now here's I Follow Rivers by Likki Lee in its entirety. Visit SongExploder.net.

You'll find links to buy or stream I Follow Rivers, and you can watch the music video for it. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishi Kaysh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music,

talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. and this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope.

I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In The Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co,

or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. This episode was produced by me, with editing help from Tini Lieberson and Casey Deal, artwork by Carlos Lerma, production assistants from Chloe Parker, and music clearance by Kathleen Smith.

Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at Radiotopia.fm. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, at Rishi-Hirway, and you can follow the show at Song Exploder. You can also get a Song-Exploder t-shirt at song-exploder.net slash shirt. I'm Rishi-Kesh-Hirway. Thanks for listening. Radiotopia.