Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.10.2015, Síða 46

The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 201518
Two years later, frontman Óskar Logi
Ágústsson clearly carries the stress of hav-
ing been on the road for so long. Despite
the excitement of performing at big fes-
tivals like Roskilde and Wacken, playing
upwards of 50 dates over a summer takes
its toll. And the shows themselves are the
easy part—Óskar tells me they’ve spent
most of the past few months crammed
into a small van with all of their gear, driv-
ing across Europe for up to eleven hours
at a time, suffering each others’ smelly feet
and loud snoring.
Now the trio is back home for a spell,
recharging their batteries and preparing to
celebrate their latest album, ‘Arrival’, with
a grand release show. I chat with Óskar at
Stofan café as he enjoys a much-needed
cup of coffee. As always, he is personable,
quick to laughter, a glint of excitement for
what’s to come sparkling in his eyes.
CLASSICS
For many young people, the idea of
touring through Europe and making
a living off of your music sounds like a
dream come true. What’s it like, being
21 and having already reached that cov-
eted plateau?
It’s all very surreal, and completely dif-
ferent than I had expected. I’m very
grateful for the opportunity, as it’s not a
given that people will receive your music
well—we’ve been lucky in getting the right
people with the right connections to take
an interest in us.
You play ‘70s inspired hard rock, that
doesn’t at all feel out of place com-
ing on after Deep Purple or Zeppe-
lin on classic rock radio. Why do you
choose to play such an old-timey style
of music?
Because it’s so much fun! There are a lot
of people that’ve asked us “you’re from
Iceland, why don’t you play pop music?”
Electro and black metal are Iceland’s two
main musical exports, but that’s not what
we’re interested in playing. I think a big
part of the beauty of living in Iceland is
that nobody expects to be able to make a
living playing their own original music, so
there’s less emphasis on “making it.” Peo-
ple create their music the way they want
to without compromising, and that’s what
we’ve been able to do.
TONGUE-IN-CHEEK
The video for “Expand Your Mind”
from ‘Voyage’ is loaded with refer-
ences to taking a trip on psychedelic
substances. How much do you guys,
playing psychedelic rock, drop acid or
do shrooms?
Not at all. I mean, I can’t speak for the oth-
er guys in the band, but I’m not interested
in any of that. I haven’t said this before in
an interview, but every song on ‘Voyage’
tells the tale of some absurd story or char-
acter, and “Expand Your Mind” is about an
encounter I had where these junkies were
trying to get me to partake with them, say-
ing “Dude, just try it, expand your mind!”
Another song that was a bit more contro-
versial but does the same thing is “Know
Your Place” [a song that caused an uproar
for its overtly misogynistic lyrics].
I really hoped that people would get it
at the time, and I panicked when everyone
thought we were endorsing these views.
But fuck it, it’s art, and there are plenty
of artists that write texts portraying trou-
bling characters and their thought pro-
cesses, like Nine Inch Nails. A large part
of the metal scene also does this, such as
Cannibal Corpse, and they’re not serial
killers, even if their lyrics often focus on
butchering people.
We’re from Iceland, one of the most
feminist countries in the world, and we’re
all feminists in the band, so I don’t know…
It was so absurd to us that people didn’t
get that we were saying these chauvinists
are assholes.
PROGGY PARTY
So what can you tell me about the
new album?
Oh, it’s good! It was released this May, and
has been well received. We recorded it in
January in a studio we set up in Borgar-
fjörður. We were isolated there for two
and a half weeks, writing, recording and
finessing the album. The first four songs
are much darker and heavier than the stuff
that’s on ‘Voyage’, the next three songs are
more party-friendly, and then the final
tracks are very proggy. I feel like it’s a very
cohesive album.
Are there any songs that you foresee
will cause as much controversy as
“Know Your Place” ?
No! [laughs] That song and album, they
were both experiments that we don’t need
to repeat.
So what can you tell me about the al-
bum release concert?
We’re going to play the album in its entire-
ty for the first time ever. We’ll be joined by
Magnús Jóhann from Electric Elephant,
who played keys on the album, so we can
perform our songs differently than when
it’s just the three of us. We’re working on
getting the sound as tight as possible, be-
cause we want to make sure it’ll be a once-
in-a-lifetime kind of show.
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39
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Tired And
Getting Old
(but not really)
The Vintage Caravan are
back in Iceland to celebrate
their new album
The Vintage Caravan have sure come a long way. As they released their second album, ‘Voy-
age’, they graduated from support slot jockeys to headliner status, their energetic stage pres-
ence attracting swathes of young, party-hungry millennials. They went on to sign with Nu-
clear Blast in 2013, subsequently relocating to Denmark, and started touring internationally
full time.
Photo Philippe Beck
Words Gabríel Benjamin
October 9 20:00 Gamla Bíó 2,900 ISK
“But fuck it,
it’s art, and
there are
plenty of art-
ists that write
texts portray-
ing troubling
characters and
their thought
processes,
like Nine Inch
Nails. A large
part of the
metal scene
also does this,
such as Canni-
bal Corpse, and
they’re not
serial killers,
even if their lyr-
ics often focus
on butchering
people.”
The Vintage Caravan