Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.05.2011, Síða 26

26
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 6 — 2011
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During the Reykjavík Music Mess
I caught up with Samaris, the re-
cent winners of Músíktilraunir. The
band is composed of three Icelan-
dic youngsters: Áslaug Rún Mag-
núsdóttir, Jófríður Ákadóttir, and
Þórður Kári Steinþórsson (Doddi).
Since Áslaug couldn't make it to the
show that night, Jófríður and Dod-
di invited their turntabling friend,
Bjargmundur Ingi Kjartansson, to
scratch a few impromptu beats.
Though they have yet to dis-
cover their exact formula, the band
members mix seemingly antitheti-
cal sounds like mad scientist mu-
sicians full of grit and exuberance.
Samaris' songs are battles between
the past (ethereal vocals and clari-
net) and the present (electronic
knee-rumbling beats). This sum-
mer, when the bane of homework
withers in the freedom of warm(er)
weather, the trio plans to record
their first album using the studio
sessions they won from the Músík-
tilraunir contest.
How did winning such a legendary
competition feel?
Jófríður: In these competitions you can
never know what the judges will focus
on. All of these bands were really good
in their own way. This competition was
happening when we were trying to get
our music out, so we thought, why not
just enter the competition? It's made
everything so much easier for us now.
Þórður: Yeah, it got us this gig. A lot of
people pay attention to the contest ev-
ery year. The festival organisers prob-
ably wouldn't have paid attention to us
otherwise.
How did you start getting into mu-
sic?
J: My parents are musicians, so music
has always been around me. I've been
in a lot of bands with my sister since I
was little. I'm in Pascal Pinon with her,
which has been very important for us
for the past last two years.
If you have a band already, why did
you feel like you needed another
one?
J: Samaris came up as a joke between
me and Áslaug. We wanted to start a
band with a lot of joking. Áslaug and
I were going to call the band Portal to
Ecstasy.
What kind of ecstasy are you talk-
ing about here?
J: Like it means the vagina [giggles
all around]. You get the metaphor.
That was the sort of thing we had in
mind at first, but then we met up with
Doddi and made really nice mixed mu-
sic. He makes the synths and the beats
and I always write the melodies and
sing. And Áslaug plays the clarinet.
How do you handle being in two
bands and school?
J: This week has been the craziest week
of the whole year for me. I recently had
a lot of tests in school so we only had
two practices for this concert. Today
and yesterday.
Þ: And we hadn't practised for like two
weeks.
J: Did you see us laughing on stage? It
was because we hadn't practised that
song at all. It was really ridiculous. I was
singing lyrics from another song that
we didn't use.
Do you think anybody noticed?
J: No not really. The lyrics could have
made sense because they were just
from another song. We just wanted to
improvise and have fun.
Þ: Yeah and get loose.
Who are your influences?
J: We're influenced by Fever Ray, Por-
tishead and James Blake. I have also
been influenced by Björk, of course.
Þ: I'm mostly influenced by deep tech-
no, a lot of trip hop and DJ Crush.
Did you guys see the MT review in
Grapevine, by Sindri and Bob?
J: Yeah, we thought it was really fun.
D: Yeah, I liked it a lot.
It didn't piss you off?
D: Noooo.
J: He can have his own opinion.
D: I thought it was really funny. It was
just a joke. I didn't take it personally.
J: They were also dissing a lot of great
bands, so I really couldn't take it per-
sonally.
Do you think that Jófríður being in
Pascal Pinon, a kind of well-known
band, helped you guys win Músík-
tilraunir?
J: I hope not. That wouldn't be very fair.
Þ: I think that the clarinet got us the win.
The combination of the clarinet and the
computer hasn't been done a lot.
J: We've heard this kind of music in
other countries, but it's not been done
much here in Iceland.
Þ: We'd like to add the turntables to our
sound too.
So Áslaug not being here tonight
has changed the band?
Þ: We were trying to get someone else
to play her part but it was kind of a
long shot. So it got us thinking what we
could do differently.
J: We thought, how can we make the
best of this situation? We mentioned
our idea to Bjargmundur six days ago
and started practising yesterday. Down
the road, he's also going to do some
work remixing Samaris' stuff too.
Þ: Yeah, he's going to be playing a big-
ger part for sure.
Mad Scientist Samaris
Music | Winning
An interview with the winners of Músíktilraunir 2011
VANESSA SCHIPANI
ALISA KALYANOVA