Reykjavík Grapevine - sep. 2020, Blaðsíða 23

slang for jocks, so I say, “Spades
go to the club and they leave their
hearts behind.” It’s about going to
a club and fucking yourself up in a
melancholic way.
Mann setur hljó#an
My friend Siggi Odds once tweeted,
“Someone needs to do an Icelandic
grime song with the saying ‘Ma!ur
setur hljó!an.’” The saying means
being lost for words. So that’s how
it started and in the song, I quote
some famous Icelandic songs like
“Hættu a! hringja í mig” and “"an-
nig t#nist tíminn.” Even though
the instrumentals on this album
are a bit jolly, the lyrics are very
melancholic and this continues
the same theme as “Spa!ar.” It’s
when the party is over.
Um Da Tímann ’N Da Vatni#
In this song I’m quoting one of
the most famous poems in Ice-
land, ‘Tímann og vatni!’ (‘Time
& Water’). The track is just about
the struggle, about forcing things
that aren’t going to work and bat-
tling with your own origins. Orig-
inally, it was just going to be titled
the same as the poem, but then I
watched a Spike Lee marathon and
was inspired by ‘Da 5 Bloods.’ This
album merges my African back-
ground with my Icelandic back-
ground and I was inspired by how
Lee’s work mixes them theoreti-
cally and visually, so I wanted to
do that too.
Reykjavík
“Reykjavík” was a B-side on a sin-
gle I did two years ago. It’s very dif-
ferent from the rest of the album.
This album is heavily influenced
by African pop music but this one
is very much influenced by “Re-
demption Song” by Bob Marley—a
folk song. It’s written to my son.
Two years after his debut solo album,
Logi Pedro is back with his second ef-
fort ‘Undir bláu tungli’ (‘Under The
Blue Moon’). We sat down with the
artist to learn more about the re-
lease, track by track.
Sól
“Sól” is the oldest track on the al-
bum. I actually started working on
it in 2017 and it’s gone through re-
visions, remixes and reedits. But
when I was in Sierra Leone in the
spring of 2019, it finally clicked.
The lyrics are centered around a
girl named Sól. It’s not a love story,
it’s a fling.
Ef Grettisgata gæti tala#
I’ve actually been trying to use this
title or line for a while now. At the
same time as I was writing this
song, I had just watched ‘If Beale
Street Could Talk’ and from there,
I got acquainted with James Bald-
win. I then watched this great doc-
umentary about him called ‘I Am
Not Your Negro.’ I was thinking
about all of that and what came out
is a retrospective about all these
scenes from my life—those late
nights filled with weird energy.
Clubs. Drugs. In the chorus, I say,
“If Grettisgata (the street) could
talk, it could tell you stories about
me.” It’s an homage to 101.
Mama
“Mama” is essentially about my
Mother. It’s straightforward. But
at the same time, it’s also a song
for foreign women. There’s this
quote by John Lennon that Björk
also said—it is not a good quote—
but it says, “Woman is the n***** of
the world.” I think the most preyed
upon being in the world is the black
woman, the foreign woman. So in
the song I say, “I will be there.” It’s
about standing up.
Spa#ar
There’s a great track by Juice WRLD
called “Lucid Dreams” where he
samples the Sting song “Shape Of
My Heart.” It made me really sit
down and listen to Sting’s lyrics
and there’s one part when he says,
“Spades are the swords of a soldier.”
I wanted to do something similar
with the deck of cards metaphor.
In Icelandic, ‘spa!ar’ or ‘spade’ is
Music 23The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 07— 2020
TRACK BY TRACK
‘Undir bláu tun!li’
By Lo!i Pedro
An ode to African heritage, late nights
and 101 Reykjavík
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photo: Art Bicnick
“I think the most
preyed upon being
in the world is the
black woman, the
foreign woman.”
gpv.is/music
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