Laufey is nothing if not defiant, whether in genre, tradition, or expectation. 

She didn't succumb to the "sophomore slump" on 2023’s Bewitched, which garnered multiple chart-topping positions and billions of streams. At 24, the album made Laufey the youngest recipient of the GRAMMY Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.

With her success solidified, Laufey had the creative foundation to take more risks. On her third album, A Matter Of Time, Laufey explores the realities of falling in love with more depth.

One major shift was expanding her production circle. Laufey partnered with Spencer Stewart for her first two studio albums (Stewart is known for his work with unique talents such as Alina Baraz, Ravyn Lenae and d4vd). To create A Matter Of Time, she reached out to Aaron Dessner, who has touched on music from the biggest pop acts in the world, including Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran.

Yet despite Dessner’s proximity to superstardom, Laufey felt confident their collaboration would maintain her old-meets-new, orchestral jazz aesthetic while also expanding her sound.

"I think he was excited to take on a project that was a little bit different," Laufey says. "Everything else I tried felt like too much of a departure from my world. Aaron helped me bring a level of shine to the music that I was craving for this cycle."

This balance is most apparent on "Castle in Hollywood." Rather than employing swung rhythms and other hallmarks of the Great American Songbook (Laufey’s bread and butter), elements like warm strings support a more pop-ready, acoustic guitar backdrop.

As much as the new record shines, however, its themes and subject matter are actually the inverse. Rather than  writing from the perspective of her most idyllic and camera-ready, Laufey shows her loyal community of fans her true self through unfiltered lyrics. 

"Snow White"  paints a clear picture that even as a superstar, she struggles with the same type of pressures on image. "The world is a sick place, at least for a girl/The people want beauty, skinny always wins/And I don't have enough of it, I'll never have enough of it."

"My songwriting style is very literal," Laufey says. "That's something I've definitely borrowed from the Great American Songbook. They always described surroundings, situations, and feelings in a very direct way, because the songs are from musicals."

As Laufey steps into her new era of fame that includes sold-out dates at Madison Square Garden and a new foundation in her name, A Matter Of Time is as much a continuation as it is a revelation. The album, which drops Aug. 22, sees the vocalist and cellist venture into uncharted territory while still grounding her music in her authentic interests. Below, the GRAMMY-winning artist shares some of the inspirations that fueled this creative dichotomy.

Iceland

As Laufey went deeper into herself, she naturally gravitated towards the place where she spent her formative years: her native country of Iceland. 

While she lives in Los Angeles these days, Laufey wrote much of A Matter Of Time while she was visiting home. Many of the songs describe past situations in Iceland. "Forget-Me-Not" was inspired by Icelandic lullabies, and she penned her first lyrics in her native tongue for this song. 

Laufey also recorded "Forget-Me-Not" with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra —her second  release with the ensemble following 2023’s live album, A Night At The Symphony.

Beyond her inherent connection to the country — which has only grown more fervent as she spends more time away — Iceland is where she feels most comfortable to articulate her more vulnerable experiences.

"In Iceland, I just feel so safe. I can say what I want and express what I want. It's so isolated it feels like I'm screaming into a void when I write there, rather than having it heard by the whole world," Laufey says.

Anxiety

There are dark sides to being in love, and Laufey did not shy away from them on A Matter Of Time. While she acknowledges her music carries a sweet tone to it, she intentionally imbued songs on this album with discomfort and anxiety.

Some songs depict the internal tension plainly through lyrics. On "Lover Girl" she sings: "You’ve been hosting parties/In my mind, I’m working overtime/To have you in my world/Oh, what a curse it is to be a lover girl."

Others are more sonic. "Sabotage" is built on dissonant chords formed by layered instruments sounding at irregular intervals. Then listeners will undoubtedly be shocked to hear the flashes of orchestral cacophony that randomly appear.

"I try to musically depict anxiety with this noise. It's a song about the fear of losing someone, because you're in your own head," Laufey says. She was also in her own head about the act of sharing her personal relationship with the uncomfortable emotion through song. But her emphasis on being honest with herself prevailed:

"I think I just kind of dared to write about [anxiety]. I realized it wasn't that embarrassing. My life's been quite crazy in the past year or two. I've experienced a lot more anxiety than usual, and falling in love makes you crazy," Laufey says.

A Performance Of "Cinderella"

To say Laufey’s well-versed in musical theater would be a dramatic understatement, but despite all her time spent in the realm, a recent production of "Cinderella" produced by the Royal Ballet in London struck her to her core.

"The ballet was just so beautiful. The costumes were so beautiful. There was a dark sarcasm to it, but ultimately it's a comedy. People were laughing. I was laughing. I was crying. The visuals were really spellbinding," Laufey says. 

This particular showing of the ballet by Sergei Prokofiev leaned into the dissonance of both the music and the story, which aligned with Laufey’s intention of sharing internal conflict on A Matter Of Time.

"This anxiety of running away, of the ticking of the clock, spoke to me and spoke to my personal feelings about falling in love. It felt like the perfect place to work from. I think about that production all the time," Laufey says. "The music of Prokofiev is a little lopsided. It can be the most beautiful music you've ever heard, but it's laden with dissonance and chromatics, and it's very odd. It can be shocking sometimes, and that was something I cared so much about."

Laufey integrated shock value into her lyrics, relying on her literal style. For example, "Silver Lining" sees Laufey sing: "When you go to hell, I'll go there with you too/And when we're punished for being so cruel/The silver lining’s I'll be there with you" 

Earlier in that song, she also mentions "sniffing cinnamon." She freely admits that she doesn’t know what that means. "It's just a metaphor for doing stupid s— that you don't really understand in the moment. But you just do it because you're so foolish in love."

"An American In Paris"

Another musical that’s been a constant source of creative inspiration for Laufey is

George and Ira Gershwin’s "An American in Paris." She loved the 1951 film, she saw the Broadway production in 2014, and it includes her favorite jazz standards in history. She’s also "obsessed" with the visuals.

"It's very dreamy. It's very magical. I love it. The setting is just beautiful. It's eye candy, but the dancing is so great and the music is amazing. The concerto is Gershwin's best writing. It truly blends jazz music and classical music together to ultimately create what is a musical theater masterpiece," Laufey says.

While "Cinderella" activated her more exploratory and alternative writing on A Matter Of Time, "An American in Paris" emphasized her core artistic profile. "'Cinderella' is more distorted. It's a weirder production. Whereas 'An American in Paris' is a little more straight."

As classic as it may be, Laufey sees a correlation between songs within "An American in Paris" and her young audience. "‘They're writing songs of love, but not for me.’ That's like the most wistful lyric writing that you would have heard back then," Laufey says. "It's very direct. It's very Gen Z."