Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.08.2012, Blaðsíða 38

FM Belfast
Another one of Örvar’s acts, Morr’s next most prolific and
one of our dearly beloved Icelandic bands, FM Belfast, are no
strangers to Berlin themselves. Their first release to the label
was their single “Underwear,” which has become a sort of
unofficial civic anthem for 101 Reykjavík. Their latest release
is also a single, “Delorean.”
sóley
From Seabear came Sóley Stefánsdóttir’s secret solo act.
Had it not been for Sindri spilling the beans to Thomas, it
might have taken a lot longer before her breakout EP ‘Theater
Island’ came out (which it luckily did in 2010). She has since
become one of the busiest and fastest rising local acts and is
already working hard on her sophomore LP.
Borko
Thomas Morr had been closely following Björn Kristjánsson’s
singer-songwriter growth over the six years leading up to the
release of his unique album ‘Celebrating Life’ back in 2008.
Borko and Örvar are old, close friends who have collaborated
together, and the former has toured with múm and sometimes
played live percussion for FM Belfast.
Seabear/Sin Fang
It technically isn’t cool to lump these two together—one being
a fully democratic band and the other being a solo project—
but the catalyst of these acts would be Sindri Már Sigfússon.
He also happens to be Örvar’s tattoo buddy (we did not know
this was a “thing,” but there you have it) and have released a
picture book together on Morr under the name Apfelsin Bros.
múm
They are first Icelandic band to get signed onto Morr with
their 2001 release ‘Please Smile My Noise Bleed’ remix
album, back when the band did a stint of living in Germany.
Eleven years later, members have come and gone and
scattered to all parts of the globe and back, and they are
still releasing with their buddies in Berlin. Their latest album,
‘Early Birds,’ came out this past June.
Backyard – The Movie
Of course the grand culmination of all of these wonderful
bands and good friends can be found on the local
rockumentary ‘Backyard,’ which is distributed by Morr!
The movie unfolds over a one-off show in Árni Rúnar
Hlöðversson’s backyard on Culture Night 2009 with his crew
of best band buddies. - COMPILED By REBECCA LOuDER
Berlin story
Where does Morr Music's rela-
tionship with Iceland begin?
There was no master plan behind
it. The story begins with one name:
Örvar from múm. The band was get-
ting together around the same time
as we were creating our label and I
thought, ‘Hey they sound like our
kind of music.’ When
they moved to Berlin,
basically living on the
street next to mine, we
started meeting on a
regular basis. I had set
up a distributing com-
pany with a friend, and
we ended up distribut-
ing their first album,
‘Yesterday Was Dra-
matic–Today Is OK.’
Since then we've
stayed in touch, and
Örvar has recommend-
ed and introduced me
to a lot of new bands.
When you find an art-
ist that you like work-
ing with, the best thing
to do is work on side projects with
them or on their friend’s projects. So
a lot of it goes back to Örvar. Then of
course we met Benni Hemm Hemm,
Bjössi (Borko), and Seabear when I
saw them play in Berlin...
And Seabear led to Sin Fang,
which led to Sóley...
Exactly. Hers is a really nice story.
She started off being quite shy in
Seabear, but she seemed to grow a
lot in Sin Fang and then she started
doing solo recordings. She never told
me about them; it was actually Sindri
who mentioned it. And then we all
pushed her to finish her recordings.
There's also Pascal Pinon. I knew
their father because he played in
Benni Hemm Hemm and we used
to work with them. So we’ve made
a lot of connections like that. It was
the same way with all of the bands
around The Notwist. I was living
with Markus from The Notwist when
we started working
with Lali Puna, a band
consisting of Markus
and his girlfriend Val-
erie, Florian who works
for Morr and Casper,
who is drumming in a
dozen bands, and then
we took on the side
project Tied & Tickled
Trio, and his brother’s
project, Ms. John Soda.
If you work intensely
with an artist, it usu-
ally leads to something.
The scene around these
bands remind me a lot
about backyard, just a
German version and
very DIY.
In the backyard
Another side project of this
scene is the film 'Backyard,'
which features a bunch of
Icelandic musicians. I haven't
actually seen it. What's the story
there?
You should see it! Before you
come to Iceland, you have to watch it.
When they do passport control at the
airport, they should have some ques-
tions about 'Backyard.'
Árni Rúnar of FM Belfast had the
idea of setting up a festival and a se-
ries of concerts with friends and to
have it recorded, but only musically.
Árni Sveinsson, one of the directors,
planned to videotape the concerts,
but he didn't tell them that his idea
from the beginning was to make a
documentary.
He filmed all day without people
paying much attention to him, so
they're acting pretty normal. He
taped one song from each artist, the
last one being “Underwear” by FM
Belfast. That song is almost like an
anthem for this scene. There's a real
climax in the end when you see the
band play live; people go nuts.
So it’s basically a small documen-
tary about the Reykjavík music scene
and about spontaneously organising
this show. There's no bureaucracy or
crazy planning involved. They want-
ed to do it and just did it. The way the
story is told is also super charming.
To me it seems very Icelandic be-
cause it's direct and quick.
We miss our múm!
Enough about past projects,
what's in the works right now in
Iceland?
We always have some good Ice-
landic releases on the horizon. Some
people definitely think Morr is an Ice-
landic label by now. múm is working
on some new stuff…
múm were silent for so
long and then the recent compi-
lation of early recordings, 'Early
Birds,' came out of nowhere.
you say they're working on new
stuff?
They had been quiet for some
time after throwing a big show in an
old steel factory in Poland, inviting a
number of guest musicians, a choir
and an orchestra. They had worked
on that for a long time and thought
it had been such a special experience
that they should take a bit of a break.
We had been talking about this
compilation for a long time, but it
kept getting postponed. The reviews
for it are insanely good so far. What
they are working on now may be a bit
more electronic, which is good tim-
ing because this sound aesthetic is
coming back these days.
you think they are going to go
back to their more electronic
side?
I've heard some sketches so far.
There are a lot of electronic sounds
and there's an electronic structure to
it. It reminds me in a good way of the
stuff they did back in the day.
There’s always more
So it seems like you see a con-
tinued, if not increased, pres-
ence of Morr music in Iceland.
Yeah, I definitely think so. A lot of
the bands that we work with are pret-
ty active. Pascal Pinon just finished
recording a new album produced by
Alex Somers who produces Jónsi's re-
cords. They're going to take a big step
forward with that album. Sindri has a
new record, and FM Belfast and Sóley
are going to record new stuff this year
or at the beginning of next year. So
there's going to be a constant stream
of releases coming up.
We’re probably also going to sign
another Icelandic band in the next
year. We're working on one or two
releases with an artist that doesn't
even exist as an artist at the moment.
But it's a bit too early to talk about it.
There are always new bands spring-
ing up here. - ELI PETzOLD
“
He taped one song
from each artist,
the last one being
“Underwear” by FM
Belfast. That song is
almost like an anthem
for this scene. There's
a real climax in the
end when you see the
band play live; people
go nuts.
„
38 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 13 — 2012MuSIC
Gimme Gimme Morr
The continued saga of Morr Music in Iceland
The Iceland-Morr Family Tree
Most of Icelandic bands signed to Morr have less than one degree of separa-
tion from Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason, a.k.a. Örvar from múm. Using him as
the great-granddaddy of our locals on the label, we’ve laid out a little band
genealogy for your general trivia knowledge!
INTER
VIEW
Morr Music have released and distributed so much Icelandic
music over the last decade that founder Thomas Morr says
people sometimes mistake the label for an Icelandic company.
But that's not so. We met up with him to learn more about the
Berlin-based label and how it came to work with Icelandic art-
ists such as múm, Sin Fang, Sóley and FM Belfast, to name a
few.
Morr & Morr
We asked Thomas to pick catalogue favourites from his own label and he
was glad to oblige. “Most of these releases have a story about meeting a new
artist or doing something fun together,” he told us. “They are personal stories
that make the releases special for me.” While you’ll have to make your own
personal connection, they are worthwhile additions to a music collection.
B. Fleischmann
Various Artists
Lali Puna
múm
ISAN
Sin Fang Bous
Pop Loops For
Breakfast [1999]
The first record we ever
put out will always stay
magical. First test-
pressings, first cover, first
everything. Simply great.
Blue Skied An’ Clear’
[2002]
A tribute to one of my
favourite bands ever
[Slowdive]. This basically
led into the re-release of
some of their music.
Scary World Theory
[2001]
This is the album that
changed it all for us. From
a very good label we got
even better and it took us
to another level.
Yesterday Was Dramatic,
Today Is OK [2005]
Simply one of my
favourite albums ever.
It made us very happy
to re-release this album
about five years after I
first heard it.
Clockwork Menagerie
[2002]
Our fourth ISAN release
back in the day. This
contained a few of the
tracks that, looking back,
maybe made me start a
record label.
Clangour’ [2005]
What a talented man!”
(Album released prior to
the band name change).Alísa kalyanova