Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2018, Síða 47

Sonic Tears In
The Timespace
Continuum
KRÍA on merging retro and futurism

Words: Rex Beckett Photos: Art Bicnick
EP
KRÍA’s “Opium View” is out now
and her EP ‘Output’ will be released
in June.
Listening to KRÍA’s dark, ethereal
synthpop gives a strange, wobbly,
pleasant sensation of floating be-
tween timelines. From a retro vi-
sion of the future with guttural,
gloomy vintage synth samples, to
a hyper-futuristic surreal space of
perfect, AutoTuned voices.
KRÍA herself is also slightly elu-
sive. Charming, open and down to
earth, she maintains an air of be-
ing somewhat of a riddle. When we
meet, she’s just on the cusp of re-
leasing her new EP ‘Output’. “I was
walking home one day when I was
six years old,” she says. “I started
talking with a girl on the way home
and she told me ‘I’m going to the
music school around the corner. I’m
playing the Lion King song on the pi-
ano.’ I was like ‘No way!’ So I started
playing the piano.”
AutoTune addict
Cut to a few years ahead to London,
where KRÍA found herself studying
creative vocals at the Institute for
Contemporary Music, surrounded
by inspiring peers and influential
educators. “Everyone there was do-
ing something completely different
from each other,” she says. “The
teachers were musicians themselves
so it was really cool to see when they
were releasing something or about
to go touring.” This nurturing envi-
ronment pushed her towards writ-
ing her own music, leading to the
birth of her persona and releasing
her first single “Low Hype” in 2015.
Having now had some time to let
things simmer, the self-described
80s obsessed AutoTune addict has
rocketed her sound into
new galaxies, orbiting
darker, more lugubri-
ous sonic planets. Her
ubiquitous use of auto-
tune serves as a tool of
atmospheric manipula-
tion, rather than a mask
or corrective device, en-
hancing her well-honed
vocal instrument.
“I have this TC-Helicon vocal ef-
fects station and I just love sitting
down by the piano or at my com-
puter and just coming up with vocal
melodies through that,” she says.
“I sometimes feel like that’s when I
get the best vocal ideas. I feel like it
also adds a warmth to my voice that
I can’t really synthesize in another
way by using other gear.”
Heavy energies
This new journey has also taken her
into darker lyrical content as well.
“This EP is really vulnerable,” KRÍA
says. “I’ve never written something
that was so raw and coming straight
from my head, like writing in my
diary or something, so I’m kind of
scared to release this. Even though
it’s metaphors and stuff, people can
read into it I think.”
This rawness was brought on by
her writing process being surround-
ed by what she describes as really
heavy energies, as well as the suicide
of a friend, but the process of writing
and producing the music delivered
catharsis.
The right time
KRÍA’s live show recently incorpo-
rated a live drummer—Atli Steinn
Bjarnason of the electronic act Axis
Dancehall—who has also become a
songwriting collaborator who com-
pliments her estab-
lished sound and drives
her motivation.
“Working with
him is a really good
balance because he
comes up with things I
wouldn’t have thought
of, and vice versa,”
she says. “Especially
in terms of starting
because I tend to overcomplicate
things, like it has to be the right
time, I have to be in the right mood!
But you just have to do it.”
Share this: gpv.is/music
KRIA digging deep into the music
“I’ve never
written
something
that was
so raw."
39The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09 — 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
bergcontemporary.is Klapparstígur 16
101 Reykjavík / Iceland
May 11th — August 3rd 2018
Katrín Elvarsdóttir
The Search for Truth