Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.07.2016, Síða 31

THE HOUSE AT EYRARBAKKI

Opening hours: May 1st - September 30th daily 11.00-18.00 or by an agreement
Tel: +354 483 1504 & +354 483 1082 | husid@husid.com | www.husid.com
Árnessýsla folk museum is located in Húsið,
the House, historical home of the Danish
merchants built in 1765. Húsið is one of the
oldest houses in Iceland and a beautiful
monument of Eyrarbakki´s time as the
biggest trading place on the south coast.
Today one can enjoy exhibitions about the
story and culture of the region, famous piano,
shawl made out of human hair and the kings
pot, are among items. Húsið prides itself with
warm and homelike atmosphere.
The House at Eyrarbakki
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We’re expecting a busy summer but you
can check-in 2 1/2 hours before departure
and have plenty of time for refreshments
and shopping in KEF.
We offer unlimited free Wi-Fi, many
charging stations and a range of nice
restaurants and stores. Icelandic design
and quality brands tax and duty free
at the Airport.
Seth Sharp is an American musi-
cian and performer living in Ice-
land. He is perhaps best known for
his Prince tribute shows, but since
moving here more than ten years
ago he has been in the spotlight for
numerous reasons. He is a musi-
cian in his own right, and has been
a popular DJ in downtown Reykja-
vík for many years—perhaps most
notably when a video of Wikileaks’
Julian Assange dancing at one
Sharp’s DJ gigs in Iceland circulat-
ed on YouTube a few years back.
On June 25, Seth’s band performed
a tribute concert to honour the
memory of The Purple One upon
his recent passing. He shared
some of his thoughts with us about
Prince, Assange’s dancing, and
what artists can learn from one of
pop’s iconic performers.
We first met in 2004, and you had
a Prince tribute band even then. Is
this something you’ve been doing
ever since?
It’s not the only thing I’ve been do-
ing. I have been writing, recording
and releasing my own music, too.
But I always come back to Prince
for musical inspiration. And for
me in Iceland, Prince was sort of
a way for me to push the envelope
for my own music. I can’t say I re-
member the exact moment, I re-
alised he was a genius but one of
the earliest things I appreciated
about him was how a black man
could present himself. The current
state of African-American men is
hypermasculinity. It’s very unusual
to see a black male celebrity come
from this hypermasculine culture,
defy convention, and still be con-
sidered heterosexual. I mean this
guy got away with wearing wom-
en’s underwear.
There are some uncomfortable
issues that come up when we talk
about Prince; especially regarding
homophobic remarks he’s made, or
his involvement with the Jehovah’s
Witnesses.
He got into a lot of trouble with
the gay community over remarks
he’s made about gay people in in-
terviews. Which is kind of mind-
blowing, I mean, he was one of the
icons of queer acceptance, and he
would even allude to not being het-
erosexual in the lyrics to some of
his songs. So I think it was a shock
for people to hear this homophobic
stuff. But I think as with any great
leader, I think people can look at
him and appreciate what he did for
the movement, even if they don’t
appreciate the man.
Being a musician yourself, I imagine
there were also aspects of Prince’s
songwriting and work ethic that
inspired you, too.
Yes. Prince was notorious for
working hard, and that’s one of the
things I picked up from him, too.
That kind of perfectionism; of not
being satisfied until you get some-
thing right.
I have to ask about the Julian
Assange dancing video.
Well, I was DJing one night at Gla-
umbar, spinning a lot of my own
material. When I saw Assange out
there dancing, I didn’t actually
know who he was. To me he was
just this old guy dancing. Which
I love! I want to see older people
on the dancefloor. We had taken
some photos from the night, and
we tried our best to ask everyone
if they minded if we put them on
Facebook or whatever. Assange
was one of them, and he was like,
“Yeah sure whatever” about it.
That’s an important detail here:
those photos of Assange dancing
were on my Facebook for like two
years, without a single complaint.
Anyway, one time I was having a
conversation with a friend about
Assange, and I mentioned that I
had a video of him dancing—to one
of my songs—on my hard drive.
My friend insisted on seeing it,
and he couldn’t believe I’d been sit-
ting on this video all this time. So
I posted it, and it made its way to
Reddit, where it just took off. Now,
I understand Assange wasn’t happy
about this. I heard he had tried
to sue the producers of a British
documentary about him, over that
clip. The judge ruled that Assange
couldn’t have a reasonable expecta-
tion of privacy on the dancefloor.
I’ve heard he’s still been trying
to get the video taken down, but I
haven’t heard anything from him
personally.
Concerts & Nightlife Listings
May 20 - June 2
Music 'Tis the season
Seth Sharp
On Prince, Julian Assange,
And What A Tribute Really Means
Words by PAUL FONTAINE Photo by ART BICNICK
31The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 9 — 2016