Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.03.2016, Qupperneq 35

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What Is
Folk Music,
Högni?
Högni
Egilsson
prepares
to play
Reykjavík
Folk Festival
By York Underwood
Photo by Art Bicnick
The first time Snorri Helgasson and
Högni Egilsson worked together,
they painted sheds for Reykjavík
Energy in the hillsides of Reykjavík.
Snorri, the musician who manages
The Reykjavík Folk Festival, noticed
that the then-16-year-old Högni
hadn’t been exposed to enough mu-
sic and started lending him albums
by Blur, The Beatles, The Rolling
Stones, and more. From there, Högni
dove into jazz, indie, classical, elec-
tronic music. Music became precious
to him.
Snorri and Högni will work togeth-
er again when Högni, now an estab-
lished musician and songwriter, per-
forms at The Reykjavík Folk Festival
on Saturday March 12 at Kex Hostel.
We sat down with Högni to get his
opinion on folk, the festival and the
nature of music.
Have you been a part of the
Reykjavík Folk Festival before?
No, this is my first time. I put togeth-
er my solo show this fall and Snorri
asked if I wanted to come to the fes-
tival. I don’t know if I’m “folk” mu-
sic; you’d have to get your definition
for it from someone else. I’ve always
thought of folk music as music of the
people—at least that’s what it was in
the past.
There was sacred music, which
was the music that was played in
church. Then there was secular mu-
sic, troubadours travelling town to
town across Europe singing songs
about legends, heroes, or mourning
and love. They were storytellers. It’s
in the 20th century that the term be-
came more narrow.
So you’re not influenced by folk
music directly?
Oh I was, I guess. Paul Simon, Joan
Baez, Joni Mitchell, they were all
great storytellers and songwriters,
accompanied by beautiful music
plucked on a guitar or some other
instrument. But that can’t be the easy
definition of folk music: nice lyrics
and acoustic guitars.
Is there a way to define folk music?
Well, let’s look at electronic music
and hip-hop, which are really rel-
evant today. Electronic music has a
linear progression in its songs. The
rhythm picks up, the beat is dropped,
and there’s an ecstatic peak. It’s ex-
pressive. It goes on a journey and tells
a story. Hip-hop is different. You look
at the big stars, Drake, Future, whom-
ever. These songs are an installment.
They have a series of chords in
some sort of key, but very ambiguous.
It’s a unique sound and interesting. It
seems like it could go on forever. Rap
music is an installation. It’s like the-
atre music with a verbal overlap.
The functionality of rap is differ-
ent than other genres, and though its
quality may be debatable, it might be
a better structure musically for deliv-
ering a message.
How does that relate to folk music?
Recently, there was some controversy
around the group Reykjavíkurdætur
[a 21-member female Icelandic hip-
hop collective that focuses on com-
bating the patriarchy], people were
saying, “This isn’t real music.” And
this got me thinking. Reykjavíkurdæ-
tur is delivering a message and dis-
rupting a system in a way that other
progressive-minded music groups
can’t do, or aren’t willing to do.
Besides them having an effect on
youth culture and young women,
they are opening up sexuality. They
are bringing sexuality into the insti-
tutions. That’s a progressive and very
important mode of thinking. That’s
activism, which might be more in the
spirit of the folk music of the 60s than
someone strumming an acoustic gui-
tar. If you’re going to label something
folk just because it sounds like some-
thing from 50 years ago, that doesn’t
make sense. It’s about the message.
The Reykjavík Folk Festival takes
place from March 10-12 at Kex Hostel.
SHARE: gpv.is/hogni
“Reykjavíkurdætur are bringing
sexuality into the institutions.
That’s activism, which might be
more in the spirit of the folk
music of the 60s than someone
strumming an acoustic guitar.”