Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.08.2007, Qupperneq 20

_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE 13_007_INTERVIEW/MUSIC
The Icelandic musician Einar Tönsberg, better
known as Eberg, has released ‘musical acci-
dents’ for 5 years. His smooth electronic beats,
delightful melodies and strangely eloquent
lyrics can be heard on two album releases and
various TV shows around the world. He has
been described as one of the most original
laptop troubadours around. Recent play on
American television has definitely boosted
Eberg’s fan-base and with his current work
ethic and endless imagination, we can expect
a lot more wonderful quirks to come. A Grape-
vine journalist sat down with the producer/
musician recently to chat about what’s been
happening, and what’s to come.
A lot of your music tends to be a little
quirky. What inspires you to make mu-
sic?
I guess I try to make music that I like listening
to myself. For my attention to be held, I need
to be surprised or for something stupid to
happen. I mean I love that, when something
you don’t expect happens, but still within a
kind of normal structure.
Does that make it difficult? To surprise
yourself?
It’s impossible to surprise yourself as a musi-
cian. It’s just not possible. If you study the
piano then you put down a chord you know
exactly what possibilities you have to do next
because you’ve done it before. And the guitar
is the same, you know so many songs on the
guitar, you almost know what kind of song you
are writing before you do it. So the way I’ve
been writing things is without listening. I get
something into the computer and just press
loads of buttons and hope that something
good will happen and if nothing good hap-
pens then I throw it away and press loads of
other buttons until something surprises me,
something I couldn’t think of. Then I get them
together and when I’m happy I try to sort of
‘tame’ them… What do you call it?
Order?
Yeah, make order out of the disorder. So in
that way, you kind of start at the wrong end.
Because if you have a song on guitar and you
like it, then you’re scared of, you know… All
the arrangements are just going around it, to
make it as strong as possible and that’s what
almost everyone in the world is doing. So it’s
much more fun to do it impulsively, I really
enjoy that. When I was doing the first album
I was in a band and we were signed and we
had a massive budget and it was driving me
mad. I remember I just wanted to do something
that was totally different to what I was doing
at the time and so I started doing this Eberg
thing and I just made some stupid rules and
followed them, like the one I was telling you
about [pressing loads of buttons].
You are working on your third album now.
Is that going to be similar to your previous
work? Starting with the chaos?
I’ve started writing songs the normal way again
and spending lots of time making the same
mistakes that I made in the old days, therefore
I’m kind of trying to… I’m just going to start
over again and do it the opposite way. I’ve got
a few tracks that are ready and all the good
ones have been a mistake or happened by
chance or what do you call it... ?
Accidental.
Accidental yeah exactly. They happened to be
the good ones.
Could you call yourself the ‘Accidental
Musician’?
Yeah absolutely.
You’ve had some success in the states,
a track on the O.C. and Veronica Mars
and the theme song for the new iphone.
How did you feel when you were getting
the calls to put your songs on American
television?
It was one of those ‘nice telephone calls’. But
I’m always a bit pissed when I get calls from
America because they tend to call on Friday
morning then its Friday night in Reykjavík so
I’m always very ‘extra happy’ when I hear from
them. But it’s good, it’s been really pleasant
and I’ll hopefully get more of them.
Are there any particular lyrics stuck inside
your head at the moment?
Yeah. I went on this trip to the West Fjords
with a bunch of people, no electricity, no noth-
ing, I feel a bit proud about it. It was really
good and I promised myself to write a lyric
there. So I made everyone tell me what they
do online what sites they visit and what they
do you know whatever. The more people got
drunk the more detail came out. So this one is
called ‘Caught in the Net’ and it’s about how
people seem to have a different life within in
this stupid world.
Do you find producing other people’s mu-
sic as rewarding as making your own?
It’s great. You’re making an album, and it’s a
funny thing to do, it’s difficult and rewarding,
anyway you finish it. When you’re an artist and
you finish an album it’s just a beginning. But
when you’re a producer it’s finished. You don’t
have to do anything more with it. It’s done,
you put your name on it and you remember
it in a fun way, there’s no hassle, you don’t
have to go out and sell it or worry if it gets
any radio play or if you lose any money or
make money. It’s kind of a dream job for me
to do that. It’s good. And you learn a lot from
working with other people. You get ideas.
Everyone is teaching you something and no
one is doing something in exactly the same
way. Which is good.
And when you’re on your own?
I dunno, I’m never really happy when I record
my own stuff. I’m happy afterwards but I’m
never happy while I’m doing it. You’re pressing
record and you’re running around the room
and you trip on a cable and you did a great
take and you realise you didn’t record it and
there’s loads of frustration really. I sometimes
wish I just had an engineer. I guess I’m just
enjoying working with people for a little while
before I tackle my own album. It’s definitely
not my own album that is the most enjoyable
thing in the world. I don’t know why. They are
afterwards, but not during.
The Accidental Musician
Text by Nick Candy Photo by Leó Stefánsson
“But I’m always a bit
pissed when I get calls
from America because
they tend to call on Fri-
day morning then its Fri-
day night in Reykjavík
so I’m always very ‘extra
happy’ when I hear from
them.”
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