Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.07.2010, Blaðsíða 41

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09 — 2010
Music | Interview
Seabear: The Icelandic Wu-Tang Clan?
Not really, but it would be cool if they were
“Well, things are just fine at the moment, thank
you. We’re getting ready for our record release con-
cert on the ninth, then we’re headed for the Lunga
festival in the East fjords... Then we’re going to Eu-
rope again in September, bringing along Kimono
who’ll be opening up for us on the tour. That will
be a lot of fun, I think. In October we’ll be going
back to the US, playing shows in New York and
on the West Coast. Then it’s back for some Europe
touring in November. And then, hopefully, we’ll
have toured this album enough.
What? You have another record coming out right
away?
Not another Seabear record, no. I’m actually not
sure when the next Seabear album will come out.
I do have another Sin Fang album coming out this
year, hopefully. It’s just about ready now. I’m hop-
ing I can trick my record company into putting it
out in 2010.
Do you never sleep?
Hahaha. I sleep plenty. It’s just what I like to do,
writing and recording music.
Temporary obsessions
How has the album been received? Are you happy
with it?
The Seabear one? I think it’s been received just
fine. I haven’t really listened to it since we finished
making it last August. I had a total overdose of that
record, and couldn’t bear to listen to it once it was
done. I’m going wait another two years or so and
then give it a spin.
But sure, I remember being quite happy with
it, happier than I was with the first one for sure. It
took us a long time to get off our asses and make
it, and long time to record. I’m thinking that next
time we’ll hire a producer to record, so we can just
show up with the songs. That way, I won’t have to
record them, which is a really time consuming
process. It’s probably going to be more fun for me
if I can focus on just playing the guitar and sing-
ing.
Are you the mayor of Seabear and Sin Fang? Do
you control everything that goes on within these
bands?
No. Seabear is simply a band now; we meet for
practice, write some tunes and record them, which
is your basic band routine I believe. The Sin Fang
stuff is more solo oriented, I wrote all the songs for
the first album and played all the instruments. Sin
Fang is me, and I’m not about to change it into a
band. But I do have some good friends who always
play with me.
Of your musical contemporaries, who do you feel a
kinship to?
Of those that are doing something at the moment?
I don’t know. I get these temporary obsessions ev-
ery now and again, where I’ll play certain bands
or albums to death, only to forget all about them a
week later. There are of course constants that I lis-
ten to regularly, like Tom Waits, who is someone I
listen to all the time. At the moment, I’m obsessed
with Talking Heads; I’m listening to everything of
theirs I can get my hands on.
I do try to regularly visit all the music blogs
that post interesting music and check out what
they’re recommending. But I couldn’t name any
particular band or musician out there that I espe-
cially connect with.
Come to think of it, I’ve always had an affin-
ity for Mugison, and we always have some pretty
good conversation. I’ve always liked him; he’s one
of those independents, a no-bullshit guy.
Some very extreme touring
You guys have been touring a lot. What’s it like?
It’s just fine, probably a lot better than a lot of
other things, anyway. But it depends. We have
been doing some very extreme touring ever since
New Year’s, and we’ve been out of the country a
lot. Right now, we’re on our first little break since
January.
As for the touring itself: It’s not like we’re a
huge band that can afford to take the luxury route.
We spend many hours a day in a crammed van, for
three weeks at a time. It is ridiculously fun, and
then it can get really hard, awful and boring. There
are always ups and downs.
The band is at a place right now where we can
easily sell out shows if we’re play a capital city, like
Stockholm or London or something. Those shows
are always packed. But when we visit smaller
towns, like Heidelberg or whatever, maybe only
thirty or forty people show up. But it’s gone very
well in general. We’ve visited the same places a
few times by now, and there are more people at
the shows every time. It’s just starting to work out
money-wise now, which is really nice.
Is Seabear a famous band? Is it more famous than
Sin Fang?
Yeah, I think Seabear is bigger than Sin Fang at
this point. Seabear draws a larger crowd from
what I can tell. I don’t think were famous, though.
I think we’ve sold a total of around 30.000 records.
They say that’s supposed to be very good in today’s
world and, like I say, we can draw a pretty big au-
dience in many places. So I can’t complain. But
it’s hard to get a feel for it these days, how many
people are actually listening to the music. You
can’t really judge by record sales anymore. We can
at least tour now without losing money. And that’s
quite good these days.
Where’s the Bous?
What are some of the main differences between
Sin Fang and Seabear?
Well... I don’t really know. I’m so close to those
projects that it’s hard to listen objectively... But,
well, maybe I let myself get a bit more crazy with
Sin Fang. That’s just me alone with a guitar, while
Seabear sorta developed into a band, and after
playing together for a while we went in a certain
direction. And we’ve continued on that path since.
Sin Fang is just me going nuts.
Maybe the main difference is that Sin Fang, at
its core, is just me making the music that I’d like to
be listening to, while the Seabear tunes are played
into shape by the band, and everyone contributes
to the music and overall sound.
Why did you remove the ‘Bous’ from Sin Fang
Bous?
Well, I always just said Sin Fang when I was talk-
ing about the band, so I eventually just thought
that having the Bous attached was kinda pointless.
It got in people’s way a lot – a lot of folks had a hard
time pronouncing and remembering it. Three
words are too much. Two words, you’ll remember.
So I thought I’d commercialise a bit, try and sell
some records!
“Listen to your crazy voice!”
What are your lyrics about? Do you write them be-
fore or after you write the songs?
It depends. Having a set theme for the entire al-
bum makes the lyric writing process a lot easier.
Lyrics actually the hardest part for me. I especially
burned myself on the first Seabear record, where
I published some lyrics that I wasn’t totally happy
with, and then had to sing them on stage for the
next five years. You quickly learn the value of be-
ing meticulous.
What kind of themes do you work with?
Well, with the Sin Fang album, for instance, I
made all kinds of rules for it. I took the idea from
an artist who urged people to "listen to your crazy
voice!" He said that everyone has a ‘crazy voice’
and that if one listened well one could hear it. I
tried to do that for Clangour. Another rule I made
up was that I had to play everything on the record
myself, and that I had to test the limits of my voice.
These rules all made the process fun and kind of
exciting for me.
As for the new Seabear record, I was thinking
a lot about a rural moods and rural relationships
when we made that. It wasn’t pointing to any
particular geographical location, but more of an
abstract place within the mind. Maybe you can’t
really hear it on the record – I don’t know – but it
did help me a lot with writing the lyrics.
It seems like the whole of Seabear is sort of branch-
ing out, with Sóley now releasing her solo stuff,
Örn Ingi playing with Skakkamanage, Kjartan
with kimono and yourself and all of your projects.
Then the various members keep making art proj-
ects and whatnot. Are you the Wu-Tang Clan of
Icelandic music?
Yes, we are the Icelandic Wu-Tang Clan. But of
course. Inga and I made the cover art for Sóley,
and I helped record her album... there are all sorts
of things being done by everyone and they all
tend to cross over. Does that make us a Wu-Tang-
style collective? I don’t know. But it would be cool,
though.
Lastly, why do you feel the need create so much
music?
I don’t know. I like it. I graduated from the Iceland
Academy of Arts in 2007, and haven’t really done
an honest day’s work since. I just go into the studio
in the morning and try to treat it like a 9-5 job.
Words
Haukur S. Magnússon
Photography
Julia Staples
Everyone loves Seabear. How could
they not? The music is infectious,
catchy, melodic and soothing. The
lyrics are verbalizations of surrealist
paintings, and the on-stage atmo-
sphere is just plain lovely. Anyway,
we won’t waste any space intro-
ducing the group, as your casual
music fan will know all about them
(and the rest of y’all can just up and
Wikipedia that shit for band history,
stats and the like).
What’s important is they are one of
Iceland’s reigning indie outfits at
the moment, their new record, ‘We
Built A Fire,’ sounds excellent, and
they are throwing a release concert
for it next week. We called up head
Seabear (and head Sin Fang Bous-
er, as it were), Sindri Már Sigfússon,
and asked him about life, the band,
music, touring and Wu-Tang. We
began by asking: “How are things?”
“The Seabear one? I think it’s
been received just fine. I haven’t
really listened to it since we
finished making it last August. I
had a total overdose of that record,
and couldn’t bear to listen to it
once it was done. I’m going wait
another two years or so and then
give it a spin.“