Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.05.2012, Qupperneq 20

A lot of the preemptive commentary
about ‘Valtari’ has characterized
the album as a homecoming, a sort
of ‘return to ambience.’ As though
the last album had been a weird
mutation, and now you’re somehow
going back...
Jón þór Birgisson: back to basics.
Right. do you think of the record
that way at all? As a harking back,
maybe to ‘()’ or ‘ágætis byrjun’?
Jónsi: We didn’t really think of it like
that.
Georg Hólm: That was not the point of
departure, at least, when we were mak-
ing this record.
Jónsi: It just developed that way. But
we had had this idea for many years to
make an ambient record—like purely
ambient, somehow.
Some of the recordings on ‘Val-
tari’ go back as far as six or seven
years...
Georg: Yes. And at the time they
weren’t necessarily thought of as be-
longing to this record. They were just
some recordings, some ideas. It wasn’t
until 2009 that we had our first session,
specifically intending to make this re-
cord.
Jónsi: We’ve given up three times since
then, I think.
Georg: Yeah.
Jónsi: Starting, stopping, putting
things aside.
What made you decide then to fi-
nally release the record? Or to do
it now?
Jónsi: We just had enough material.
And when we listened to it again after
getting many years of distance from it,
we realised that we actually had a re-
cord on our hands.
Georg: And that it was maybe better
than we had thought.
Given that the material was de-
veloped over such a long period
of time, and that it was maybe not
originally conceived of as a whole,
was it a challenge to make the piec-
es fit together?
Georg: I think that was maybe the most
difficult part of the record, really. Be-
cause it was all so different. So we had
to somehow mold it all together.
Jónsi: We took a few months, just now,
to finalise it, and then something just
came over it.
Georg: Some kind of wholeness.
There’s a quote on the band’s web-
site where you say, Georg, that this
is the only Sigur Rós record you lis-
ten to at home, at your leisure. Why
is that?
Georg: This is maybe not the first re-
cord that I’ve listened to at home. I
said that just in conversation with our
manager, after we had just finished the
record. I was telling him that I was re-
ally happy with it, because this was a
record that we had given up on sev-
eral times. And personally, before we
came together for that final session, if
you can call it that, I had in my head
just sort of written it off. I just thought:
no, we’re not going to finish this album.
We’ll just throw it out, in its entirety.
You couldn’t untangle it.
Georg: Right. I wasn’t understanding it.
But I stand by what I said, that some-
times when I’m driving my car or when
I’m sitting at home and I’m alone—
which, however, isn’t often—then I like
putting it on. There’s something about
it... there are all sorts of images that
come up in my head. But maybe it’s also
just that I’m so tired of the other stuff,
you know, that I wouldn’t necessarily go
and listen to.
Jónsi: I think there’s something strange
about listening to your own music.
Georg: It’s so self...
Jónsi: Indulgent.
Georg: Exactly.
Jónsi: ‘Oh, damn this is good.’
Georg: Extremely weird.
Jónsi : ‘Listen to that solo!’
You hear of a lot of hip-hop artists
doing that. I think Kanye just sits at
home listening...
Jónsi: To himself. (Laughs.) Right. It’s
just that you listen to it so much when
you’re making it. In the studio a whole
year goes into listening to the same
songs over and over again. So you do
get sick of it in a certain way, it just be-
comes one big mash. But maybe when
you’re older you do pick up these re-
cords again and listen to them.
Georg: I think it has to do with the
memories too. And maybe also that
you’re still thinking critically about the
songs.
You don’t have any distance from
them.
Georg: Exactly. But for example I lis-
tened to ‘Von’ the other day, because
it was being re-released on vinyl, and I
just needed to do a test-drive, to check
the sound quality, nothing else. And
suddenly I started really enjoying the
music. It occurred to me that this was
a damn good record. Just, really good.
Sounded better than I remembered.
Is it different when you perform the
songs live? Harder to get sick of
them that way, because it’s an ex-
perience that’s different each time?
Jónsi: That just depends on how much
you drink.
(Laughter.)
No, but sometimes it can be tedious
and sometimes it feels like a job but
usually it’s incredibly fun. To play in new
places for new people. People give you
a certain energy. It’s just fun playing for
an audience if everything is as it should
be: if there’s good sound on the stage
and we are in good spirits. Then it’s in-
credibly fun.
Georg: It does depends a lot on mood.
If there is the right kind of atmosphere
on stage it can be fun to play any song,
really. But then there can be...
Jónsi: There can be days when every-
thing is bad.
Georg: A bad concert or just a bad
song in the middle of a concert.
Jónsi: If the sound is bad then it’s just
absolute hell.
What else are you listening to, for
enjoyment?
Jónsi: I’ve been listening a lot to the
radio show, Morgunstund með KK, [on
Icelandic National Broadcasting Ser-
vice (RÚV), an NPR equivalent]. I don’t
wake up that early but I listen to it on-
line, almost everyday. Listen to it and
read the papers. That’s really nice.
They play vinyl on Fridays.
Jónsi: Exactly. It’s great. Also my boy-
friend has been working with Julianna
Barwick, so that’s been playing at home
a lot. There’s no getting by it. But it’s
quite nice, of course.
Georg: I’m trying but I can’t think of
anything.
Jónsi: You just listen to Sigur Rós.
(Laughter.)
Georg: There is one song I have been
listening to a lot: “The Book of Love.” It’s
actually a cover song by Peter Gabriel, I
found out. I didn’t know it was a cover,
I just thought it was Peter Gabriel. But
I discovered it by accident, went out
for a run the other day and it came on
shuffle and since then I’ve been com-
pletely hooked. Incredible song. That’s
what I’ve been listening to these days.
Jónsi: One song.
(Laughter.)
Georg: Yes, just one song. I’m sort of
bad with music. I somehow just end up
listening to the old classics. Like Led
Zeppelin or something.
Jónsi: My boyfriend Alex has also been
working with Sin Fang, so I’ve been lis-
tening a lot to him, to his new album.
Georg: That’s a nice way to discover
something new.
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN
‘Valtari’—Sigur Rós’ much-anticipated
sixth-release—is risky.
Not that the band hasn’t, in its
18-years-active, established itself as
a creative juggernaut of sorts, and
cultivated an insatiable fan base. But
‘Valtari’ is risky in the way all matters
of the heart are risky. Because it is
uncalculated. Because it is driven by—
devoted to—an abstract sentiment.
Because it is blind to anything but the
stars.
‘Valtari’ is also the record that
nearly wasn’t. during over three years
in labour, the group abandoned the
project at least three times before giving
it its final audition, the push that led to
the definitive scheduling of the album’s
release on May 28.
For when it comes to releasing
music, Sigur Rós offers us only that
which comes organically to the band—
regardless of, but not despite (as ‘Með
suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust’
proved) the material’s marketability. It
is in this way that ‘Valtari’ emerges as a
testament to the band’s fierce creative
independence, not only in content but
also in process. Because apparently
even the world’s most successful artists
struggle with knots in their imaginations,
and to this creative loyalty, ‘Valtari’ is
likewise a tribute.
In the attic of Iðnó, I sat down with
Jón þór Birgisson (“Jónsi”) and Georg
Hólm (“Goggi”) to discuss how the band
navigated the creative riddle of their
impending release.
Words by Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
Photography by Lilja Birgisdóttir