Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.09.2014, Blaðsíða 24

24
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2014
day and attempt to fully deconstruct the
materials we had to work with. I imagine
that if we were to redo the process, the
outcome of the video would be complete-
ly different. And that’s the exciting part of
that project; it almost makes you want to
go back and do it again, just to see if a new
approach would take us somewhere else,
teach us something new.”
She continues: “I like the idea that we
are a studio that thrives when the process
is experimental, when we don’t foresee
what’s coming next, and I think that’s
what happened with Gusgus. Working
like that scares people, and sometime the
outcome might not be what everyone ex-
pects. But, it’s exciting. And it’s why I love
being at karlssonwilker.”
SURPRISE!
Sandra bids farewell, and puts Hjalti back
on the line.
I ask him how it came to be that their
video wound up being for the album’s
title track, as opposed to “Crossfade” as
they had anticipated when we last talked.
“When we shot the footage and
for most of the process, we indeed had
‘Crossfade’ in mind. We went back and
forth with the band for a long time—it
was quite a strenuous process. In the end,
they decided they rather wanted to use
our graphics for ‘Mexico’ as they didn’t
quite feel they fit the vibe of the other
song.”
Hjalti explains that this came as a bit
of a surprise, and they were initially frus-
trated by the switchover. “We had to take
all the visuals we had been working on
over a long period of time and sync them
to a different song. We weren’t sure the
transition was even possible, but in the
end we found it worked a lot better,” he
says.
“Creating the basis for the video was
excruciatingly slow and time consuming,
so you can see why we were reluctant to
switch songs mid-process. The brunt of
the work, however, was the rendering
and processing of the footage into 3D
characters—editing
the footage to make
it fit wasn’t as big of
a deal as we antici-
pated. So it all came
together in the end.”
Certain ele-
ments from the
“Mexico” video
have been extended
and will serve as the
stage graphics for
the world tour Gus-
gus just embarked
on, Hjalti reveals,
“I much look for-
ward to seeing how
our work looks live,
we all plan on going
when they play their
New York date.”
We shift to more
general conversation about the album’s
artwork and style. “The title track video
references all the artwork connected to
the album, as most of it is indeed derived
from there,” Hjalti says. “We decided to
make it really busy, throwing in a pleth-
ora of different forms, colours and styles.
Most music videos keep with a specific
style throughout, and we sort of decided
to go against that. We wanted to bombard
the viewer with stuff—to overload it—so
that it would be kind of too much, even.”
“We’ve gotten a good response so
far. Some have remarked that the video
makes them feel kind of dizzy, and that
it’s overloaded, which is fair enough—
that was our intention. We wanted to
make it as busy as possible.”
EVERYTHING’S
ALLOWED
Gusgus have always emphasized the vi-
sual aspect to their work—one could say
they present a fairly strong visual iden-
tity with each of their albums. Seeing as
Hjalti has been a fan of the band since the
‘90s, I ask him whether this affected the
way he approached
the project.
“Yeah, they’re a
very visual bunch.
It’s an interest-
ing case actually.
While most bands
stick with a single
logo and visual aes-
thetic throughout
their career, they
keep consistently
shifting everything
around—including
their members. It’s
gutsy of them, and
I think it’s worked
well throughout
their lifespan,” he
says.
“It also ensured
this was an interest-
ing project to work on. They never pre-
sented us with firm rules or a framework,
like: ‘We’re only using these two colours
for this albums.’ That’s usually how these
projects go, there’s always something
that’s explicitly requested, and some-
thing that’s forbidden. ‘Mexico’ on the
contrary was a very open process that
involved a lot of back and forth with the
band.”
Knowing that getting intimate with
people whose work you admire can often
shatter any illusions, and even turn you
off them completely, I can’t resist asking
Hjalti whether collaborating with Gus-
gus changed his perception of the band.
Does he still listen to them regularly, for
instance? Or is he taking a break from all
things Gusgus?
“No. Not at all,” he responds. “My en-
joyment of the band remains the same,
and I’m definitely not bored with the
music. There are maybe two or three
songs off ‘Mexico’ that I’m taking a break
from, as we played them so much during
the project, but I still like the album very
much.”
Who Is
karlssonwilker?

Megan Elevado, Director of
Creative Operations [top right]
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY.
Studied at New York University and
Parsons The New School for Design.
With karlssonwilker since 2013.

Sandra Shizuka, Graphic
Designer, Partner [top left]
From Portugal. Studied at Univer-
sity of Porto, Portugal, and in the
Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw,
Poland. With karlssonwilker since
2011.

Hjalti Karlsson, karlsson
[long hair]
Born and raised in Reykjavík, Ice-
land. Studied at Parsons The New
School for Design, and has worked
in New York for the past two de-
cades.

Jan Wilker, wilker
[sitting down]
Grew up in Ulm, Germany. Gradu-
ated from the State Academy of Art
and Design, Stuttgart. A New Yorker
since the year 2000.
How important is the visual as-
pect to how a band or artists pres-
ents itself? Is it a necessary factor,
or more of an afterthought?
Speaking as a fan of music, I would say
that the visual aspect always gives some
hint of the thought behind a project. The
visuals often present an angle on a given
project, an entry point to it maybe, an
attempt to position it in a visual dimen-
sion and context. As a musician, I find it
necessary to add a visual touch to what’s
being presented—the exterior needs to
be interesting as well as the interior, if
you will.
The packaging marks your first ex-
perience of an album or piece of music,
at least in the old-fashioned way that
was prevalent when I first started buy-
ing records. You’d take in the packag-
ing, the visuals, and then you’d spin the
record and experience the music while
studying the album cover. That first im-
pression was always tremendously im-
portant to me, it’s the face of the content,
how it introduces itself. Of course, the
music itself remains the most important
aspect, but when done right, visuals can
expand the listener’s experience and un-
derstanding of a record.
Shaping perception
Indeed, Gusgus has always placed
a big emphasis on the visual...
For our first shows, we created a lot of
visuals, with the intent of bringing the
music to another level, to add to the au-
dience’s perception and create a bigger
experience.
Visual media of course plays a huge
part in shaping one’s perception. Music
in itself is airy and kind of relative, but
when you combine it with images, you
can somehow make it tangible, more
real. Whether the reality that’s forged is
an abstract, figurative one; or the visu-
als basically illustrate the words—they
always serve to create a bigger overall
experience.
At least, that’s the goal that I and we
have been seeking.
But, while the visual can be a very
important factor, it is not a determin-
ing one. I love a lot of albums that bear
horrible artwork, for instance. Still, it’s
always the most fun when the two work
together and complement one another,
and as a musician you have a duty to try
to ensure this happens.
Have you involved yourself a lot in
this aspect of Gusgus?
I’ve always been greatly interested in
ensuring that our music is accompa-
nied by interesting visuals, and have
contributed many an idea through the
years. I’ve enjoyed a lot of input in the
music videos we’ve made, and then I’ve
meddled a lot in our album covers. I al-
ways have very strong opinions on those
things.
For us, process usually starts with
conversing and brainstorming with de-
signers, who then take an idea and move
it forward with varying amounts of free-
dom. Sometimes, they’ll just run with an
idea and see it to completion, others we
keep our hands in the pie until the very
end.
You could say I’m meddlesome in
this regard. But that’s because I think it
matters.
How did your collaboration with
karlssonwilker come about?
Hjalti [Karlsson] approached us around
the time we were making ‘Arabian
Horse,’ expressing an interest in work-
ing with us. The art for record was
already in process, but were very in-
terested in working with him and his
studio for our next endeavour. We had
seen some of what he and his studio had
made, and once we started working on
‘Mexico’ we found it rhymed well with
the music, the record’s atmosphere.
So we set up a meeting and started
throwing ideas back and forth. And now
it’s out, and we’re pleased with how it all
came out.
Dehumanized
Was the process of making the art
for ‘Mexico’ a pleasant one?
Yes. We’re happy with the results. The
world they [karlssonwilker] create and
work within is very special. And I know
it doesn’t necessarily appeal to every-
one, but the outcome of our collabora-
tion, and what they came up with, ap-
peal to me.
They also made a music video for
the title track, which is, how do I say, a
bit of an overflow of the ideas we went
through in the process of making the
album cover. It corresponds with the
cover, and we’re also using it as visuals
for our live show on the ‘Mexico’ tour.
The video for “Mexico” is basically
a barrage of all kinds of ideas and ap-
proaches that make up this distorted,
digital world. It’s sort of what’s left
when you’ve really removed the exte-
rior of humanity, or human impressions,
wholly transformed them into a digital,
independently surging environment.
It borders on the edge of noise, digital
noise. It’s aggressive stimulus, an over-
flow of information that’s being shoved
at you over a very short period.
If you watch the video, you’ll see it’s
dehumanized. What you know to be hu-
man, what moves like a human and is
a human at the core, has been skewed
and mutated. The human exterior has
been removed. I feel that’s a very inter-
esting approach. At the moment, we are
drowning in gadgets and electronics
and computers; we’re becoming puppets
of the mechanical—that digital virtual
world. And the video can be thought of
as an expression of that, or commentary
on it.
Images Make Music
More Tangible
Daníel Ágúst on the impor-
tance of the visual