Laufey on making jazz cool again (and the fish that brought out her inner rage)

Laufey on making jazz cool again (and the fish that brought out her inner rage)Just nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleMark SavageMusic CorrespondentLaufey/Vingolf/AwalLaufey's modern spin on jazz has twice earned her the Grammy Award for best traditional pop albumIt's probably fair to say that most of us have never slapped someone so hard with a wet fish that they fall, fully clothed, into a swimming pool.Until recently, that was also true for Icelandic jazz-pop phenomenon Laufey. Then she released a song called Mad Woman, whose video required her to hit Heated Rivalry actor Hudson Williams square in the face with a red snapper."Oh my God, it was amazing. It was cathartic," she laughs at the memory. "I had a lot of unreleased energy that I released on poor Hudson."The shoot took place in Los Angeles, with a chic 1960s aesthetic, a superstar cast (including Olympic medallist Alyssa Liu and Katseye singer Megan Skiendiel), and a storyline about Laufey's irrational relationship with a man who's no good for her.To her delight, the fish scene required several takes, full of improvised insults."I'm not a very angry person but it felt good to scream and shout," she says. "I dug into my deepest memories of when I've been the most wronged by men and I accessed a part of myself I didn't know I had in me."It felt very primal."For anyone familiar with the music of Laufey (pronounced lay-vay) Jónsdóttir, primal is the last word you'd associate with her.Laufey/Vingolf/AwalThe red snapper (a prop, not a real fish) prompted much hilarity on set with Heated Rivalry's Hudson WilliamsSince 2022, she's cast a spell on the charts with swoonsome love songs that mix classic jazz vocals and luscious orchestrations with witty, confessional lyrics.It's a style she dreamt up while studying at Boston's Berklee College of Music, built on her upbringing in Reykjavik, where she learned pia...