Reykjavík Grapevine - mar. 2020, Side 24

Turns out that Russell
Crowe, or Maximus Decimus
Meridius, commander of
the Armies of the North, General of the
Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true
emperor, Marcus Aurelius, is not only
a dramatic victim of circumstances
but also a goddamn prophet. Maximus,
sorry, Crowe shared the Icelandic Eurovi-
sion contest song, “Think About Things,”
by Da"i & Gagnamagni" on Twitter in late
February—a tweet that was covered
extensively by Iceland’s national news.
Javert’s message on Twitter was simple,
“Song.” accompanied by the link. Ap-
parently it takes a beautiful mind to
recognise that Da#i Freyr composed a
song—not a good song, not a bad song,
but definitively a song. One month later,
Da#i won Iceland’s Eurovision qualifiers
a landslide and will now be represent-
ing our fair at the 2020 Eurovision Song
Contest. Are you not entertained?! VG/
HJC/ASF
Notable Scientologist/loser Beck has
departed his home planet to perform for
the heathens in Iceland at the beginning
of June. He’s gonna drop the hydrogen
bombs on Icelanders with his oldies but
goldies and what’s more, he’s taking the
Northern-Irish band, Two Door Cinema
Club, known for their Disco rock and
pretty cool videos, along with him. Last
year, Beck snatched the Grammy from
Björk—the seventh of his career, while
Björk has won none—so potentially there
will be some revenge-drama involved. The
price for the ticket is around 10,000 ISK
(around 100 dollars) but if you pay 9,000
ISK more, you’ll get a complimentary
E-Meter. VG
The Swedish singer Loljud is in Iceland
working with the Icelandic singer Rau"ur,
according to Albumm.is. Loljud is well
known in Scandinavia for her artistic and
theatrical approach to music and will be
performing at Roskilde, the biggest
music festival in Denmark, this summer.
For those that desperately want to
categorise musicians, she has been
compared to The Knife and Sia and
dubbed the electro queen of Malmö. Her
first LP is coming out at the end of March,
and it will be interesting to see what she
and Rau#ur will produce together. VG
MUSIC
NEWS
GDRN 2.0
The sin!er is back with a poetic sophomore effort
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photo: Art Bicnick
EP
Check out ‘GDRN’ on every streaming
platform.
“I’m doing really good,” Gu!rún "r
Eyfjör! Jóhannesdóttir says brightly,
smiling as she sits back into a couch
at Stofan, delicately sipping an amer-
icano. The artist, known under the
moniker GDRN, dropped her self-ti-
tled sophomore effort just days ago
and is currently in preparation for
her first big solo debut concert, which
will be on April 6th at Háskólabíó.
“This is the first concert I am plan-
ning and doing myself and also my
first album release show. There will
be strings, a full band, everything
that is on the album,” she exclaims.
“I feel like a kid having her first birth-
day party, sitting there like, is anyone
going to come?” She laughs. “But
ticket sales are good and I’m excited.”
No rush
The artist burst onto the scene in
2018 with her debut effort ‘Hva! ef,’
which swept through Iceland, turn-
ing the RnB singer into the most
popular musical artist in the country
almost overnight.
It also bagged her
the Album Of The
Year award at the
2019 Grapev i ne
Mu s i c Aw a r d s .
“I actually start-
ed ‘GDRN’ the same
month that ‘Hva!
ef ’ c a m e o ut ,”
Gu!rún explains.
W h i l e G u! r ú n
worked with production duo Ra:tio
for her debut, for this release, she
teamed with Magnús Jóhann and
Árnar Ingi—a.k.a. Young Nazareth.
“We found this soundscape together,
which was a funky pop jazz one. It has
a Motown 70s feel to it, which is a lot
different from ‘Hva! ef.’ We meant
to release the album in May 2019
but we kept making new and better
songs and pushing it off. So ‘GDRN’
has been a long time in the making.
I wasn’t rushing it, which I think is
why I’m really proud of this album.”
Poetry & imagery
Making the album over such a long
period gave Gu!rún distance from
individual songs—meaning many
have become somewhat nostalgic
for her. “One song, I wrote it while I
was just meeting my boyfriend. It’s
about being so into someone, you
know?” she laughs. “Now we’ve been
together for one and a half years.
There are also songs like ‘Hugarró’
that we made maybe four times, over
and over again. I remember work-
ing on it and thinking that we were
never going to finish this album.”
Lyrically, Gu!rún emphasises, the
album reveals a new side to her. “On
‘Hva! ef,’ I was talking about feelings
and telling a story, but on this album,
I’m talking a lot more about nature,
the sea, and the moon,” she says. “It’s
more poetic; I used a lot of imagery.”
Overall, ‘GDRN’
marks a sophisticat-
ed new chapter for
the still-young art-
ist, showing she’s
got way more up her
sleeve. “When you
listen to the album
the first time, you’ll
think, wow, these are
good pop songs!” she
says, grinning. “But
when you listen again you’ll see there
are so many tiny details and work in
every song. Everything is coherent.”
She pauses. “All of the puzzle pieces
have come together on ‘GDRN.’”
“On this album,
I’m talking a
lot more about
nature, the sea,
and the moon.
It’s more poetic.”
Warming up the Icelandic winter with one smile
A candid shot of Gu"rún by her inspiration
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