Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.06.2017, Síða 43

One Seamless Track
In The Big World
Ceasetone locate their musical centre

Words: Ciaran Daly Photo: Timothée Lambrecq
Hafsteinn Þráinsson is having a
very busy summer. “It’s work, work,
work,” he sighs. Hafsteinn is the
brains behind the
fingers currently
plucking Ceasetone’s
for t h c om i n g E P
‘Stranded’ into exis-
tence from a small
dow ntow n apart-
ment.
“Your brain kind
of turns to jelly when
you work in your
apartment for twelve
hours,” he says. “Recording in the
apartment is good because it means
you have all the time in the world—
but then, the problem is that you
have all the time in the world. If you
have an end goal and put a lot into
it, you can create something really
ambitious in the end.”
Seamless track
His plan to unleash two new singles
and an EP by the end of this month
certainly isn’t lacking in ambition—
and nor are his plans for the future.
“This project is my musical cen-
tre,” Hafsteinn explains. “I have this
very specific vision for Ceasetone as
a hybrid act—a ‘musical universe.’
You can imagine a three dimen-
sional stage on which
you place all these dif-
ferent instruments
producing different
sounds, but it’s always
within the same nar-
rative. The acoustic
guitar is always the
musical centre but it
grows in different di-
rections with different
sounds. I love the idea of
connecting all your albums together
in a subtle way. They can change, but
if you were to listen to the whole body
of work through, it could feel almost
like one seamless track.”
Hafsteinn talks
about dividing mu-
sic into “two halves.”
“There’s the music
you listen to to make yourself feel
better,” he says, “and the music you
study because it’s interesting.”
I wonder where ‘Stranded’ fits
within this dialectic. Hearing the
first single, “Brothers,” I’m struck
by an underlying desire on Hafste-
inn’s part to carve out a sonic space
for himself. Although the dreamlike
acoustics are superficially comfort-
ing, the lyrics point to a deep dis-
comfort with being placed in this or
that box.
“I have this core element of how I
think about my music that’s pretty
consistent throughout everything
I do,” he says. “It’s this contrast of
acoustic and electronic. You start
with the principle that, ‘This is my
playground, and I can do whatever
I want.’ I don’t dream of being stuck
in one genre—I’m driven by the urge
to craft more personal lyrics, more
personal sounds.”
Big world
While some of Reykjavík’s musicians
compete for the exposure the tour-
ism boom has gifted the city, Ceas-
etone’s deeply personal focus brings
a refreshing humility to the stage.
“I’m pretty neutral about being
part of a hype or a scene,” Hafste-
inn says. “It’s about reaching out to
people who like what you do. There’s
a lot more stuff coming out now,
but there’s a lot more people listen-
ing, too. I don’t think you should be
scared of competi-
tion. I would rather
rejoice in the fact that
we have so much cool
stuff going on. It’s so much more
fun to enjoy all of it, collaborate, and
be friends with everyone. It’s a big
world out there. There’s room for
everyone.”
Music 42The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 10 — 2017
“This is my
playground,
and I can do
whatever I
want”
Hafsteinn Þráinsson is Ceasetone
gpv.is/music
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