Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.10.2015, Blaðsíða 74

A Rush of Blood
To Your Genitals
“Vaginaboys Producer”
speaks!
You don’t want to reveal your
name. What should I call you, for
the purposes of this interview?
Just call me Vaginaboys Producer.
You’re not the singer?
Yes I am—I sing and produce, then I get
other people to perform, mix and master
the music with me.
I was under the impression that
there were only two of you. How
many Vaginaboys are there?
The core group consists of four people.
The power of random
YouTube browsing
“Elskan af því bara” blew up all
of the sudden this spring, but the
tune had been laying dormant
on YouTube for almost a year by
then. Why do you think it sud-
denly caught people’s ears?
I only uploaded the song to YouTube for
storage. It wasn’t supposed to go any-
where—I didn’t post it to Facebook or tell
anyone about it. For some reason, it start-
ed making the rounds all of the sudden.
Sin Fang picked up on it, and then Emms-
jé Gauti, and Gísli Pálmi were hitting us
up… and the song just kept spreading,
rousing people’s interests. At one point,
we heard there was a Facebook group
dedicated to uncovering our identities.
As our play-count kept stacking up, we
eventually started to put lot more energy
into the project.
So your popularity is likely the
result someone’s random You-
Tube browsing?
I guess so.
When you hit the scene, some
speculated that you were some
kind of supergroup, hence the
masks and hidden identities. Are
you some kind of supergroup?
Why the anonymity?
I am not allowed to comment on that.
Furthermore, we believe that the myste-
rious is sexier than the obvious.
Vaginaboys, vaginagirls
You perform in white masks,
that sort of look like those old
opera masks. Is there a reason
you chose that particular type of
mask?
It was really a last-minute decision before
our first gig. We had bought some white
masks to wear to the show, but when
we put them on we discovered that we
couldn’t really breathe. So we cut off the
bottom half. After the Sin Fang show, we
were sweaty and gross. The tiny nose slits
didn’t really facilitate breathing either, so
we expanded them.
Why the name, Vaginaboys?
Because it’s an obvious contradiction.
I noticed the term was being used in a
derogatory manner in hnakki circles
[“hnakkar” are Iceland’s version of
“brahs”] and found that to be really sad.
Why should having a vagina be a negative
thing? Don't we all come out of a vagina?
In that sense, all of us humans are vag-
inaboys and vaginagirls. I thought it was
paradoxical—if people start thinking our
band is cool, maybe being thought of as a
vaginaboy will become a positive thing.
Real men
Do you consider yourselves part
of the current wave of nu-R&B,
where male artists like Frank
Ocean and The Weeknd actively
work to subvert traditional ideas
of masculinity?
I like to think so. It’s just a manifestation
of the ongoing anti-machismo movement
that seeks to deconstruct typical ideas of
“manliness.” You don’t have to be macho
to be a “real” man—men think about love
just as much as women do. I like to ex-
press myself in music through this filter.
Who are some of your biggest
influences?
The Strokes and Spooky Black come to
mind, as does the sincere aura espoused
by artists like dj. flugvél og geimskip and
Agent Fresco. To name a few.
Are you working on an LP?
We’re releasing our first official single
on Spotify, iTunes and such places very
soon—however, we’ve stockpiled so
much material that it’s hard to choose
what to master and release. We have to
find the right time to work on it, and pick
the best of what we have to put out there.
What can we expect from you at
Airwaves?
Our show will be bigger and grander than
anything we’ve done before. We hired a
stylist. We’ll have nine people on stage.
We’re going all in for this one. Prepare
for heart-warming sensual vibes, goose-
bumps and a rush of blood flowing to
your genital area.
Any final thoughts?
See us at Airwaves, listen to our tunes
on Soundcloud. Also, you should check
out an Airwaves party/art show that’ll
go down at Járnbraut 1, at Grandi, on
November 4 and 5. We’ll be premiering a
brand new music video there.
It was just spring that Vaginaboys burst onto the scene from out
of nowhere. All of the sudden, their breakout hit “Elskan af því
bara” (“Baby Just Because”) started spreading across Icelandic so-
cial media circles at an alarming rate. No one had a clue who they
were, but everyone fell in love all the same, their unique brand
of ice-cold, sexy 808 auto-tuned R’n’B resonating in hip-hop and
indie circles alike. The ‘boys made their stage show opening up for
Sin Fang in May, and they’ve barely let up since, releasing a steady
trickle of new material through their Soundcloud, performing
shows all over town, all the while successfully managing to keep
their true identities under wraps. I met up with one of Vaginaboys’
members (heh) for a chat about manhood, dealing with newfound
popularity and masked performances.
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