Reykjavík Grapevine - jan. 2021, Blaðsíða 11

At the 2021 Grapevine Music Awards,
the three biggest categories—Artist,
Song and Album Of The Year—were
decided the quickest. In fact, they were
more or less unanimous the moment
each was brought up, with little debate
among the panel.
2020 was unequivocally the year of
Bríet. From her explosive debut release
‘Kveðja, Bríet,’ to a slew of unforget-
table livestream performances, to her
opus—and our Song of the Year—
“Rólegur Kúreki”, Bríet came onto the
scene this year, made her own rules
and consistently wowed. With such a
legacy, it was no-contest that she’d win
Artist Of The Year too and while we’ve
never given two of the biggest awards
to one single artist, this year, to deny
her one would be disingenuous. “Bríet
deserves this and she’ll remind us of
why she won these awards in years to
come,” one panel member concluded.
On the album front, it was JFDR’s
stunning ‘New Dreams’ that caught the
panel’s eye. This was another moment
where the moment the release was
brought up, it was quickly decided on
as a winner. “‘New Dreams’ sticks with
you. It’s vulnerable in a way that’s so
relatable that you can’t forget it. It’s an
album that stops you in your tracks,”
raved another judge. “JFDR has done it
again.”
Both women unleashed starkly
raw and intensely emotional releases
this year that cut to the heart of the
panel. And while their projects existed
in vastly different sonic worlds, we
couldn’t help but see a thread connect-
ing them. We therefore thought that
if these awards were already going to
be unorthodox, we may as well throw
the rule book out the window and chat
with them together, or more accurate-
ly, witness them talking to each other.
And so, we put them in a room togeth-
er, asked them a few questions and
documented the outcome. What would
they have in common? Would they get
along? Do they even know each other?
A perfect yin-yang
“Bríet and I haven’t really properly
met before today,” Jófríður says as she
takes a sip of tea—it’s a cold Reykjavík
afternoon. “But then we were just do-
ing the photoshoot for this and we had
our faces next to each other and it was
like, ‘Hello Bríet!’” She smiles broadly
as she turns towards the pop star to
her right.
“I kind of liked meeting in that
way!” Bríet responds softly, a small
grin illuminating her face.
“It’s like well I’ve seen your face very
closely now,” Jófríður says. “Yes, I know
your eye colour,” Bríet interjects. And
together, they laugh.
In truth, talking to them is like
watching a yin-yang in real life. They
are both somewhat the opposite of
what you’d expect and of each other.
Watching Bríet onstage, you might as-
sume she’d be commanding or brash,
but in truth, she’s extremely self-pos-
sessed and thoughtful. She pauses be-
fore she talks and chooses her words
carefully—never uttering a superflu-
ous line.
Meanwhile, Jófríður is animated.
She speaks in a stream of conscious-
ness style, constantly dissecting her
own words and thoughts as she goes
along as if she’s discovering herself at
the same time you are. Hearing her an-
swer a question is a bit like jumping on
a sailboat. You don’t know where you’ll
end up but you’re sure the view will be
worth it.
Two personal albums
Both ‘New Dreams’ and ‘Kveðja, Bríet’
are viscerally personal releases, which
is what initially made the panel decide
to talk to them together. Each lay their
songwriter’s stories bare—dissecting
love, heartache, pain and regret with a
fine-tooth comb.
“I feel like I manage to veil things
enough for it to make sense to me
because I’m not going into super spe-
cific details, though I appreciate when
people do that, like Joni Mitchell,” says
Jófríður. “But I also think that what I
do tends to be a bit cathartic at times
and I imagine you [Bríet] feel the same
way. There’s a catharsis in putting out
your raw feelings, but there’s also—
and this is maybe cheesy—the sense of
a higher purpose as well. You’re plac-
ing something inside a little context,
which is the song, and you’re releasing
it so that other people can resonate.”
Bríet nods. “Writing while feeling.
Exactly. My album is my journal,” she
explains. “I don’t feel that I’m putting
myself out there. It’s just what I’m do-
ing.”
“I think that people sense that,” Jó-
fríður says.
The panel certainly did, certainly
when it comes to “Rólegur Kúreki.” The
smooth, acoustic country-pop track
details a relationship with a partner
that always puts you down and makes
you feel bad. And in it, Bríet cuts to the
core of the insecurity and doubt that
kind of relationship creates.
“‘Rólegur Kúreki’ could just as easily
fit at Þjóðhátið as it could at Prikið,”
one panel member said. “A lot of peo-
ple are jumping into the cowboy boots
but not doing the line dance. And
they’re not changing the line dance
moves into their own, like Bríet is do-
ing,” another added.
The responsibility of
vulnerability
“I knew a few people were meeting
on Zoom to go through my album and
analyse how my relationship was, and
that’s so weird,” Bríet says, looking
down.
“How does that make you feel?” Jó-
fríður asks.
“It made me feel like it was hard for
him. Because I’ve dealt with it for some
time, but for him, people talking about
him—he found it very uncomfortable,”
she responds quietly.
“Because he’s not the one in charge
of the discussion,” Jófríður posits.
“That’s the hard part of having this
responsibility of making art about
feelings and people. That’s a lot of re-
sponsibility,” Bríet concludes.
“It is a lot of responsibility,” Jófríður
says calmly. “I think for me no one
knows who I’m talking about. I hope
not. I’m so private. But I also like it
when people are brave enough to say,
you know, this is what happened. This
is me. This is my past. This is my fu-
ture. I think it’s really cool to disclose
it all.” She looks over at Bríet—a fel-
low young, profoundly honest song-
writer—and they share a small smile.
“I think it’s a very cool thing to do.”
A longer version of this interview will
be available on grapevine.is
Words:
Hannah Jane
Cohen
Photo:
Art Bicnick
Bríet & JFDR:
In Conversation
Panel:
Hannah
Jane Cohen
(Chairwoman
Of The Panel,
The Reykjavík
Grapevine)

Alexander Jean
Edvard Le Sage
De Fontenay
(Journalist, DJ,
Design Student)

Geoffrey Þór
Huntingdon-
Williams
(Prikið, Sticky
Plötuútgáfa)

Sigtryggur
Baldursson
(Iceland Music)

Maria-Carmela
Raso (Curator,
Musician)
11The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01— 2021
Artist Of The
Year: Bríet
Honourable
Mentions:
Skoffín, Víkingur
Heiðar Ólafsson

Song Of The
Year: Bríet
- Rólegur
Kúreki
Honourable
Mentions:
Bríet - Esjan, GDRN
- Vorið,
Skoffín - Sætar
stelpur

Album Of The
Year: JFDR -
New Dreams
Honourable
Mentions:
Ultraflex - Dreams
of Ultraflex,
Skoffín - Skoffín
hentar
íslenskum
aðstæðum