Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2017, Blaðsíða 39

Music
Bónus Plötur
The most elusive record label in Iceland
Words: Elías Þórsson Photo: Art Bicnick
Most record labels
want to move mil-
lions of units, and
all self-respecting
lab el exec ut ives
want P. Diddy-esque
e x p o s u r e — b u t
that’s not the real-
ity of independent
label Bónus Plötur.
“I’d rather you
don’t take my pic-
ture,” says Krum-
m i , t h e e lu s i ve
man who runs the
show at Bónus Plö-
tur. “I don’t want to be presented
as a front for this and take away
from the artists who have given
u s t h e i r w o r k .”
T h e l a b e l i s
run out of Kaffi Ví-
nyl on Hverfisgata,
the city’s premier
vegan restaurant.
Its name derives
from Bónus Skór,
t h e q u i rk y s h o e
s h o p t h at s t o o d
where Vínyl is now
located, which for
decades w a s r u n
by a man w ith a
passion for selling
shoes. And as with
the café, and the shoe shop be-
fore it, the key word is “local.”
“All the artists I’ve chosen
have a direct connection to the
café,” says Krummi. “For in-
stance the first band I picked,
Kon s u la nt , had ju st held a
show here, 7Berg painted the
menu and Linnea from Döpur
used to work in the kitchen.”
Hard to track down
We’d tried writing about the la-
bel before, without luck. Krummi
explains that there is a good rea-
son for its almost shy approach.
“The idea behind the project
was to give something back to
Ýmir and Arndís, the owners of
Vínyl,” he says. “A really good,
small group formed the proj-
ect, and I don’t want to ruin
that, which is why I don’t like
talking to the media about it. I
want this to grow organically.”
The approach to the media
also fits the “business” model, as
just 30 copies of each record are
released, with Krummi claiming
that despite demand, that won’t
change. The small supply has cre-
ated high demand, and the label
has gained a dedicated fanbase.
“There’s a man who comes on
every release day before we start
selling and demands to get the
albums that are marked one and
two,” says Krummi. “The other
day another guy came in and de-
manded to buy the last two of
three Geimfarar albums, which
we had planned on keeping, and
he offered us 15,000 ISK for them.
But if people we know ask us nice-
ly, then we just give them copies.”
To date, Bónus Plötur has
r e l e a s e d fo u r s i n g l e s , on e
for each month of its ex i s-
tence, and will continue to do
so throughout the year. The
next release, due May 24, will
see bands Bárujárn, Kuldaboli
and Russian Girls join hands.
Problems with Bónus
The obvious last question to ask
Krummi is whether they have
gotten into trouble with super-
market chain Bónus over the use
of the name. But as he explains,
it ’s been another supermarket
that he has had problems with.
“I actually found out that Bó-
nus owns the name Bónus Plö-
tur, because apparently they
had planned to start releasing
records at one point,” he says.
“But they haven’t given us any
trouble, it’s maybe more Krónan
we should be upset with be-
cause they basically stole our old
logo and made it their own.”
39 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08 — 2017
“All the
artists
have a
connection
to the café.
7Berg
painted the
menu.”
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Krummi didn't want to be photographed
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101 Reykjavík
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tel +354 530 22 00
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National Museum of Iceland
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museum of cultural
history from settlement
to present day.
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Bun in the Sun
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KyrrðCalm
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Louisa
Matthíasdóttir