Reykjavík Grapevine - mar. 2020, Blaðsíða 17

now—I’m representing a story
that happened a while ago. I always
get a bit sad about how the music
industry works because techni-
cally you could write a song and
release it the next day—but if you
want to do things well you have to
work for that. That of course takes
time and then you’re left discon-
nected.”
Still, Jófrí!ur doesn’t seem too
concerned. “There’s a truth in
everything but there’s also a bit
of fiction and fantasy,” she con-
cludes, before emphasising how
excited she is to be touring again.
Her unplanned hiatus in Reykjavik
has left her with itchy feet, it ap-
pears.
Forays into film
Despite fewer performances and
tours during this period of accli-
matization, Jófrí!ur has still been
incredibly busy by most people’s
standards—everybody’s but hers,
it would appear. Notably she has
been making a move into film com-
position, for which she has drawn
from both her
classical music
t r a i n i n g a n d
her experience
of creating elec-
tronic music.
The first full-
l e n g t h s c o r e
she produced
was for ‘Agnes
Joy,’ Silja Hauks-
dóttir’s tale of
midlife-burnout and familial re-
lationships that was released last
year. “I was very proud of myself
for how I did that in the end,” Jó-
frí!ur says of this new area she’s
exploring. Within the context of
Icelandic film composer Hildur
Gu!nadóttir’s recent astronomical
success, Jófrí!ur is confident that
female composers are beginning to
be seen with a new-found respect.
“I think one of the things that
is a problem—and I think Hildur
has mentioned this in interviews
as well—is that people don’t expect
women to be able to handle these
projects. So the fact that she’s faced
those challenges, and she’s made
it through...” Jófrí!u trails off and
throws her hands up with palpable
awe. “It’s such an inspiration just
because the whole world is watch-
ing and then there’s this incredible
woman who’s not just an amazing
composer—she’s also an amazing
role model. And of course people
will be like, oh okay, well maybe
there are other women who could
do this.”
Empowering others
Being a good role model and of-
fering a leg up to other young
women is something Jófrí!ur takes
seriously. Alongside her work on
score composition, she has also
been involved with a project in
c o l l a b o r a t i o n
with 101derland
teaching young
women how to
use sound pro-
duction software
such as Ableton.
She is hesitant to
talk about it in a
way that might
come across as
self-congratula-
tory, and suggests that some of the
‘Women In Music’ events she has
come across have missed the mark.
“I think it’s important to talk about
this situation and to figure out how
you can be of help in a way that
isn’t just self promotion,” she says.
“I just want to be able to empower
them to make their own recordings
and stuff,” she says. “But one of
the reasons why I wanted to do it
is because I didn’t have any of that
direct contact from a role model
telling me about these things.”
Fearless Future
Lacking a role model or clear di-
rection in her early days of music
was somewhat of a challenge, Jó-
frí!ur recognises. But that time
of confusion fuelled her develop-
ment into a confident and com-
petent musician. “We were defi-
nitely a bit stupid sometimes,” she
acknowledges. “But that’s okay.
We definitely made a lot of mis-
takes—and learned from them. I
feel like that’s something that you
use for the rest of your life.”
A decade in the music indus-
try is a long time, no matter how
old you are, and it’s hard to find a
permanent footing on a constant-
ly shifting landscape. But this is
something that Jófrí!ur seems to
have achieved in the last ten years
through her hard work, creativity
and dedication. Looking forward,
she has a clear idea exactly how
she wants to flourish in the fu-
ture:
“I think I’ve been in this kind of
phase for the last couple of years
where I’ve been questioning—for
good reasons, it’s quite healthy to
do that. But I want to do less of
that now and go back into more
intuitive movement. I feel like I’ve
had enough of just thinking about
things.” She smiles. “We’ll see.
Maybe in ten years I’ll be fearless.”
JFDR will hold a release concert for
'New Dreams' on March 13th at I!NÓ.
Tickets are 2,900 ISK.
17The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 03— 2020
Weekend
Brunch
Dinner
& music
drinks
& view
ingólfsstræti 1,
101 Reykjavík
skyreykjavik.com
#eatinthecenterRESTAURANT & BAR

“I had to recon-
nect with the feel-
ing of home and
normal life and
what everything
meant to me.”