Summary
Overview
Levy and her identical twin sister Junia join the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about growing up between Iceland and China, the intense discipline of classical music training, finding her unique sound at Berklee College of Music, and navigating sudden fame. They discuss twin dynamics, the loneliness and freedom of musical dedication, her viral pandemic success, and the complexities of being a Waysian (half-White, half-Asian) artist in today's music industry.
Growing Up as Twins Between Two Worlds
Levy and Junia share their unique upbringing with an Icelandic father who worked for the IMF and a Chinese mother who was a concert violinist in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. They discuss the experience of being identical twins in Iceland's homogenous society, pranks that fell flat because people felt awkward about mixing them up, and the challenges of feeling different while also feeling fortunate to always have each other.
- Their mom moved from China to Iceland to join the Iceland Symphony Orchestra as a violinist
- They played a prank on April Fool's Day, swapping classes, but no one noticed and people felt embarrassed rather than amused
- Growing up, they were often just called 'the twins' rather than by their individual names
- Levy doesn't know her dad's height because she exists between measurement systems (meters and feet)
" We were referred to as the twins. We didn't have our own names. There was like this two year period where the teacher would be like, oh, and twins. And we would scream back, it's Le'Veon Junior. "
" I'm a person without measurements. Numbers don't matter. It's about feeling. "
The Immigrant Mother's Resilience and Entrepreneurial Spirit
Levy reflects deeply on her mother's journey from China to Iceland without modern technology or support systems. She admires how her mother never viewed being different as a drawback, instead moving forward with entrepreneurial energy and making beauty out of everything. This contrasts with Levy's own experience of feeling insecure about being different in Iceland's homogenous society.
- Mom left China for Iceland without dwelling on being the only Asian person there, just took the opportunity that opened
- Levy does more lamenting about being different than her mother ever did
- When you choose something versus having it chosen for you changes your entire relationship to hardship
- In Iceland, people quickly switch to English if you have any accent, whereas in China they embrace foreigners trying to speak the language
" What I really admire about my mom is she never saw being Chinese or being Asian in Iceland as some sort of drawback. She didn't sit around lamenting that she was different than everybody else. I think I do a whole lot more of that than my mother. "
" When you get a position in an orchestra, you just go. Whether that's in Iceland or Antarctica or Singapore, you go where a door opens. And I think that there's kind of a beauty to that. "
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