Reykjavík Grapevine - jan 2019, Qupperneq 23

23 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01— 2019
BEST SONG:
Prins Póló - Líf
ertu að grínast

Svavar Pétur Eysteinsson, aka Prins Póló, sits regally
on the bench, his back straight and fingers inter-
locked over one knee. Clad in a bright blue blazer,
his pale, world-weary blues eyes look out from his
powdered face beneath a gold cardboard crown.
The occasion for our chat is that ‘Lifið ertu að
grínast’—an earworm pop song from his 2018
album “Þriðja kryddið”—is the winner of the Grape-
vine’s Song Of The Year award. “The title means
‘Life, Are you kidding me?’” says Svavar. “I didn’t
know until I finished the album that it’s a theme
album. You start making music when you’re young
and then you keep making it as you get older. When
you’re younger you maybe sing about more silly
things than when you grow up.”
GATHERED DISAPPOINTMENTS
Svavar wrote the album around the time he was
turning forty: a landmark age that had a defining
influence on his new collection.
“I wanted to make an album that could express
my feelings about being a musician,” he smiles.
“Because being a musician is about being young
and beautiful. It’s not as much about being… old
and ugly. It only came to me afterwards, but the
themes of the songs were about disappointment
in life—maybe not mine, but also my friends and
family, and people you chat with at a party. All
those stories gathered in my head and became
the album’s theme.”
MAYBE YOUR CHILDREN
WILL HATE YOU
Svavar wrote the music with his friend Axel in
2015. Songs, he says, come easily—except for
the lyrics. “You have to make a new story in every
song,” he says. “The story in song one cannot be
the same as the story in song three.... but there
can be connection. So that’s how the theme arose.
On this album, the fun times are over, and you’re in
the middle of something. Maybe you don’t know
where you’re going, or you’re stuck somewhere…
maybe you’ll be there the rest of your life, or may-
be you will die tomorrow. Maybe your children will
hate you, and your work is dreadful… but there are
all these questions about where life is going. And
that’s how we arrived at ‘Life, are you kidding me?’”
It’s here that Prins Póló succeeds: the combi-
nation of simple, catchy songs with lyrics that can
be intriguing riddles, relatable observations, or
both at once. “If it was just making music, I could
make five albums a year,” says Svavar. “But I want to
put real meaning into it, not just some silly stupid
words and rhyme that fit together. I want to have
a real story to tell. And that’s the tricky part.” JR
BEST LIVE BAND: bagdad brothers

Although their first show was just over a
year ago, bagdad brothers have already
been crowned the Grapevine’s Best Live
Band. We sat down with the band's lead
duo, Bjarni Daníel Þorvaldsson and Sig-
urpáll Viggó Snorrason after their Christ-
mas show at IÐNÓ to talk pop songs, party
vibes and which pants to perform in.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE POP
“The number one thing for us is the songs,
the writing and structuring,” says Bjarni
Daníel. Bagdad brothers’ sound stacks
dreamy, hazy layers over simple melodies,
with catchy and cutesy lyrics. A casual
internet listener might find a charming
chill in their bedroomy lo-fi quality, but it
shouldn’t distract from the solid pop at its
foundation. “So the songs are number one.
But after that comes, ‘how can we have fun
with these songs on stage, and also get
people into that mindset with us?’”
NOT ABOUT THE PANTS
Asked whether one way they manage that
is by looking fun in coordinated outfits,
Sigurpáll says: “We try to,” although he
admits that the all-red-and-white extrav-
aganza of their most recent show at IÐNÓ,
complete with matching balloons, was a
special occasion. “We try to get into char-
acter, into our comfort zone on stage and
we have to be a little coordinated for that
to happen.”
Bjarni Daníel tells me that just perform-
ing in red t-shirts made him feel “too nor-
mal” to get into his groove. “I was going
to wear this super tight white onesie [on-
stage at IÐNÓ], but it was kind of problem-
atic,” he chuckles, explaining that he was
talked out of it. (We’ll leave the specifics to
the imagination.) “But it’s still honest; it’s
still sincere,” he says of their performance,
regardless of the pants. “We’re not faking
anything that happens on stage. It’s all
natural. But it’s nice to have something to
stimulate that.”
FROM PRACTICE TO PARTY
Having just started improvising music to-
gether last year, they’ve covered a lot of
ground in a short time. As Bjarni Daníel
explains: “When we started out, it was kind
of a joke… one of these nights we just had
the idea of posting one of these phone
recordings to Soundcloud. (“A two-hour-
long ambient loop,” Sigurpáll interjects).
When we thought about the name, we were
like, ‘Hmmmm what about the most gener-
ic indie band name we could ever find?’
Sigupáll suggested ‘bagdad brothers’ and
we just said, ‘okay!’”
Pants, jokes and names aside, they as-
sure me that it has always been and will
always be about the fun. “Back when we
were making super lo-fi ambient loops, we
were having the exact same fun as we’re
having now, when we’re actually throwing
a dance party at IÐNÓ,” Bjarni Daníel says.
“It’s funny, but it doesn’t feel any differ-
ent. It’s just that more people get to be
involved now.”
Expect bagdad brothers’ upcoming
EP and release concert in early February.
After conquering Iceland, they’re currently
gearing up for a 24-show tour of North
America, so keep your eyes peeled for
tour dates in the US and Canada in May and
June. GDF
“If it was just making music, I could make five albums a
year… but I want to put real meaning into it.”
“I was going to wear this super tight
white onesie onstage, but it was
kind of problematic.”