Sat. May 4th, 2024


From The Start

Laufey is a singer and songwriter originally from Iceland. She studied piano and cello as a kid. When she was 15, she was a guest soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and that’s when she started writing songs. While she was still a student, she had a number one hit on Icelandic radio. Her first album debuted at number one on Billboard’s Alternative New Artist chart. Her second album, Bewitched, came out in September 2023. And for this episode, I talked to Laufey about the breakout hit from that new album: a song called “From The Start.”  

You can buy or stream “From The Start” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Bossa nova
Spencer Stewart – Producer
Pentatonic scale
Jazz standard
George Gershwin
Irving Berlin
Cole Porter



By Dave Jenks

Dave Jenks is an American novelist and Veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Between those careers, he’s worked as a deckhand, commercial fisherman, divemaster, taxi driver, construction manager, and over the road truck driver, among many other things. He now lives on a sea island, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, with his wife and youngest daughter. They also have three grown children, five grand children, three dogs and a whole flock of parakeets. Stinnett grew up in Melbourne, Florida and has also lived in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico. His next dream is to one day visit and dive Cuba.