Iceland is known for giving the
world such amazing artists like Bjork, Sigur Ros, Of Monsters & Men, how do
you feel you will help continue the tradition of fantastic Icelandic artists?
I feel very honoured to be following in the footsteps of the
bands you mentioned above. To be
given the opportunity to travel internationally with music is such an amazing
experience!
Because your country has given the
world so many great musicians, do you feel there any pressure on you?
Sometimes I do, but I try to not think on it for too
long. I just hope they are proud
of what we are doing. It's great
to be able to represent my home country going around the world.
Being someone with such a unique
sound, how would you describe yourself to someone who has never heard of you
before?
Atmospheric melodic folk with electronic vibes.
Who are some of your influences?
Elliot Smith, Damien Rice, Thom Yorke, The Tallest Man On
Earth, Bon Iver, Sigur Ros, James Blake, Mount Kimbie, Meshuggah, Jeff Buckley,
Francisco Tarrega, Kelly Joe Phelps.
What is it like coming up in the
music scene in Iceland and trying to gain attention?
I never really had to try to gain attention in Iceland. It
was really simple in my case, we just recorded a couple of songs and put them
out to the few radio stations that we have, and people picked it up from there.
I wasn't really looking for the attention I was getting, I never felt ready for
it. But, I decided to go with it to see where it would take me.
You have released music via Bjork’s
One Little Indian label, what was it like getting a call from her people to be
a part of her label?
That was a great feeling when we got the call. It was the
first label at the time that showed some real interest in the album and they
seemed eager to work with us. After getting to know how the label works and the
people that work there it was no question of whether we should sign with them
or not. Their long-standing experience of working with Icelandic artists was
definitely impressive as well.
You had translated many of your
songs from Icelandic to English, did you know English prior to doing this or
did you have to learn the language?
I knew English before, most Icelandic people know English
pretty well, and for most it’s their second language. Kids start learning
English when they are about 9 years old, so I was at least a little bit prepared
before making the album.
You linked up with John Grant of The
Czars to help translate your material, how did that relationship come about?
My brother introduced me to John in the autumn of 2012 when
we were starting to think about ways to get this album outside of Iceland. John
had been living in Reykjavik for one year then, so he had been making
appearances here and there through the year, collaborating with Icelandic
artists, singing songs in Icelandic, making an album with Biggi Veira… so people
knew about him. I liked his music a lot and felt that this would make a perfect
opportunity to work with him and get to know him. We had a few ideas about how
we could bring the album outside of Iceland, one of the ideas was just to
release it in Icelandic, another idea was to make new English lyrics for each
song and the third idea was to translate these Icelandic lyrics into English. I
met up with John Grant and we talked about these ideas and in the end after
going through the Icelandic lyrics with him, we felt that the most suitable
thing would be to translate the Icelandic lyrics and keep the same meaning and
feeling.
What was it like crafting your
debut?
It was a fun period in my life. It was so different from
anything I had done before. I had never been in a recording studio before so
just that was very exciting for me. I worked closely with Kiddi, who was the
producer on the album, and we also got some great musicians to work with us on
the album, who really put their mark on the album.
It took us about 3 months to get the album together and just
a few weeks later it was released in Iceland.
You are a very big deal in your native country, winning
many awards, selling out shows in large places, your songs are all over the
place there. What is it like coming to America and being an virtual unknown and
having to start over again?
It’s been a long time since we played show’s in Iceland. We
have been touring Europe for about one and a half years now, so we’re kind of
used to beginning somewhere new and pretty much start from scratch. Our June
tour was our first proper tour in the US, so we are not playing big venues here
yet, but I like playing smaller venues as well, it becomes more intimate and
you get a chance to talk to the fans after shows more than you can do after big
shows.
People often seem to be more enthusiastic about it here than
in Iceland. The crowd is most of the time great, everybody is respectful whilst
the band is playing and they seem to be there just to listen to the music. I
feel like over all we have had a really warm welcoming over here.
