Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2016, Qupperneq 35

Words HREFNA BJÖRG GYLFADÓTTIR
Photo SIGRÍÐUR UNNUR LÚÐVÍKSDÓTTIR
Westman Islands-based singer-
songwriter Júníus Meyvant first
started to turn heads for his soul-
ful folk pop after releasing his
first single, “Color Decay,” and has
been busy performing and work-
ing on his recently released debut
album, ‘Floating Harmonies’, ever
since. Make sure to catch the al-
bum release concert at Háskólabíó
August 27.
Here are Júníus’s thoughts on the
album.

“Be A Man”

I listen to a lot of instrumental
music and as I see it, you should
always start with a strong intro
track. The reason I named this
track “Be A Man” is that I wanted
to encourage people to do good
deeds, to say they are sorry if they
mess up and to try and make up for
their mistakes by showing love. Ba-
sically, to be a man.

“Beat Silent Need”
This song is about being bullied.
“Don’t let my feet run over you” are
words that haunted me while writ-
ing it. I thought about us as human
beings and how when we get scared
we tend to freeze up. Stillness
makes us look in the mirror for too
long. We need to start walking and
talking. Give them bullies some
hugging.

“Color Decay”

I was folding my laundry when I
wrote this song. A feeling hit me
and I knew I was going to write a
good song. The theme of it is time,
and how every living thing has its
moment of triumph and a moment
of decay. This song created the
sound of the whole album. Record-
ing it, however, wasn’t easy; let’s
just say it cost many hours, and
many tears.
“Neon Experience”

This one goes: “Don’t let the whole
world drag you down, new day will
come, come around.” I’m saying
that life is too short to be taken too
seriously. Do what you feel like do-
ing, as long as you don’t hurt the
people around you. This song is in-
spired purely by 60s soul.

“Domestic Grace Man”

My father and older brother play
guitar with me in this song so it
feels like home to me. It also re-
minds me of the country music that
my dad used to play when I was
growing up.

6. “Hailslide”

I was skateboarding when I wrote
this song. The day started out
warm and sunny but then it began
to hail. I thought to myself, “just
let the hail slide in the groove” and,
lo and behold, my mindset was sun-
shine again.

“Mighty Backbone”

This song makes me want to dance.
My drummer started playing an
African beat to my guitar play-
ing, and the rest is history. The
lyric is, “Come stir the water run-
ning through the backbone of true
peace.” If we would try to stir the
water within and start helping our
neighbors, the world would become
a better place.

“Gold Laces”

This song came very easily to me.
It made me sad to see on the news
that about 50% of all marriages
in Iceland end in divorce. We live
in a fast-growing economy where
society tells us to dream big and
strive for greatness. In that process
we tend to forget about our fam-
ily. Gold is pure and laces tie your
shoes together; “Bring out the gold
laces” therefore means we should
tie marriages together with some-
thing greater then ourselves.

“Signals”

“Signals” is about people who truly
love God. However, I also wanted
to make a song about people who
use God as a war tool. This was the
result.

“Manos”

I wanted to create a song using
only two chords and adding other
instruments to them. In the song, I
sing: “Without you love, we would
die young.” I believe we are made of
the body, spirit and soul and if one
of those three things dies, we die as
well. When that happens, we can’t
walk straight.

“Pearl In Sandbox”

Have you ever felt so numb, you
can’t laugh nor cry? “Pearl In Sand-
box” is about that feeling. It is only
me playing my guitar. What in-
spired the track was a guy who had
messed up his life over and over,
and eventually had to sit down and
write a sorry letter to his family.

“Floating Harmonies”

I call my band “The Floating Har-
monies.” I wanted to name my band
and album after this song because
the title fits. I don’t know exactly
what the song is about but I wrote a
part of it in between sleep and wak-
ing. It’s a late night song.
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Music 34The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 12 — 2016
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‘Floating Harmonies’
by Júníus Meyvant