Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2016, Síða 30

Words HREFNA BJÖRG GYLFADÓTTIR
Photo FROM THE ARTIST
Indriði is famous for his guitar
playing in the Icelandic punk band
Muck. He is also part of the exper-
imental collective Sagitaria Raga,
and has collaborated with artists
like Úlfur Hansson and Jófríður
Ákadóttir. Since the release of his
first solo album, Indriði has been
performing at various venues in
New York. Listen to the magical
‘Makril’ on Soundcloud.

Afogtil

“Afogtil” is Icelandic and means “ev-
ery now and then.” It's a song about
missing but also about moving on,
which is a continuous theme of the
whole album. It features an excel-
lent trombone melody by my friend
Aaron Roche, who performs on other
songs on the album as well. He's the
guy lurking behind that tree on the
album cover and on the back.

Dreamcat

“Dreamcat” is about disappoint-
ment, and how you keep on truckin’
through your fantasies and desires.
Dreaming is good fuel but can also
become a sort of hiding place, not
meant for winter, it is a summer
bummer, so put on the shades.

SternaParadísa

I wrote this song in a dream and it is
the first time I've ever managed to
document a dream track. I woke up
in the morning, sat up in my bed and
grabbed my guitar, which was sleep-
ing right next to me. I recorded a lit-
tle demo and then went back to sleep.

Guitarplay

A notion derived from the idea of
the perpetual-motion machine,
an idea of things that exist solely
to serve their own purpose and re-
volve only around themselves. An
example would be standing on one
foot and moving by kicking oneself
in the standing foot with the other
one, thus moving in a circle. A tape
machine contains a tape that records
itself playing a guitar with its own
tape on itself.

Undiraldan

Albert Finnbogason, who mixed the
album, did a lot of excellent pro-
ducing on this, playing guitar and
creating beats and arrangements.
He opened my ears to the mellotron.
This is the oldest song on the album
and in the end I say “calming the
quiet emptiness” in Icelandic.

Djésenda

“Djésenda” is an Icelandic word for
“descend.” Tumi Árnason had some
beautiful chord ideas for his saxo-
phone part and the song also fea-
tures Alexandra Drewchin's vocals.
She doesn’t say any words but sings,
more like a woodwind. The song once
had lyrics but the only thing left of
it now is the title. I wrote it in the
church in a beautiful town in Iceland
called Seyðisfjörður while the crew
was having lunch.

Apar

This one is an ode to recklessness and
getting wasted. All the tracks were
recorded late at night after drink-
ing booze and having fun; that's also
why this song is so sloppy. I recorded
it with my friends Aaron, Alexandra
and Adam, who played the drums. I
was the only one wearing headphones
and it took me ages to set up the micro-
phones and connect the cables so they
started laughing at me and referred
to me as Rick Rubin throughout the
session. After giving up on the head-
phone mixer I just led the tempo with
hand gestures and a tambourine.
When I got back to Iceland, Tumi re-
corded the saxophone at five in the
morning, layer on top of layer.

Gæsin og Minkurinn

A man once told me to start writing
about the things in front of me so one
night when I’d seen a goose chase a
mink into the ocean, I decide to write
about it. I realised that you can sim-
ply write about something that is
happening in front of you and what is
occupying your mind will automati-
cally creep through the text. For me
writing lyrics is often about working
fast and spontaneously, it's all about
making choices and doing the right
thing after the exact right amount of
time thinking about it.

Asenda

“Asenda” is an Icelandic word for
“ascend.” It was the last song I wrote
before going to the studio to record.
I wrote the lyrics in Miklatún in
Reykjavík and the lyrics are based
on sites in the neighbourhood where
my mom’s house is, like Tjörnin and
Norðurmýrin.
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Music 30The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 13 — 2016
‘Makril’
by Indriði
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