Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2013, Page 6

THE GRAPEVINE TURNS 10!
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On the cover this issue are 10 people who have appeared on the cover of a past Grapevine issue in each of the last 10 years. They are significant for
one reason or the other, and we are pretty proud to have them all on the cover once more, this time together, celebrating our tenth birthday! Read on
to learn more about the cover stars and why they are there…
This was Singapore Sling in Stoke on Trent,
on tour with the Brian Jonestown Massacre.
They gave me all access. We were a little
short-staffed, and so I had worked 48 hours
straight before flying to London to catch up
with the band. The experience was like ‘Al-
most Famous’ if it were directed by David
Lynch. The music of Singapore Sling and
BJM is fantastic, but the divide between the
lifestyle and meaning was jarring. I watched
these fantastic concerts with fans who were
decent people, made by bands who were sur-
prisingly open and friendly, and the result
would be, well, Henrik from Singapore Sling
summed it up: “A fan in Norway took me to
his house and told me my music was great,
it made him want to commit suicide.” The
on-edge brilliance butted up with supernatu-
ral banality. I should also admit that I had a
very high fever for most of this trip, and the
photographer ended up evacuating me to his
house. When I flew home to Iceland, next to
a prominent politician, I looked like I was
coming off a heroin addiction.
– Bart Cameron
So... GusGus. I don't really remember much
about this cover, other than we were having
difficulties coming up with a concept. Then
we found out GusGus had just done a photo
shoot to promote their upcoming album.
The band was one of the original music
success stories out of Iceland, and this was
their first album in five years. So we got
to use some photos from that shoot for the
cover and did a last minute interview with
GusGus member Biggi Veira to go with it.
It worked out great in the end. The visuals
were really strong, but usually, the material
dictates the cover, not the other way around.
– Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
We did a great interview with Lay Low for
this issue and we wanted to put her on the
cover. She was just about to release her sec-
ond album, and we not only liked the album,
but also loved the fact that a female country
and blues artist from Iceland was making
waves. This is the first of many covers Bal-
dur Kristjáns would do for The Grapevine.
We really liked the way he managed to
capture the tender, delicate person that ap-
peared in the interview. – Sveinn Birkir
Björnsson
As protests still raged at Austurvöllur, we
accompanied composer Ólafur Arnalds
and the bands Hjaltalín and Retro Stefson
to Oslo's annual By:larm music festival.
All three acts had much going for them at
the time, critically acclaimed albums and
positive post-Airwaves write-ups abound.
A lot had been brewing in Reykjavík’s
much-hyped music scene; it felt like it had
reached a bursting point, that it was time for
someone to break out. Wanting to capture
that fleeting moment, we tagged along for
the showcase ride and documented the art-
ists strutting their stuff for the Norwegians.
Meanwhile, Icelanders were busy being
indignant about the lavish lifestyles their
financial elites had enjoyed (a turn from
aspiring to/celebrating them). SHOCK! re-
ports on lavish gold-eating, coke snorting
private jet parties filled the media. This
amused us, so we played with that theme
on the cover, setting the musicians up as hu-
bristic banksters partying it up in the most
2007 setting we could imagine. Designer
Jói Kjartans then brought the idea of setting
it up tabloid style, modelling the cover on an
issue of HELLO! – Haukur SM
This issue features an amusing article by
Hallgrímur Helgason in which he ponders
Iceland’s tradition of building ugly houses.
It was originally written as a speech, which
he gave at the Louisiana Art Museum in
Humlebæk, Denmark, but we thought it
made for great reading and he gave us per-
mission to print it. For the cover, Hrefna
Sigurðardóttir illustrated an angry look-
ing Hallgrímur Helgason surrounded by
a bunch of sad looking architectural sites
around Reykjavík, including his cleverly
dubbed “Indian Tent” and “NASA Mobile
Launch Platform That Accidentally Fell
on the Ground After Liftoff of the Space
Shuttle and Then Was Painted White.” –
Anna Andersen
When you see a political figure (such as
Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson) on our
cover, this is not in any way an endorse-
ment—rather it is our understanding that
they at that time have things to say that
are relevant to readers' interests. This was
certainly the case with our Steingrímur J.
Sigfússon cover, the only time an active
minister has graced our front page.
As minister of finance, which was in
2010 one of the most important posts one
could hold in Iceland (due to some events of
a couple of years earlier, we forget exactly
what). After hearing some disturbing sto-
ries regarding “the true state” of Iceland's
finances, and also because we had the hard-
est time understanding what exactly was
happening, we reached out to the notori-
ously busy Steingrímur. To our surprise, he
picked up and granted us an interview and
cover shoot. In the story, he talks a lot about
“cleaning up the mess”—this provided a
theme for our cover, which was shot by Bal-
dur Kristjáns. – Haukur SM
We had no idea what we were getting into
when we asked Sheba to model for our cover.
A recent immigrant working as a barista at
Segafredo at the time, she made her way
into Icelandic cultural history after our cover
caused a furore and was subsequently shown
in art exhibitions, taught at the university and
spoofed in cartoons and comic shows. Most
people applauded the vision she represented
of a more heterogeneous future for Iceland
on its 60th anniversary, but there was a dark
side. Both she and I would soon receive
threats by ultra-nationalists, which is proba-
bly more than she signed up for. Her bravery
in some ways did change the country.
– Valur Gunnarsson
Mammút were on the cover of our first Air-
waves tie-in. They were so young when we
took this photo. I thought it was so expres-
sive—and it matched the optimism that we
had when we approached this festival. When
I took over the year I wanted to get away from
the superficial, hype-and-stereotype writing
that the Icelandic and foreign media were do-
ing on the festival. I felt if we could just send
reporters out to write honestly about every
band, it’d be a huge departure from anything
we’d seen before in festival coverage. What
still stuns me about the whole Airwaves proj-
ect is that we’re the only magazine I’ve come
across to make any effort to do something
like this: to actually report on music instead
of massage press releases.
– Bart Cameron
This was the fourth issue of Grapevine, our
first cover interview and in some ways the
first issue that we were truly happy with. De-
spite his influence on his sometime collabo-
rator Björk and pretty much everyone else in
Icelandic music, Megas is largely unknown
abroad, which perhaps goes with being a
brilliant lyricist in one of the world’s smallest
languages. During the interview, we talked
about pretty much everything except his
career, and it was very interesting to get the
Megas world view. And nice to leave your
hero holding an even higher opinion of him.
– Valur Gunnarsson
+
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND
www.grapevine.is
OMG!
Strætó is finally
stepping into
the 21st century
Glitnir CEO Lárus
Welding made over
$3.000 per day in 2009
LOL!
London's Mayor
vs. Reykjavík's
ROFL!
RIFF promises
plenty of fun times
BRB
Watching whales,
rowing boats
WTF!
IN THE ISSUE Issue 15 • 2010 • September 24 - October 7 COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE!
T

SPORTSDANCING TRAVEL MUSIC CHOCOLATE
YOUR FREE COPY THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND
× 2012
November 9
- December 7
Issue 17
Do it during
lunchtime!
NBA-rejects find
solace in Iceland!
Drive these fjörds
forever...
Awesome
#airwaves12
moments!
Yummy Prince Polo
is still the king!
Icelandic architecture is mostly kind of awful, really (despite
the odd gem). You've thought this, and you are not alone. In
our feature, artist/writer Hallgrímur Helgason examines the
depressing surroundings of his childhood, the problem of
"personal expression" in Icelandic architecture, the freak show
of the Icelandic churches, "Lobbyism" as an architectural trend,
the jealousy of architects towards artists, and more! Page 16
Complete
Reykjavík Listings
Lots of
cool events+ Download the FREE Grapevine Appy Hour app!Every happy hour in town in your pocket. Available on the App store and on Android Market.
A lot of Reykjavík is aptly described as "what happens when you let contractors design buildings and neighbourhoods."
Hallgrímur
Helgason
Rips Icelandic
Architecture
A New One
GV 4, 2003
GV 15, 2008
GV 3, 2009
GV 15, 2010
GV 2, 2004 GV 14, 2005 GV 8, 2006
GV 3, 2007
I was filling in for Haukur this issue while
he drove around Iceland in one of those
Happy Campers campervans. I thought
it went pretty well although Haukur had
prepped most of it before he left and Sve-
inn Birkir came in to help too. I have since
learned that making Grapevine issues is a
lot more work than it was for me this first
time. In Grapevine’s ninth year, this cer-
tainly wasn’t the first time the annual Gay
Pride celebration featured in an August
issue, but we thought an interview with
Hörður Torfason made for a nice twist. Not
only is he Iceland’s first openly gay man,
but he also played a large role in the story
of Iceland’s ‘Pots & Pans revolution,’ which
the world had been watching so closely.
– Anna Andersen
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND
www.grapevine.is
PAGE 23
CONSTITUTION
We are making a
new one!
LungA - G! Festival
Verslunarmannahelgi!
CULTURE
Gay Pride info and
schedule
MUSIC
Cut Copy are awesome
TRAVEL
A fancy pullout
dedicated to ...
FESTIVALS
IN THE ISSUE Issue 11 • 2011 • July 29 - August 11 COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE!+
NO LAWS
ON LOVE
I C E L A N D ' S F I R S T O P E N L Y G A Y M A N S E T S T H E R E C O R D S T R A I G H T
TRAVEL:
12 PAGES
OF OUTSIDE
REYKJAVÍK!
GV 11, 2011 GV 12, 2012
6The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 7 — 2013
PREPARING
FOR TAKE OFF
Mammút and 90 other local bands rock Airwaves
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Why Public Social Security Numbers Work
Spelunking extraordinaire: Nick Cave and Reykjanes Caving
Plus everything you need to know about Airwaves
Franz Ferdinand Insults Icelandic Football and that’s before the interview starts
We’ve Got Your Number: Why Public Social Security Numbers Work
Spelunking extraordinaire: Nick Cave and Reykjanes Caving
Plus everything you need to know about Airwaves
Franz Ferdinand Insults Icelandic Football and that’s before the interview starts
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