Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.10.2007, Qupperneq 9

Following the release of their fourth album last
spring, rock outfit Mínus came close to breaking
up as the band chemistry turned sour. After much
speculation about the band’s future, Camp Mínus
announced that two members, bass player Þröstur
and guitarist Frosti, would not continue with the
band, but the remaining three members would con-
tinue to work together under the Mínus name and
recruited a new bass player to fill out their line-up.
I had a sit down with guitarist Bjarni and singer
Krummi to find out what was going on and where
the band was heading.
“People were just growing in different directions,
as often happens with bands that have been going
at it this long,” says Krummi when we get to the
subject of the departed band members. “There
was little creative spark when we rehearsed and
it was difficult for us to go into our practice space
and play together like we used to do. The most
logical step was to split the band really. We had
to create a fresher atmosphere to be able to write
together and have everybody on the same page
in rehearsals. This was the only way to go really,
other than just break up the band.”
This summer, rumours suggested that this
was exactly what would happen: the band was
about to fold, due to irrevocable differences be-
tween members. According to Bjarni, the rumours
where not far off-base: “That was pretty much
how we felt at the time. This was the only solution
for us to keep on going. This was a step that we
needed to take in order for us to evolve. Just so we
could get that feeling back that we wanted to hang
out together and create music together. That had
been missing for four years”
When the news finally broke, that two
members of the band would head off in a differ-
ent direction, everyone involved approached
the subject with great diplomacy. The move was
explained by citing “creative differences” and a
tight lid was kept on what had gone down behind
the scenes. “No one will ever hear the full story
of what happened,” says Krummi, hinting that the
split might not have been as peaceful as originally
suggested. “Obviously, there was some resentment
at first, that is natural. But heals such wounds. This
was all done in a brotherly manner,” he continues,
while Bjarni adds. “We decided to treat each other
with respect, instead of fighting.”
So, was this a mutual decision?
“You could say that,” says Krummi.
“Eventually,” adds Bjarni.
“Eventually it was a mutual decision, and
everyone walked away content, so everything is
OK, and we are not enemies or anything like that,”
says Krummi. “Bjarni, [drummer] Bjössi and my-
self, we want to work as professional musicians,
Þröstur and Frosti did that for awhile as well, but
everyone had started to go off in a different direc-
tion, both in musical tastes and musical creation.
This was the most logical conclusion.”
Artistic Differences
When pushed on the subject of their differences,
Krummi maintains that it was never about any one
person. Rehearsals were difficult, and no one put
in the extra effort to try to come up with new riffs
or new ideas. Bjarni adds: “Towards the end, eve-
rything we did just smelled of cock. That was not
exactly a situation we wanted to be in.”
As it turns out though, some band members
had less of a disagreement than the others. “Bjarni
and I, we listen to the same kind of music,” Krum-
mi states. “We are both fans of old ’60 and ’70s mu-
sic, prog rock, blues, jazz and Southern rock, and
Bjössi as well. We work very easily together, and
pick up things from one another, how we want
things to sound, while Frosti is more into new mu-
sic and finding new bands, instead of listening to
retro music. There were never any real differenc-
es; there were just different tastes. I could relate to
Bjarni and Bjössi when I was speaking about mu-
sic, while could not do that as well with the others.
Even if we managed to write great songs for the
last album and worked together, that was the last
goodbye, working together on that record.”
Apparently, this subject is still approached
with diplomacy and care. It doesn’t take much to
notice that the band’s chemistry was not good.
But it is not exactly difficult to read between the
lines either, and conclude that there are still unre-
solved issues.
New Member
The three reaming members approached Future
Future’s singer Sigurður Oddson to join the band
as a bass player. They sound genuinely pleased
with their new member, and when talk turns to
him, they smile and look almost fatherly. Here is
a full transcript:
Grapevine: How did you end up hiring Siggi?
Krummi: “We have known Siggi since he was a
teenager.”
Bjarni: “Siggi came to the first show we ever
played in Laugardalshöll.”
Krummi: “He was 13 or 14 years old.”
Bjarni: “Asking for autographs.”
Krummi: “In a broken voice, if his voice was even
broke at the time?”
Bjarni: “No, no.”
Krummi: “He had just moved home from Canada,
where he lived for a few years.”
Bjarni: “And spoke with an American accent.”
Krummi: “He came to all our shows. He even put
up a website for us. He is very clever, you could
see that at once. He thought a lot about music and
made the T-shirt for us and he was our first real
fan in Iceland. Then he just sort of grew up with
us from that time.”
Bjarni: “He has played in many bands that have
played with us.”
Krummi: “Yes, and he has developed into a very
good musician and artist.”
As pleased as they sound about their new
band member, it would be easy to imagine that
he had been pegged for the spot long before the
ultimate decision was made, which is something
they strongly deny: “This is not something that
we had decided before the band split up. But I re-
member when the three of us started to discuss
replacements, he came to mind early on, since
he knew all the songs and the band, and was a
good friend of ours. I had seen him play bass with
another band called Astara, which was a good
retro sounding band. He was a good bass player
and I enjoyed watching him, so he came to mind
quickly,” Krummi says.
Mínus put the offer on the table, the only
way they know how, apparently. “He thought we
had come to beat him up when we approached
him first,” Bjarni says. “Yeah... he was working and
we stormed in and asked him to come outside to
have a word with us. He turned white,” Krummi
adds.
They gave him a day to think about their of-
fer. He said yes.
“The good thing was that he said from the
start that he didn’t want to be a session player in
the band. He insisted on being a full member. He
wanted to be a part of the song-writing process,
which I thought was very ambitious,” Krummi ex-
plains.
New Direction
I last saw the band play on September 6. Given,
the circumstances were special, a fundraiser
event for a local musician who passed away from
leukaemia only days later. However, the band
showed a new side to them with an experimental
approach that received mix enthusiasm from the
crowd. This year’s Airwaves festival, the band, an
established metal act in the past, will not be play-
ing their usual slot on the Kerrang stage, but will
rather join bands like !!! and Jakóbínarína on the
Clash Magazine stage. Is this a band in the midst
of a rebirth?
“Well, that is unavoidable I guess. When you
lose two pieces from a five piece band,” answers
Bjarni. Krummi adds: The Kerrang night is great
entertainment. Just a cool metal night. The Bronx
are playing, a really cool punk band, so it is good
fun. The thing is, we are just tired of being put into
one corner and play metal nights. When we were
doing hardcore music, we were doing alternative
music for that genre. Very artistic, mixing many
different styles. We just don’t want to be pigeon-
holed. We’re just glad to be able to play a different
kind of night. It is just fun to be able to change it
up a bit.”
Kerrang nights aside, the band makes no
secret about their desire to change things up.
Krummi: “What we want to do, to be honest, is to
reshape the band, make a new record and forget
about the old stuff. We just want to move forward.
We will always have this catalogue of songs, but
we want to look ahead.”
And, perhaps justifiably, given their recent
turmoil, Bjarni adds: “We have nothing to lose
right now. At this point we really don’t care about
anything else that is happening other than our-
selves.”

New Music
Krummi: “We don’t care about the Icelandic mu-
sic scene right now. It has been very difficult to get
people to come to rock shows the last few years.
There is not much going on, so bands just don’t
want to be stuck in the same old tracks. It’s no
fun to play a gig in some stinking bar downtown
and be paid in beer and ten people show up. It is
very difficult to be ambitious under those circum-
stances. But, we don’t give a fuck. We just want to
be able to play music together, make records and
tour, and be able to laugh and cry together. We
just want to push the boundaries like we did when
we were making Jesus Christ Bobby, to explore
new things.”
Say what you want about Mínus, but they
have undeniably always had the ‘take no prison-
ers’ approach when it comes to making music.
The band has developed from the straight aggres-
sion-ridden hardcore band we first heard on Hey
Johnny! To the grinding progcore sounds of Jesus
Christ Bobby to the cock rock elements of Halldór
Laxness to the more experimental hook ridden
rock sound of their latest offering, The Great
Northern Whalekill. So, in times when everything
seems new and fresh to them, what comes next? Is
there a new album in the pipelines?
“We haven’t done much, yet,” Krummi ad-
mits. “We just need to lock ourselves inside some-
where and not play any live shows for a while and
really concentrate on song writing. But what we
have been making, that’s not even going to be
songs man, it is going to be an adventure, a trip.”
Bjarni chimes in: “It is like nothing you have ever
heard before.”
When I ask them to expound on this thought
a bit, they sound a little unsure of what direction
they are heading in themselves. “It is just concep-
tual and very progressive rock,” Krummi says.
“We don’t even know what we are doing when we
are doing it. But we will reveal something new at
Airwaves.”
Text by Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
Photos by GAS
Mínus
– Reinventing the Formula
“We don’t even know what we are doing when we are doing it. But we will reveal
something new at Airwaves.”
16 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 16 2007 | Feature Feature | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 16 2007 | 17