Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.06.2010, Síða 18

Feature | Backyard
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 07 — 2010
18
By Rebecca Louder
Photo by Hörður Sveinsson
Best
Backyard
Ever
Seven bands, six cameras and
tons of drunken adolescents
“He is árni Plúseinn and I am árni
Sveins. We made a film together.”
The former, Árni Rúnar Hlöðversson, is
an electronics programmer who moon-
lights as a member of popular electronic
musical outift FM Belfast. The latter,
Árni Sveinsson, is an active filmmaker
who operates a guesthouse to pay for an
apartment beyond his means.
Árni PlúsEinn was struck with the
idea to make a live album in his backyard
last June, while sharing a studio space
with other bands. Not thinking too far be-
yond that point, he shared this idea with
his friend Árni Sveins, who thought the
backyard looked so nice they should get
in some cameras to film the whole thing
in a day.
One thing led to another, and sud-
denly they were organizing a six-camera
crew, scoring permits from the city to
throw a concert on Culture Night of last
August.
The result is the movie Backyard, a 70
minute long documentary that revolves
around a on a tight-knit group of local
musicians and the simplicity of throwing
a really, really great party out of thin air.
The film has yet to be screened in
Reykjavík, but you should be anticipat-
ing it. The premiere screening won it
the audience award for Best Film at the
Skjalborg Documentary Film Festival in
Patreksfjörður last month, and sensing a
lot of public interest the responsible par-
ties (or Árnis, if you will) are planning to
screen it – English subtitles and all – in a
convenient location in 101 Reykjavík as of
mid-July. All they really need is a suitable
venue, which might prove complicated
due to 101 Reykjavík’s imminent lack
of an operating movie theatre. But we’ll
hope for the best.
Grapevine has seen the flick, and can
attest that it is indeed most-excellent – a
much-needed document of a vibrant and
joyful scene that has been adding to mu-
sic loving Icelanders’ quality of life for the
last decade or so. We wanted to celebrate
it, and tell all y’all about it, so we called
up the duo of Árnis and asked them to
tell you readers out there about the film
– how they made it, and why they made it.
They were more than glad to indulge us
with a short talk about it. Enjoy the one-
liner quotes from the movie peppered
throughout the interview!
“árni had an idea... árni who? No-
body knows.”
When did you first get the idea for this
project?
Árni PlúsEinn: I first thought about it
when we shared a rehearsal space with a
few bands like Reykjavík!, Retro Stefson
and Skakkamanage, and it felt like no
one was recording their live shows. They
all had albums out, but no one was docu-
menting the live music which is far from
the album versions, so that’s mainly what
led to this. So when I suggested it to him
[Árni Sveins], it was kind of perfect. Me
and Gunni [Tynes, from múm] would do
the sound and he would do the video or
something. Also, half a year earlier, the
national TV station stopped recording as
many bands as before, so it was also very
worrying that these bands would not get
the studio time at RÚV.
Árni Sveinsson: Just because of setbacks
and cutbacks.
ÁP: It doesn’t really have to be expensive
to do accomplish.
ÁS: I just told you that it has to have really
good sound. The picture quality is kind
of secondary.
How did you decide what bands to pick for
the show? Were they all your friends?
ÁS: We made a quick list.
ÁP: You had, like, a wish list.
ÁS: Yeah, but you were really set on what
bands you wanted. I was like “what about
this one!” and you were like “No, no! this
won’t fit in! No, I don’t like him!” You
had a very fixed idea of what would make
sense. They are such different bands, but
somehow they make sense.
ÁP: Most of them are friends, or they at
least know each other, and they have the
same ideas about how they make music
or why they do it.
“I think that what characterises this
scene is a common awareness of not
taking ourselves too seriously, but
rather having fun in creating some-
thing together.”
What are those ideas? What do you think
unifies the musicians?
ÁP: First of all, I think these bands all got
together to make music to entertain each
other and to create something from noth-
ing, without it having to cost millions and
millions.
ÁS: I think they have a similar aesthetic
and approach to making music, even
though their music is very different. Also
this spirit of not being afraid of being
surrounded by different types of mu-
sic, instead of something like the metal
kids only hang with the metal kids and
the rock guys and all that. That is not the
mentality of this group, I think.
ÁP: This makes a scene of people that
go to concerts that maybe have an open
mind…
ÁS: Even though they play totally differ-
ent music, that is the aesthetic we are
talking about.
Was this an investigation into that scene,
or an attempt to document it?
“I was kind of worried
right before we played
because there were so
many drunk teenagers
in our backyard. I was
worried that this would be
a problem, and they kind
of were!”
Look for a subtitled version of Backyard in Reykjavík theatres as of July. For more information on the most-definitely-
excellent documentary, you may contact its most-excellent producer Sindri Páll Kjartansson by e-mailing him at
spk@simnet.is