Laufey on New Children's Book, Coachella and ‘Madwoman’ Video

The two-time Grammy winner has been blazing trails in the music industry and is now out with a new kind of project. Yeah it's a children's book. It's titled Mae Mae the Bunny and she joins us this morning along with a little audience might we add. Hi everyone good morning. Good morning. Good morning. We have so much to chat with you about because you are a booked and busy girl. First of all we just showed you at Coachella but also you were just at the Devil Wears Prada premiere Devil Wears Prada 2 because you have a song on that soundtrack. I do yeah. I feel like this movie has been like so nostalgic for everybody. It meant so much to see a sequel. What about for you to get to be part of the project? Oh my god I mean I grew up loving the movie and to get to be a part of it was so amazing. There's so many incredible musicians attached to the project as well so it feels like a true celebration of fashion and music and film all of which I love. And the premiere just looked absolutely fabulous. I definitely had stars in my eyes. We're gonna explain why the kids are here in just a second. We're gonna do some reading here. But going back to Coachella for a second there we just showed you there at the music festival. What was it like taking your your music to the desert? It was both exciting and a little bit daunting. I think I was walking around and seeing all these amazing musicians. As a music fan it's so fun to go because the best part of going to Coachella when you play is you get you get a free ticket. So I went to see everybody all the headliners and a ton of my friends and I when it got to my my time to be on stage I was like oh no am I gonna bore everybody with my music. But then it ended up being so fun and magical and I really I was so excited to bring a new kind of genre into the desert and I think that's what Coachella does so well. This mix of different genres and seeing people run from like a rap set to a k-pop set to a pop set it was just felt like a true celebration of music. So among everything else you're doing you put out this music video for Mad Weds. Everybody is buzzing about it because it has none other than Hudson Williams. Among other people look at him I mean come on everybody's obsessed with this. How did this come together? I've been calling it a scheduling miracle which it really is because everyone here is very booked and very busy. I just had this silly idea to have a music video with all these girls that kind of look like me because we sometimes get mixed up for each other and so I thought and also growing up I didn't really have much representation on the screen of people who look like me so I thought it would be fun to just do this you know ultra obvious representation of me and then of course we had to have a madman a leading man and who is cooler right now than Hudson Williams. So I slid into his DMs and was like would you? That's how you ask? You ask him directly. Yeah well I kind of like double I had my manager reach out too in a professional way. Mine was more like hi do you want to be in a music video and get slapped by a fish? Oh yeah because that happens. Okay love it you're here for your children's book. Yes yeah. What inspired you to write a children's book? Well I grew up around music education and music educators and my classical music education is something that has made such a difference in who I am both as a person but also as a musician so I always had this dream of kind of of writing a story of a little bunny that plays music. Oh yeah so beautifully illustrated. We've got a captive audience here would you would you mind maybe just reading just a little bit so we could justify keeping them out of school? You guys want to hear a little of her book? Yes okay um first movement a bunny and a dream may may is a little bunny with a big dream she lives in a cozy home with her mama and papa and her pet bee beethoven mama hums papa whistles and beethoven buzzes every day a symphony sings may may plays along with her violin her tiny paws play minor and major scales practicing toward perfection because tomorrow is her first recital with an orchestra and her dream is to share her music with the world wow well what do you guys think maybe on a cliffhanger you have to find out what happens next right you have to get the book right no free books here no free books book is gorgeous no we'll get you some free books so this would not be the today show if we didn't feed you and we heard you have a birthday coming tomorrow let's bring out a little cake happy birthday thank you this is the best celebration kids and thank you for stopping by and happy birthday may may the bunny is out now kids are like can we get cake too yeah cake and books you guys were so well baked yeah y'all are so well done hey thanks for watching and don't forget you can catch the today show every morning on nbc or take today when you're on the go just follow the today podcast on apple podcast spotify or wherever you listen