Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.03.2008, Qupperneq 12

12 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 03 2008 | Feature
So, you’re nominated as songwriter and
singer of the year at the IMAs. Hjaltalín, your
band, was also nominated for song and re-
cord of the year, as well as the Brightest Hope
award. But how do you respond to the nomi-
nations personally? Do you hold one award
in higher regard than the others?
No, not really. We were abroad when we heard the
news, so it wasn’t like I was watching the news and
heard Páll Magnússon saying my name, it wasn’t
like that. I think it’s kind of strangely funny that
I was nominated as singer of the year. It’s some-
thing that comes as a bit of a surprise, and is sort
of... not something I would have expected a year
and a half ago.
Why’s that?
No it’s just that, this is the kind of nomination that
the big-time singers get; Björgvin and Páll Óskar,
Bubbi and Garðar Þór Cortes and so on. It’s funny
to single me out as a singer because I’ve never re-
ally seen myself as such. I’m in a choir, and was
in one in high school for a long time, and I know
that, you know, not everyone thought it was really
cool to be in the choir at MH.
Not cool?
No. I mean, yeah it was of course really cool, you
know, but naturally there were some hotshots
who made fun of it, including some guys like the
guys in Sprengjuhöllin. It’s damn good to have this
nomination for their sake, to sort of make fun of
them.
When I interviewed the band right before
Airwaves last year, your bassist, Guðmundur
Óskar, said that the size of your group ex-
plains to a certain extent why your songs are
so long and contain so many diverse chap-
ters. You compose and arrange for all these
instruments and this big group, which must
be a challenging task. Do you try to manage
beforehand the length or size of the arrange-
ment or song?
Not exactly. I don’t think it’s completely accurate
to say that the length of the songs correlates to
the number of members; it’s not pandering to that
number of people, having the song as long as pos-
sible. It’s mostly just thickening the web of sound.
The number of instruments gives more options in
creating a varied musical texture. It doesn’t have a
lot to do with length. It’s not like, ok now we have
to have a chapter for the bassoon.
But you are influenced by the musicians
when you’re creating a song. It’s not like you
come in with a concrete plan and say, “Ok,
I’ve written a song, it’s six minutes long and
you are going to do this.”
It varies. The easiest method in all this is writing
notes. Of course it’s possible that something great
and original will come up if people are put togeth-
er for some time in a group and they make some-
thing without having decided beforehand what
they’re going to do, but that also calls for a kind
of communal thought process that takes time to
develop and ripen. It’s not a very prolific work pro-
cess to have everyone somehow conspiring. But
with notes or something, you’ve laid some kind
of plan that you can build on. Then it works as a
kind of frame, both for the musicians and the song
itself. The instrumentalists can then take this line
that’s been decided and make something out of it
and spin something around it. It’s not as though I
write notes for everyone in the band. It’s mostly
just coming up with something to spark some-
thing off. I see it that way rather, that the notes and
the arrangements are just to ignite something, and
out of that we make a base and from that we can
build even further.
Is there a song on your new record that you’re
particularly happy with? Something that was
maybe especially memorable to write?
I like the idea of hand-crafting, of the handiwork
of a song, or some kind of handiwork in art. And
when things work on paper really well, and when
things are put together in a really, well I won’t say
complicated, but in a somewhat elaborate way.
Like when there are several groups of instruments
put together, and out of it comes a kind of a thick
web, a web of sound, which is kind of difficult
to make, but with the right devices and the right
technical execution it’s possible. You have maybe
drums, bass, guitar, violin, singing, clarinet, bas-
soon, brass, a choir and this thick sound comes
out of it, and nothing gets tangled, there’s a trick to
that too. But I think it works especially well in one
song on the record, which is called Selur. There’s
a pretty thick sound, with a choir and a variety
of instruments, and there’s a kind of raging power
in it. There are several songs like that, not all, but
there are some. There are about five songs on the
record that have that sound.
And does that come about with just constant
working and reworking the songs? Aiming
for these large and intricate weavings?
Yeah, it was a little bit like that. There was a kind of
mantra following the record which was that “more
is the new less.” Just really not holding back with
ideas about letting things have wiggle room, not
some kind of minimalism. We were really trying to
go as big as possible.
I understand that you get most of your lyrics
from sources outside the band. Is it right to
assume then that the music is written before
and perhaps with little regard to the lyrics?
Yes, the music is written before the lyrics, and
consequently the music does not really stem from
the lyrics. Instead, the words become essentially
just another layer, a specific timbre on top of ev-
erything else, all the other colours. Which I think
is in itself a kind of interesting concept. There’s so
much going on, and always some lines going all
over the place, so somehow the attention doesn’t
get directed towards the lyrics, instead they blend
really well into this world of sound.
How do you view their importance then, the
words in your songs?
I think it’s important that they work, that they
sound good. This episode with meaning in lyr-
ics, or some kind of narrative thing, that has just
been taken out. It was kind of considered on an
aesthetic level. We couldn’t put a lot of drive into
meaning in the text that was never there.
So what happens now, in the aftermath of re-
cently releasing your first album? Have you
started working on the next one?
No, not at all. It would be great to put out another
record right away. It’s kind of uncool to wait a re-
ally long time and to make a big deal out of it,
always to be making some kind of masterpiece.
Mostly it’s just really fun to work with a lot of in-
struments, to have a twelve-person group playing
some chords. And writing for that, and conduct-
ing it, and recording it, it’s just so much fun. A lot
more fun than some acoustic guitar record with
a couple of melodies. I think it’s really amazing
when that works, like some musicians who do
that, like Ólöf Arnalds and others, who are just
alone but somehow manage to expand that, you
know, to widen that form. It’s really impressive,
but it’s something that I haven’t really mastered
yet. I think in the meanwhile I’m just going to try
to work on the other route that I’ve taken, try to
tackle that in the interim.
By Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
Högni
Egilsson
“There was a kind of mantra following the record
which was that ‘more is the new less.’ Just really not
holding back with ideas about letting things have
wiggle room, not some kind of minimalism. We were
really trying to go as big as possible.”