Miss Li will have you Dancing the Whole Way Home

You may not know the Swedish singer by name, but Apple ensures you know her music

By Kelley Hecker
Published: July 1st, 2010 | 10:00pm

“My mom and dad used to go to church on Sundays … [which is] where I was first encouraged to sing into a microphone,” says Miss Li, a.k.a. Swedish pop chanteuse Linda Carlsson, in an e-mail conversation after a three-week tour of France, Germany, and Denmark. “I loved it!” She fell even more in love with performing as a teen, forming new bands “every other month” and continually penning songs.

The 28-year-oldhas yet to put the mic or pen down, having released five records in the span of three years—the most recent of which was finally made available in North America via iTunes this summer. That album, called Dancing the Whole Way Home (National), charted at number eight on the Swedish album charts and though North Americans might not yet be familiar with the name Miss Li, most have likely heard some of her tunes.

The chiming romper “Bourgeois Shangri-La” was featured in a ubiquitous iPod Nano ad; the campy ABC dramedy Desperate Housewives used the punchy string-and-sax-laden “True Love Stalker” in a promo; and Volvo snagged “Oh Boy,” a quirky piano ditty from Miss Li's 2007 compilation, Best of 061122-071122 (although it first appeared on her debut, 2006’s Late Night Heartbroken Blues).

“When I started writing under the name Miss Li, I had just moved to Stockholm and so many good things happened in my life,” she says. Inspired, Carlsson bought a piano without knowing how to play and began to write. “First it was ten songs, then 20, 30,” she says. “Everything happened so fast, and soon I had a record deal and a huge tour. I guess I was just so inspired I couldn’t find the stop button.”

Miss Li grew up listening to gospel and soul singers like Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin, followed by a period as a teen she’s not keen on discussing—don’t we all?—and cites artists including the Kinks, Van Dyke Parks, Bill Monroe, and Taraf de Haidouk as influences. That variety may be why it’s so difficult to easily describe her music. The 11 tracks that make up Dancing the Whole Way Home range from the aforementioned chiming rompers to punchy instrumentals and jazzy vocals, bells, strings, horns, and woodwinds (oh my!) heavily sprinkled in while never becoming overpowering. Best of all is Li’s voice, so adorable and exuberant you can easily see the grin she must have been wearing as she recorded in the studio.

Her first record, Late Night Heartbroken Blues, was recorded spontaneously, a melting pot of jazz, punk, and pop. Later, Carlsson began collaborating with Sonny Boy Gustafsson, which resulted in her third album, Songs of a Rag Doll, that was inspired by Gypsy music. Miss Li's latest, though, is where she seems to have found her voice. Even she admits, “[It’s] actually the only album that I really like! I guess it’s just pop, [but] with a groovy touch,” she says, attributing all the credit to Gustafsson.

“In the beginning I didn’t really know how to play the piano [or] write songs. I just did, without any thought of what was right and wrong. I didn’t know how to build a song in the ‘right way’,” Li says of the impulsiveness and rough production on her earlier albums. That period was an excellent learning experience, though, and something she’s grateful for. “Nowadays, when I write with Sonny, I have the possibility to develop as a songwriter. He can tell me if I repeat myself and do the same thing over and over again. [He] has put a groovy sound to the songs and has made the arrangements bigger, with strings and choirs,” she adds.

After years of exhaustive touring and recording, Li’s taking a breather at the moment, returning to “normal” life, with laundry and doctor appointments. “My body is not feeling that good after three years of constant touring and partying,” she admits. Rest may just be what the doctor ordered, especially if it leads to another sashay after Dancing the Whole Way Home.