Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.02.2017, Qupperneq 41

40The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 02 — 2017
The Music Of The CosmosMusic
Playing It By Ear
The musical universe of Kosmodod
Words PARKER YAMASAKI Photo MAGNÚS ANDERSEN
Samaris is not a secret. The hazy
electronic trio has been garner-
ing attention from record labels,
press, and, of course, adoring fans
at home and abroad, since their
debut in 2011. But success comes
in different strokes. While some
are “born to be stars” others are
taken by surprise. It was the lat-
ter for Þórður Kári Steinþórs-
son—known by his nickname,
Doddi—the beatmaker and pro-
ducer behind Samaris. “I always
kind of knew that music was what
I should be doing,” he says, “but
Samaris definitely threw us into
the deep end.”
Purpose is process
In interviews following the release
of their last album, ‘Black Lights’,
Doddi gave straight-forward an-
swers that were, like the music,
not premeditated.
“What do you want to say with
‘Wanted 2 Say?’” the interviewer
asked.
“It’s a good pop song,” Doddi re-
sponded.
“What is the purpose with Sa-
maris?” she asked.
“What is the purpose with music?”
he laughed.
For Doddi, the purpose is the
process itself. “I think it’s great
that so many people can connect
to our music,” he says, “but I don’t
think too much of it because that
can have dangerous impacts. You
shouldn’t think about the result,
or what you’re going to do with it
in the end. It’s the experiment that
counts. And if it fails, you just have
to do another one.”
True to his word, he’s a mix-
master-mad-scientist. He ex-
plains that his samples come
from: “Everything I get ahold of,
basically. You can always make
something out of nothing.” In his
old studio, he was constantly tak-
ing advantage of having a space
where friends would store their
hardware. “I’d squeeze all the
sounds I could get from their ma-
chines, before they came to pick
them up,” he says. “I have a huge
library of sounds now, and when
I’m away from my hardware I can
just sample my own stuff.” Able-
ton Live glues it all together, which
suits his workflow well: “Because I
get bored really quick,” Doddi says.
Hands on
Alongside his work with Samaris,
Doddi makes solo material as
Kosmodod, which he releases via
Sweaty Records, the record label he
co-created. He’s currently working
on his first full Kosmodod album,
at the rate of one or two songs per
day. “I honestly think it helps keep
me sane,” he says.
Musically inclined from the
start, Doddi studied music as
a child. “I always played by ear,
and even faked reading from the
sheets,” he recalls. Music, for
Doddi, is tactile; it’s experimental
and experiential. “I get a lot out of
messing with gear,” he says. “It’s
more hands on and can take you
somewhere you didn’t expect to
go. That can be really inspiring—
sometimes a whole new sonic uni-
verse opens up just from that one
unexpected sound.” When that
universe has spawned constella-
tions like Samaris, Kosmodod and
Sweaty Records, it’s no wonder
that Doddi is always ready to blast
head first into the unexpected.
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