Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2015, Blaðsíða 48

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Þingholtsstræti 5 - tel: 595 8535
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Top floor CenterHotel Arnarhvoll - Ingólfsstræti 1 / 595 8545
RESTAURANT
ÍSAFOLD
Come on
people now
Melodica was established in Australia
in 2007, and has since seen iterations
spread through Central and Northern
Europe. The festival came to Iceland
in 2008, aided by the efforts of of local
singer-songwriter Svavar Knútur (he
just released a new song—check it out
on his Facebook). With the 2015 Reyk-
javík edition about to commence, we
checked in with the man who started it
all, 33-year-old songwriter Pete Uhlen-
bruch.
Cheerful and attentive, Pete relays
the story of the first ever Melodica. It
came to be, he says, because he wanted
his songwriter friends to get to know
one another and perhaps collaborate.
Struck with an idea, Pete started mak-
ing some phone calls—in the space of
two hours he had planned a festival
that would take place in three weeks
time, having secured a venue, a func-
tional PA system and performances
from eighteen musicians. In the years
since, Melodica has grown and spread
far and wide, while maintaining the
DIY grassroots spirit and the pay-what-
you-want policy.
Smile on
your brother
So Pete, what sets Melodica
apart from other festivals?
When you have a regular concert, it’s
two or three bands playing, and it goes
something like this: you sound check,
you play, you have a beer, and then you
go home—it offers limited interactions.
Larger festivals are alienating, too, be-
cause you have so many people and
so much going on, leaving artists with
little time to hang out together and get
the creative juices flowing. Melodica,
on the other hand, is focused on some-
thing else: it’s about bringing passion-
ate artists together, offering them a
chance to spend time with likeminded
people, and letting their creativity in-
fect each other.
At this point, Melodica is a network
of festivals spread across Europe, so
artists often meet up once they’ve got-
ten onto the circuit, resulting in tours
being booked. Like with Poems for
Jamiro from Hamburg, and Meadows
Ever Bleeding from Sweden, who went
on a mini-tour together before coming
to Melodica Reykjavík—by the time the
festival comes around, they’ll already
be in the zone and know each other’s
stuff, so there will be a noticeable and
palpable camaraderie between them.
The audience picks up on that kind of
stuff, and that’s what I love most: see-
ing these small choirs spontaneously
pop up.
Everybody
get together
Did you feel there was any extra
red tape involved when starting
the festival in Iceland?
No, quite the opposite actually. Things
are pretty much at arm’s length over
here, which is rather nice. It allows
Melodica to be sort of like a guerrilla
festival—it’s very DIY grassroots, with
no real hierarchy—just people helping
each other out. All you need is a venue,
and then it’s like couchsurfing, with
a stage: we invite musicians to come
here, and then we find them a place
to crash where they get to meet each
other.
Is this what artists find appeal-
ing about the festival?
Yeah, I think the fun thing about
couchsurfing is that it allows you to
drop straight into a lifestyle, where you
bypass the distance between the tourist
and local cultures. When you have a lo-
cal hosting you, they take you to places
and look after you, which chimes well
with Melodica as a festival run by art-
ists and for artists.
It’s like, ”come stay at my place, and
then we’ll all go out for hot dogs, and
then brainstorm some ideas together”—
a lot of spontaneous collaboration
tends to happen this way between lo-
cal and international artists. They’re all
hanging out, and connecting, and then
they’ll have an idea for a song, or need a
harmony for an existing one, and wind
up performing it together at the festi-
val. We try to give artists more than one
opportunity to play, especially if they’re
from overseas, so if other artists see
someone they want to join forces with,
they can.
Try to love
one another
And how do you keep it financial-
ly sustainable with the pay-what-
you-want admission?
[chuckles] Well, we encourage people
to contribute, but we want it to be ac-
cessible to individuals of all income
streams, because we like the idea of
a communitarian open philosophy.
“Couchsurfing,
With A Stage”
Iceland’s summer season is filled with festivals. So many festivals. Some take place in small
and remote fishing towns. Others are spread out over larger settlements. And yet others take
place in the city. The festivals, they come in all shapes and sizes—but few are as modest as
Melodica Reykjavík.
Photo Art Bicnick and Nanna Dís
Words Gabríel Benjamin
MUSIC
FESTIVAL
August 28-30Melodica Café Rosenberg and Loft Hostel Entry by donation.
The Melodica Reykjavík festival
is just around the corner