Laufey on Her Concert Movie, ‘A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl’

In reviewing Laufey‘s August concert with the LA Philharmonic, Variety wrote, “Laufey feels like she was born to play the Hollywood Bowl, with her rapturously received pop/jazz/classical set.” Something else she might have been born for: the big screen. She’s on Imax screens across America this weekend (and some slightly less massive-scale ones as well) with “Laufey’s A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl.” And director Sam Wrench‘s extended use of closeups establishes that she’s as expressive an actress, in her fashion, as she is a singer, guitarist, pianist and cellist.

It’s a good weekend for Wrench, who also directed the Sabrina Carpenter holiday special that is premiering on Netflix the same day as the Laufey concert film is bowing in theaters… and a good past year for him, actually, since he also did Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” film. But Laufey herself is having quite the year, having won her first Grammy, for best traditional pop vocal album for “Bewitched,” not to mention a sold-out tour that found her playing Lollapalooza with a symphony orchestra as well as being the belle of the Bowl.

Coincidental to the release of the film, Variety is also honoring Laufey this weekend as the Crossover Artist of the Year at our Hitmakers event, celebrating her mixture of jazz and pop leanings and classifications. (See our separate interview with Laufey about her overall career here: “Laufey on Bridging the Gap Between Traditional Jazz Singing and Gen-Z Pop: Young Fans ‘Connect More With a Vibe or an Energy Than a Genre’.”) But we talked more specifically about the Bowl concert and the resulting film with both her and Wrench.

How did it become clear this was the right time to do a concert film, at an earlier point than almost anybody in music gets that?

Laufey: It was one of those things that of course I always wanted to do, but I felt like I had to achieve a certain level to be able to do a concert film, and I definitely didn’t think I’d get there so soon. It was really surreal, and I’m so honored to get to do it so early on in my career as well, and with such fantastic creatives.

Was there anything in Sam’s history that made you feel he’d be a great fit for this? Like, perhaps, the most obvious thing.

Laufey: I’m quite a Swifty, so when his name was brought to the table, I was like, what? But he had such a potent vision for this. And obviously him having done, in my opinion, the best kinds of concert films in the past few years, I really just needed someone that I trusted like that. He has brought this concert film thing to a new level of popularity, which has really paved the way for me to be able to do it myself. So it was cool to get to do it with him.

Wrench: When Kyle (Heller, the co-founder of Veeps) first called, he said that it was her first show at the Hollywood Bowl. And in the context of concert films, a first is not usually the thing — it’s more likely to be the end of the arena tour or towards the end of the stadium run. The idea of it being not just the first, but something that was only happening to be shot one night, was kind of interesting.

How did you decide how much documentary footage to include or not include, versus just going straight concert-film? There’s not a lot, but it’s well-paced and doesn’t break the spell.

Wrench: I knew her music but I didn’t know loads about how she’d been doing a few shows with a band set first and then the orchestra afterwards. How those shows were structured was really interesting, because I think it suits cinema really well and gives us the opportunity to have a little break, and to have a documentary moment during the show’s intermission, without it needing to be back and forth. I’ve always really struggled with concert films and how, if you start the documentary, then you have to keep coming back in and out of it, and it kind of disrupts the concert. This had this natural break.

Laufey: Part of the intention of having lots of cameras backstage too, and doing a day of filming outside of that to get some interviews, was that I wanted to give fans both a concert that that is harder to bring to people — a concert with a symphony orchestra — to the wider masses, and especially to cities that I haven’t been able to play in yet, but also to give people a view of what it looks like backstage. There’s an interview with my parents and my sister and a look into what the energy is like backstage, and a bit of rehearsal footage as well. So for those who have been able to go to a concert, I wanted them to see a bit of that as well, and how the sausage is made, which is a very unromantic way of saying it.

The trailer included the part where the audience chants “blah, blah, blah” very loudly when that little lyric comes up during “From the Start.”

Laufey: It’s become a very signature part of the concert, and something that people look forward to, waiting all night to be able to scream out that one bit. So it was cute.

I was in attendance at the Hollywood Bowl show that was filmed, and I was just thinking back to that night. I’ve seen you in maybe four different settings now. And I’ve seen it with an audience that’s extremely noisy and vocal in their response, and I’ve seen it with an audience that’s just rapt and silent. And then…

Laufey: This felt like the in-between, don’t you agree? And it was interesting, because you had those LA Phil and Hollywood Bowl subscribers sitting in the front who were hopefully getting introduced to my music and hopefully enjoying it. But the seats in the back — the cheaper seats, if you will — were filled with more of the kind of like very fervent fan base. So it was really a fun mix. I really do feel like I can serve both audiences, and I’ve often felt split between what I can do and who I am here to serve. And I felt like, that night, I really was able to serve both of those audiences that I relate to.

When I first saw you in concert at the Ford last year, which was also with the LA Phil, I expected it to be an older audience, just because of the nature of the music, and it was a shock for me then to realize how young most of your crowd is. But then, seeing how instantly your shows sell out, it occurred to me: Maybe you do have that older demographic, to some extent, but none of the older people get the tickets because they’re slower on the draw than your younger fans who know how to be poised and ready for the moment they go on sale.

Laufey: I think I’m even too old to be up against teenagers in a fight for tickets like that. Like, I don’t even know how they do that.

So there is an audience for this film that loves you, or at least likes you, but would just never have a shot at the live show without being super-dedicated about the on-sale or willing to pay secondary market.

Wrench: There was clearly a bigger audience for it that hadn’t been able to get tickets. When I first spoke to her team, I learned about how her merch sales are through the roof in comparison to almost any other artist. And so I think there was this real understanding that there was a demand for people to want to go and engage more in the Laufey story. Live music in cinemas continues to still be a really interesting thing — it gets cracked, it gets uncracked, it works, and it’s really about finding a community that will support it. Laufey fans are so supportive, and theres such a commitment that they’re use it to introduce htheir friends and family and partners to live it and enjoy the experience.

And so I think with that in mind, again, it was a unique proposition because it wasn’t this arena tour that had been out for 60 days. And hopefully when we start to identify shows that could be captured for cinema, we’ll be looking at more unique propositions like this. I give a massive thanks to Trafalgar and Veeps for supporting it and saying, hey, we really think there’s something here, we should take it — because these are not cheap endeavors to do. There’s always a risk. And the initial response has been so great.

Laufey: I’ve been touring all year, and it feels like I played a million concerts, but it feels like I could play a million more. There’s so many cities that I haven’t been able to play in and so many people that I haven’t been able to reach. Even if you’re in the right city, concert tickets can be expensive, and getting there is tough. And some of these kids are young — they have homework! I think this is a fun way to be able to experience the concert in a more accessible way and still hopefully be able to be among other fans and kind of breathe in the air of the community.

But I think the most important part, for me, was that this is a concert with a symphony orchestra. And that is a world that I was so privileged to grow up within. My mother’s a violinist. I grew up basically within the walls of the Iceland Symphony, and it has informed every single part of who I am, and it is the reason I’m a musician. To be able to bring it back to where all my musical influences come from, and to that sound, is something that is extra-hard to bring to audiences.

Like, out of all the concerts I’ve played this year, I think only maybe five of them have been with an orchestra. Most have been with just the band, which is so fun as well, but it’s getting rarer to see young people at the symphony, and harder and harder to access it and to be able to bring it to young audiences and to my audiences in this very accessible way. This colorful world of the orchestra was really important to me, just as a musician, just completely outside of myself. I think it’s hopefully inspiring for other young musicians to see.

A lot of younger musicians, when they get to play the Hollywood Bowl for the first time, they will talk about remembering the first rock show they saw there, or something. You mention this in the commentary that is included in the film, but your first Bowl concert was a Mozart concert. But at the same time, you talk about how the back sections are cool — that it’s a party in the back. So I was just imagining young Laufey, up in the nosebleeds, partying to Mozart up there.

I’m always partying to Mozart.

Can you talk, Sam, about the style of the shoot? I know from watching the live Imax concert you did with Brandi Carlile that you like long takes in some instances, because you used one shot for each song in that show. You also have a lot of long takes in Laufey’s film. It’s not pumping up the energy with unnecessary cuts; it feels as relaxed as it should.

Wrench: We never struggled during the shoot to find that level of intimacy and that authenticity. And when we got to the edit, it was the same. It was just very clearly there from the night, and I think the energy of the night comes across because it was just one night. It wasn’t like we had to put all these nights together to try to make something awesome. .I don’t think the job of a concert filmmaker is there to try and portray something that didn’t happen or to give it an energy that isn’t there. When the music is the king, the music is the thing you follow and you let that kind of dictate everything. But honestly, my job was fairly easy. It’s such a great concert. Everyone enjoyed it. We pointed some cameras, and here we are.

Just trust the music — don’t try and overcome it. No one wants a filmmaker’s hand on this. … To me, the music felt super floaty. It felt like it had scale, but it also had intimacy, And the orchestra were these like little moments, these little plucks…  It’s obviously the sound that comes from them as a whole, but the little details of the harp or the flute always felt really fun to me. And so it was just like, let’s have everything kind of moving and floaty and lovely, and then let’s go in for these little moments as details, but come back to Laufey and the intimacy and how she kind of floats across the stage, almost.

Do either of you have a favorite song in the film, either because of the performance, or the way it worked cinematically?

Wrench: It’s definitely Junia’s moment [when Laufey is joined by her twin sister, a violin player, for a light-hearted duo number]. That moment just fels like two sisters that are having this experience and, as unique as the concert is, that is really unique. And you have the scale of the drone shot, and then you just have the two of them walking around on stage… I’ve never seen that before.

Laufey: It’s so hard to find a favorite moment because the whole thing feels like one moment in my head. I think “Letter to My 13-Year-Old Self” felt very emotional in that moment, because I cried a little bit. I’m not gonna lie. I don’t cry when I sing because I’m just so focused, but seeing myself like that, I got a little bit emotional during “Letter to My 13-Year-Old Self” just because I was just imagining that younger version of myself and how I would have loved to know that I’d get to do something like this.

And then I really love the kind of swingy orchestra moments as well, where I kind of just dance, and I really cannot help myself. There’s no choreographer; it’s just me and my weird dance moves, with me in a dress. I couldn’t hide any of myself during this concert or change anything for this. Once I’m on stage, I’m just exactly who I am always on stage. Like, there’s no way to control it, even if there’s a funny look  or weird smile, or some word that I say. I step onto the stage and I just become this stage version of myself that I have no control of.

I even found myself being on edge during some of those orchestra moments because, you know, we’re not playing to click. There’s nothing really rehearsed about it. Like, I’ve never played for that many people before. I think the previous size that I had played for before that was maybe like Radio City Music Hall, like 5,000 people at once. So to all of a sudden go to 17,000, you really got my natural reaction to that during the whole concert, whether it was a little nerves in the beginning to sheer excitement and joy in the later parts. You really preserved that forever, Sam, so thank you for that.

Wrench: You always hope those moments will translate, and those looks, and sometimes there’s too much going on to see them. Some artists and music just don’t suit those kind of longer, extreme close-ups, but this music definitely does… along with the way that the Bowl and the structure of the stage really lends itself to being able to be quite tight without there being cameras really close. And so I think we were able to really see those moments and hold them a bit longer — see the little blinks and your kind of eyes moving across the audience. And the pace of the edit allows you to actually live in those moments.

Finally, Laufey, we’ve talked about how you want to do film music and songs, but seeing yourself on on the big screen, do you feel comfortable enough with that that it gives you more confidence about maybe going after acting and things like that?

Laufey: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I definitely don’t feel uncomfortable in front of a camera, and I think I really discovered it that night. I was kind of wondering if it would faze me, but the camera kind of just blends into the audience almost.

I think it could be really exciting. I’m definitely a little more focused on music right now and having a lot of fun bringing those stories to life, because I kind of see every single one of my songs as a little movie. That’s why they’re very descriptive and quite literal, because I want listeners to be able to close their eyes and immediately understand and know where they are. And as for writing music for film, that’s something I’ve always dreamt of. And and my love for music really does come from watching old films growing up, and hearing all these old film scores, these old Hollywood strings. Shout out to Spencer (Stewart, her writing and producing collaborator) You really hear a lot of that influence in the music, and in the songwriting as well. So it’s something I definitely want to to work on in the future.