Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.06.2018, Síða 39

Underlying
Forces
SEINT explores what comes after the apocalypse

Words: Tara Njála Ingvarsdóttir Photo: Timothée Lambrecq
EP
Album ‘The World is not Enough’
comes out on Spotify in June, and on
vinyl later in 2018.
SEINT is a dreamy electronic act
that announced itself as “post-apoc-
alyptic pop” in 2015, with the release
‘Post Pop/The Last Day with Us.’ The
cover of the album shows a nuclear
explosion with two figures kissing,
enjoying the last moments of their
existence in a destroyed world.
Joseph Cosmo Muscat, an Eng-
lish-Icelandic, Reykjavík-based sing-
er, songwriter and producer, is the
mastermind behind project. “SEINT
is now officially a band,” he says. “It
used to be a solo effort. Dagný Silva,
has been with me the whole time I’ve
been performing live. Then I met
Daniel Oddsson, who is our drum-
mer now, he’s brilliant human being
and brilliant drummer.”
More raw
The idea of post-apocalyptic music
came from Joseph’s past in the metal,
hard-core and punk scenes. “When I
started producing electronic music, I
actually started making sterile cold
pop music,” he explains. “I’ve been
influenced by my experiences riffing
out and head banging. The material
in my first album was in the direc-
tion of Nine Inch Nails—very indus-
trial, cold and dirty. It’s much more
raw than the upcoming album.”
Joseph is also a big fan of sci-
ence f ict ion,
and apocalyptic
movies and tel-
evision shows.
“ T h at w hole
world interests
me,” he says.
“Mad Max: The
Road Warrior is
probably my fa-
vourite movie.
The apocalyptic
music concept
is an accumu-
lation of those
things; where I came from musically
and what I liked in television.”
Sharing the love
SEINT’s newer material has a differ-
ent feel. “It’s more optimistic,” says
Joseph. “I think that’s the word. At
some point I just stopped focusing
on problems and focused on heal-
ing instead. It spread and the music
was contaminated by that energy.
When I started feeling better men-
tally and physically the new material
started to form. I started creating
this album when my life long friend
passed away. We used to do a lot of
music together and I was making the
album at the time of his death. That
transition happened right there.”
Joseph was devastated, but be-
came evermore grateful for the
people in his life. “Our next album
is dedicated to that friend of mine
Ingólfur Bjarni,” he says. “In my for-
mer work I shared my darkest times,
when I feel as good as I do now I just
want to share the love.”
Human consciousness
And so, SEINT has taken a dark expe-
rience, and turned it into something
healing. Aside from the music, his
visuals seem to
be a very im-
portant part of
ex p er ienc i n g
the ideas he’s
expressing.
“I have
a whole con-
cept behind the
artwork of the
a lbum that I
haven’t released
yet,” he says. “I
don’t want to
give it all away,
but it’s about the human conscious-
ness. It has a lot to do with that eye
that people keep seeing in my work.
You can see into a person’s soul just
by looking into their eyes—it says
everything.”
“My father is very heavy into con-
spiracy theories, as am I,” he finish-
es. “He’s an old punk rocker from the
70’s. He said to me once, ‘I really like
your music but why do you have to
dress up like one of these illumina-
ti priests?’ Because I was wearing a
cape and necklace. When he said that
I thought well ‘Hey why not? That’s
what the music is about—the under-
lying forces in the universe.’”
Share this: gpv.is/music
SEINT: suspected illuminati
“At some point I
focused on
healing... the
music was con-
taminated by that
energy.”
39The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2018
Einskis-mannslandNo Man‘s Land
Ríkir þar fegurðin ein?Where Beauty Alone Reigns?
02.06.–30.09.2018
Hafnarhús
Tryggvagata 17
101 Reykjavík
Kjarvalsstaðir
Flókagata 24
105 Reykjavík
Open daily
+354 411 6400
artmuseum.is