Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.01.2016, Blaðsíða 18

The biggest music story to come out
of Iceland in 2015 was arguably Vag-
inaboys, the anonymous, maybe-or-
maybe-not-a-supergroup, masked elec-
tro-pop-R&B crusaders who released
an EP called ‘Icelandick’, played already
iconic sets at Airwaves, and made mu-
sic that managed to be sexy, sad, weird
and creepy all at once—no small feat for
a band who dropped their debut single
on Soundcloud a little over a year ago,
with no fanfare to speak of. Their vid-
eos have also left a mark on our collec-
tive psyche—VHS-ripped images of
woman simulating sex acts on colorful
backgrounds, 80s-esque neon logos
emblazoned across the screen. What
makes Vaginaboys seem so fresh is their
amazing aesthetic sense: it's clear that
everything they do is painstakingly
thought-out, calibrated and unveiled ac-
cordingly. Nonchalance is so 2000s.
In keeping with seasonal tradition,
they even released a wonky Christmas
song last month, “Jólalag” (“Christmas
Song”), complete with sleigh bells and
their own trademark autotuned vocals.
It seems like, from their name to their
approach to marketing (or lack thereof),
Vaginaboys expertly walk the line be-
tween comedy and seriousness, novelty
and sincerity, sex and love.
It’s fitting that our expert panel de-
cided to name their début single, “El-
skan af því bara,” as Song Of The Year
2015. A nice cap to a good year.
We caught up with an anonymous
Vaginaboy over email right after ringing
in the New Year, and it turns out they
are setting their sights on new horizons
in 2016, between expanding their live
show out of Iceland, writing songs in
English, and just generally spreading
the gospel far and wide. Godspeed, Vag-
inaboys. Godspeed.
What a year!
What is your best Vaginaboys-
related memory of 2015? Shows,
lyric, audience?
Oh where should we begin! Well, we
just started doing shows in May, and a
lot has been going on for us since, for-
tunately. To be honest, I guess our best
memory is how our debut song blew up
and we just took it from there. Around
the beginning of the year Sin Fang’s Sin-
dri asked us if we could perform with
them, which resulted in our debut con-
cert at Húrra. It was amazing to see so
many people show up, and the reception
we got was really heartwarming. We
played a lot of shows after that, and most
of them were pretty packed. We did five
shows at Airwaves and every single one
of them went beyond our expectations.
It was also kind of sexy to get a call from
KEXP to perform for their sound and
camera crew at the KEX Hostel, to wake
up a few tourists.
It's always interesting, yet
unusual, when non-English pop
acts with an obvious potential for
international success choose to
sing in their native language. Why
do Vaginaboys sing in Icelandic?
Yeah. We just kind of felt like it. It's
easier to relate to natives through their
own language. I guess people in Iceland
were seeking more love-inspired music
in their native language.
Masked marauders
A lot of the time, performing
anonymously adds a level of
immediate notoriety to your band
(think: Daft Punk, The Knife,
Burial, etc). What exactly is the
reason Vaginaboys decide to wear
masks?
Yeah, it's funny. The reason is that we
don't really aspire to become publicly
known faces. We do music for our love
of music rather than to reach some kind
of social status, and if we wouldn't per-
form, very few people could potentially
relate to our music. It's basically done to
keep our private stuff private, and our
music stuff music.
Is your use of autotune another
level to the anonymity, or is it
purely an aesthetic choice?
We see the vocals as an instrument, and
adding autotune makes it more easy to
work with, and sometimes it rhymes
better with our music. You're also much
quicker to produce and record songs
that way, especially when you're do-
ing everything yourself in a low-budget
home studio.
Explain the title of your EP,
‘Icelandick’: simple
pun, or is there
more meaning
there?
The plan is to do more
songs in English, so
that was kind of our
goodbye to the Ice-
landic lyrics for a
while. Simply naming
it ‘Icelandic’ was not
interesting enough,
and when we figured
“dick” goes very well
with “vagina,” it was
love at first sight.
The video for “Ekki
nóg” fits perfectly
with the band's
aesthetic—sexual,
wobbly, old-school
yet futuristic. How
did the treatment
come about—who
are the women in
the video?
Thank you so much.
We know some talent-
ed people from when
we were doing graffiti
and I checked a few of
them who have gradu-
ated from art school
and they were kind
enough to help us. The
women are friends of
ours who made the
video.
You've described
your music as “romantic,” yet the
name Vaginaboys, the masks,
and all that, they convey a level
of sexual detachment, coldness.
Can you describe what about your
music makes it romantic to you?
The lyrics bring the romance. Our Eng-
lish-speaking friends will get to know
them soon enough, there's a lot of new
stuff on the way.
Book some Vaginaboys!
Obviously the Icelandic music
community is small but very
prolific. How do Vaginaboys fit in?
We are doing pretty good. It's amaz-
ing to feel how everybody in the scene
sticks together, and it's heartwarming
to feel the love when we meet fellow
musicians, like backstage for example.
Perhaps there's something about mu-
sic’s ability to bring people together that
makes them so likeable, or perhaps only
the likeable people produce music here.
We have yet to figure that out.
Who came up with the logo? From
your social media presence,
it looks like it's becoming a bit
ubiquitous, no?
Björn Loki, the man behind our first
music video, made the logo for us. We
produced a few T-shirts and baseball
caps that Macland at Laugavegur is sell-
ing for us. We've been making that peace
sign our main trademark for now, and
the sales are going pretty well—hope-
fully people are satisfied with their ap-
parel.
Any resolutions for 2016? What
are your musical ambitions for
the new year?
We're going to keep experimenting and
bringing new talent to the crew. Our
main goal for now is to nail the Sónar
show at Harpa in February. Then we'll
be playing at Secret Solstice in June. We
hope to be able to do more DJ sets in Ice-
land and abroad. If anybody reading this
knows any good clubs in Europe and the
US please hit us up at info@vaginaboys.
com.
This was a fun discussion, and
reaching a conclusion was far
from easy, as 2015 brought many
great tunes. In the end, our panel
reached a consensus, agreeing
that Vaginaboys’ breakout hit
“Elskan Af Því Bara” (“Baby Just
Because”) should take the cake,
because it’s “so fucking refresh-
ing,” as one panellist put it. “What
a breath of fresh air—‘Elskan’
manages to be retro, poppy, ex-
perimental, detached and wholly
sincere all at the same time,”
they continued. The panel was
also impressed with Vaginaboys’
original sound and vision: “While
most local purveyors of nu-RnB
take after Drake and The Week-
nd a little too much, Vaginaboys’
approach to songwriting—and
their overall aesthetic—is whol-
ly unique. Nothing else around
sounds quite like it—serious
RnB, with soul and guts.”
2014: Prins Póló – “París Norðursins”
2013: Sin Fang – “Young Boys”
2012: Moses Hightower – “Háa C”
Song of the Year
18 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 1 — 2016
Song of the Year
Börn won this category hands down,
drawing admiration from all quarters.

Said one of our panellists: “The power
and energy they produce on stage is
just enormous. They are fun and in-
spiring and angry and tight as fuck, ex-
uding a kind of raw, primal power that
could fill any venue.”
They even appeal to folks who don’t
normally go for that whole “punk”
thing. As one of our panellists noted:
“It’s not the type of music I listen to at
home, but their performances always
thrill me.”
As much as they probably hate the
thought, their appearance also factors
in their appeal: “They come off as a
gang of nerdy cool misfits, but as they
start playing you get the feeling that
they might be a little bit dangerous.”
2014: Pink Street Boys
2013: Grísalappalísa
2012: Gusgus
Live Band Of The Year:
Börn
Song of the year:
Vaginaboys
- Elskan af því bara
For The Love Of Music
By: Cameron Cook
Live Band of