Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.09.2015, Side 40

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RESTAURANT
ÍSAFOLD
Agent Fresco singer Arnór Dan’s last
three years involved a kind of Tartini
tone, when the tune of his ordinary life
was upset in 2012 by a violent assault.
He walked away from it with a broken
eye socket, and though it healed, the
emotional scars still haunt him.
Sitting in his minimalistic, IKEA-
furnished downtown apartment with
a few pints between us, Arnór tells
me how this psychological trauma af-
fected him, resulting in panic attacks,
social anxiety, tunnel vision, and,
at his worst, hallucinations. “I once
woke up in the middle of the night
and saw some strange man standing in
my room,” he says. “I’ve never been so
freaked out in my life.”
What upset him most was when
his mental health started taking a toll
on his voice. He likens singing at the
time to the frustration of trying to play
a guitar that’s out of tune. “The mental
absolutely affects the physical in this
sense,” he states. “I refrained from
seeking help for too long.”
His only solace came from his
international tours with composer
Ólafur Arnalds, where every day was
different. But back at home, he had
a hard time dealing with his social
anxiety, isolating himself instead of
hanging out with his friends. “I didn’t
want to go out for a beer, because I was
obsessed with finishing the album,”
he says. “It drove a wedge between
me, the rest of the band, and my girl-
friend.”
The road to recovery took years,
and he admits there were a lot of
things he should have done differently.
But one thing is certain: the hardships
served as a catalyst for what became
‘Destrier’.
Carving their own path
Agent Fresco have always been uncon-
ventional. As a band, their influences
involve elements of pop, math rock,
emo, nu-metal, prog, jazz, classical,
and more. They deftly avoid genre
classifications—in Arnór’s mind, part-
ly because the group is anything but
homogeneous. Their sound is made
from the combination of contrasts—
for example, when Arnór’s chaotic
songwriting style meshes with gui-
tarist Þórarinn Guðnason’s complex,
structured compositions.
“It would be so easy for us to fol-
low some sound or trend,” he says,
“but instead we choose to go a dif-
ferent route, working with people we
knew we’d clash with, to make for
more interesting music. You can hear
that on ‘Destrier’. Every song there is
so different, they end up existing in
their own soundscapes. We could eas-
ily have gotten a math rock or metal
person to mix for us, but following
what’s been done before is just a waste
of time and not why we write music to
begin with.”
Arnór says that it’s his emotions of
rage and anxiety that lie behind ‘Des-
trier’, rather than the sad, melancholic
undertone of 2010 ‘A Long Time Lis-
tening’. This, Arnór tells me, came
partly from him throwing himself into
the album straight after the attack. In
hindsight, this wasn’t a good idea, he
says, but it allowed him to funnel his
inner turmoil into a creative outlet.
From our conversation, it’s appar-
ent that Arnór is a very empathetic
person (we spend a good while talking
about Syria, politics, and internet bul-
lying before starting our interview).
But he says that the attack turned this
aspect of his personality into hyper-
sensitivity, and his fuse grew short. All
it took to make him angry was check-
ing Facebook or news sites.
“Listening to the songs now, I can
hear the anxiety in my voice,” he says.
“I can hardly recognise the person I
was back then. But I think it’s impor-
tant to talk about these emotions and
attempt to deal with them.”
A personal journey in
public
Arnór recollects how, as a teenager, he
had a very personal connection with
the music he listened to. With so much
of himself and his emotional journey
in his lyrics, he’s been humbled by the
reception to the album, from fans and
reviewers alike.
“I read every review we get,” he
says, “and it’s unreal to see people giv-
ing it nine or ten out of ten. People are
really getting into the album, analysing
Rage Quelled By
Time’s Passing
Following a rough period,
Agent Fresco's singer is primed to deliver
Agent Fresco’s new album ‘Destrier’ starts with a series of disparate sounds that slowly meld
into a Tartini tone—that is, when two notes play at a certain frequency, fooling the brain into
hearing a third note. Although this extra note doesn’t exist, we believe it’s there, and it affects
us as much as any other sound.
Photo Anna Domnick
Words Gabríel Benjamin
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October 1 @ 21:00 Harpa, Silfurberg 3,900 ISKAgent Fresco