LYKKE LI

INTERVIEW BY TARIK SALEH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK W OCKFENFELS 3
PRODUCED BY CASSIA HOFFMAN
STYLING BY LAWREN SAMPLE AT MARGARET MALDANADO 
HAIR BY TONY CHAVEZ FOR LEONOR GREYL AT JED ROOT
MAKEUP BY SARAI FISZEL FOR CHANEL AT JED ROOT
STUDIO: SMASHBOX STUDIOS IN WEST HOLLYWOOD

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TARIK SALEH—Have you been insane before? Have you been in insane situations?

LYKKE LI—I feel like I am almost every other day. I just got back from Glastonbury. That was insane, but I keep surviving all the time so I keep on pushing my boundaries. So many times I feel like I couldn’t possibly handle anymore and then I keep on doing it all over again. And it scares me a bit because I wonder if there’s some kind of pool inside of yourself, that runs dry, or can you just keep on going forever?

TS—It’s really hard to interview someone who’s been interviewed so much. Is it hard being interviewed all the time? Do you hate it?

LL—I do. I think it’s really hard. Because I’ve been doing it for so long and so much, I think after a while your own words run out of substance. Just talking about anything for a certain amount of time makes the color of your words fade and it’s almost like you’re doing something really dirty like you’re not supposed to be that self-indulgent. I think that’s what’s hard with interviews, because I’ve been talking about myself so much that I think I’m really uninteresting.

TS—To yourself?

LL—To myself, and probably to other people, too. Mostly I don’t surprise myself with my thoughts any more. I don’t know if it’s a result of me getting older and having a more stable, happy private life. I feel like sometimes I just run out of thoughts. I can be having dinner with a girlfriend who I haven’t seen forever and my thoughts are not as interesting as they used to be when I was unhappy.

TS—They’re not as corrupt as they used to be?

LL—No, it’s not that they were corrupt. I was just young and I felt like I was so unhappy in my situation that I could just talk about unhappiness forever and now I feel like I’m just numb, actually.

TS—Friends of yours who know you really well describe you as strange.

LL—Strange in a good way or strange in a bad way?

TS—When people that you know really well think that you’re strange it means that you surprise them with your thoughts and your actions, maybe.

LL—Oh my God. I am strange.

(Excerpt from Issue 04)

More — www.lykkeli.com

Enjoy more of this on thelabmagazine.com, coming summer 2012!