Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.01.2008, Blaðsíða 33

Interview | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 01 2008 | 17
So, Chainlike Burden topped our list for al-
bum of the year, joined by Skátar’s The Ghost
of Bollocks to Come. This is the first I Adapt
album to receive considerable notice from the
Icelandic media [it finished high on most oth-
er year-end lists also.] Did you expect this?
I didn’t really give it much thought. As a musician,
I don’t pay much attention to such lists; I usually
don’t even bother to read them. But yes, I did ex-
pect that if anyone really listened to an I Adapt
record, it would make the cut with some left-field
scribes, but I didn’t really expect it to break top five,
or even top ten, especially with the general public.
It was placed very highly in reader surveys and in-
ternet polls for example.
Do you know how much it sold?
No, that’s in the hands of our label. I don’t think it
sold very well. It sold well in relation to the num-
ber of copies we pressed, but I don’t think it sold
very well compared with many other albums. But it
might pick up after all this publicity.
The label you signed to, Mamma Þín Records,
is a small indie label, with little money to
spend on promotion compared with many
other labels. Do you think people even know
this record is out there?
No, I’ve talked to a lot of people, people who go to
the University with me, and so on, who don’t even
know the record is out there. The fans who follow
the band and lurk around on our Myspace.com site
know about it. That’s where we promote it, and on
message boards and internet forums. But that es-
capes a lot of people. It seems that everyone starts
by going to Skífan [record store], and if a record is
not available there, they might possibly look for it
in other record stores. We didn’t distribute to Skí-
fan, so…
Just before the end of the year, news filtered
out that the band had broken up. Why now,
when the band had just started to reach public
awareness?
Yeah, well, you know. I’ve asked myself that same
question many times as well. But I think it would
be even worse to be in a band with four people
who are not on the same page. The idea behind
breaking up now, rather than later, was to maintain
the integrity of the band. People who know us as
a band know that we are solid guys who deliver
the goods every time we play live. We wanted to
break it up before the untrained ear would start to
notice that the band was lacking harmony in so
many different things off the stage. The reason we
broke up was not musical differences or that we
didn’t get along, it was everything else. We didn’t
want that to be seen or heard on stage. When you
see a band play where there is not total unity with
everything – the sound, the equipment, rehearsals,
everything – you notice it, you hear it. And then you
think ‘dudes, why don’t you just give it up, or form
a new band or something?’ But, if we think of this
band as a fellowship, this fellowship is not going
any further, at least not at this time.
So what’s next?
I have no idea. I want to be in a prolific band where
I don’t need to be the vitamin injection. I’ve been
doing this since I was 13, and I’ll be 30 in a month,
so I’m even ready to be not in a band, or if I am in a
band, to be a low-level player with no expectations
or goals other than playing. [Bass player] Addi is
playing with Gavin Portland, a band that is really
taking off, so the future looks bright for him. [Drum-
mer] Elli has always got some kind of art projects
going, making short films and videos. I have a feel-
ing that [guitar player] Ingi and I might end up do-
ing something together, but not in a fully-formed
band that takes to the streets to kick ass. We have
written a lot of stuff after Chainlike Burden came
out. That album is actually very old [release was
repeatedly delayed]. Ingi and I have been throwing
riffs and ideas back and forth, and that stuff is just
so good, that we, as hobby musicians, want to play
it, just the two of us.
I Adapt was always a band that fed off playing
live. How will you cope with playing only in a
dingy practice space instead of playing live?
The starting point for this band, and for me espe-
cially, was always that attending an I Adapt show
should be a totally different experience from going
to any other show. That was a very selfish idea as
well, because I wanted to be in the position to be
able to manipulate everything and bring something
new and fresh. To tell you the truth, I am starting to
regret that already, not to have that on the horizon.
But we don’t want to have to drag the horse across
the finish line. We could probably make it look OK
forever, but we won’t settle for anything less than
being the best live band out there. When the foun-
dation for that was no longer there…
But is there still going to be one last show?
Yes, February 2 we will play one last show. That is
going to be an all-ages show in a small auditorium
somewhere, a low profile show, just for the die-
hards who have supported us for a long time. It is
going to be a real I Adapt show where everything
goes crazy.
What was the idea behind founding the band
in the beginning?
We just wanted to create something totally new.
We had much more of a plan back then. We were
very excited, and kind of arrogant. We thought al-
most everything sucked, not necessarily musically,
but we thought most bands were boring live. We
thought it was boring to go to maybe one hundred
shows a year, and nobody said anything, unless
perhaps the singer was drunk. Then he would ask if
everyone was having a good time or yell “Tuborg!”
or “Satan!”
Back then, we were very idealistic and ob-
noxious. All our lyrics were very simple, they were
always about some current issue, and we would
explain that before playing a song. We truly be-
lieved that there should be no boundary between
the band and the audience. We wanted to create a
totally new live environment here in Iceland, and I
am certain that we did and that is why we garnered
such a loyal following. That was always the plan.
We had such an attitude for the first four years as
a band that we never played in a bar. If everybody
was not going to get in, we refused to play. When
we started to write more complex music however,
the younger kids turned away from us, while we
started to appeal more to older listeners, so we
started to play in bars more.
Do you think that decision helped you gain
more attention?
I think so, yes. There are so many music journalists
who would never go to an all-ages show. It is not
necessarily snobbery, but the preference to be in
a situation where they are allowed to have a drink
and maybe a smoke. Those people didn’t really
start to listen to us until late in our career, so I think
that decision helped us draw more attention to the
band. We have gotten so much notice now that it
is a shame we broke up really. But we don’t want
to keep it going, just to keep it going. We are just in
such different places in our lives right now. I wish
we could keep it going, but the fellowship needs to
be stronger. It is not enough to agree that it is fun
to play live and practice. When you have been in
a band for seven years and after several U.S. and
European tours, you need more. And after touring
the U.S. the last time, where we played with the
best hardcore bands in the business, we only com-
pare ourselves to those guys; we are not going to
compare ourselves to some band that just won the
Battle of the Bands. The measuring stick is so much
higher. We just want to be convincing as a band,
and if we are not convincing, we might as well stop.
This is what killed the band maybe. The ambition.
We are all very ambitious, but maybe that ambition
is not always directed towards the same goal.
Text by Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
Birkir Fjalar
Viðarsson
“We have gotten so much notice now that it is a
shame we broke up really. But we don’t want to keep
it going, just to keep it going.”
Photo by GAS
This year, Skátar and I Adapt came dead
even for the Grapevine Album of the Year
award. A Grapevine reporter sat down
with the frontman from each band to quiz
them about their award-winning records,
breaking up, and the pros and cons of
small labels.
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