Reykjavík Grapevine - feb. 2021, Blaðsíða 18

18The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 02— 2021Music
gpv.is/music
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Taste the
best of Iceland
ICELANDIC GOURMET FEAST
Starts with a shot of the infamous Icelandic
spirit Brennívín
Followed by 7 delicious tapas
• Smoked puffin with blueberry “brennivín” sauce
• Icelandic Arctic Charr with peppers-salsa
• Lobster tails baked in garlic
• Pan-fried line caught blue ling with lobster sauce
• Icelandic lamb with beer-butterscotch sauce
• Minke Whale with cranberry & malt sauce
And for dessert
• White chocolate "Skyr" mousse with passion coulis
late night dining
Our kitchen is open
until 23:30 on weekdays
and 01:00 on weekends TAPASBARINN | Vesturgata 3B | Tel: 551 2344 | tapas.is
The Surreal Life Of
Sturle Da%sland
...is now available on his self-titled effort
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photos: Eirik Heggen
Album
Check out ‘Sturle Dagsland’ on all
streaming platforms. Pick up an LP
at sturledagsland.bandcamp.com.
“When I was 10 years old, I got
the Aqua ‘Aquarium’ album for
Christmas from my Grandmoth-
er,” Sturle Dagsland explains,
when asked where his love for
music began. “Then there was a
contest at school and I planned to
perform ‘Barbie Girl’ of course. I
was supposed to perform with my
friend—I would be Barbie and he
was Ken—but he dropped out the
day of the show. So me and my
Mother had to make a doll that
was Ken.”
Sturle says all this as if making
a doll to replace his friend would
be the most natural solution to the
problem. It’s clear that, even then,
he was a natural performer. For,
as any performer knows, the show
must go on.
“So I borrowed my Mother’s bra
and mini skirt and made myself
up like a Barbie. I filled the bra
with lots of candy, which I called
my silicone, and I performed ‘Bar-
bie Girl’. I was simulating sex with
the doll on stage and just having
a really fun show,” he continues,
grinning. “At the end I threw out
all the candy from the bra!”
The question of course re-
mains—did he win the contest?
“Yeah!” he says casually. “And I
got booked to do the same thing in
a church!”
At this, his brother and band-
mate Sjur grins. “That was your
first paying gig.”
Surreal escapism
To call Sturle’s music theatrical
feels derivative. Transformative
might be more fitting. His works
are escapist in a way you might
have never experienced before.
Instead of transporting you to
the fantastical dreamy places you
keep in the back of your mind,
they pull you sharply into surreal
worlds you couldn’t possibly imag-
ine. Worlds where any boundaries
between genres, tones, vibes and
structures are erased. Now, after
years of relentless touring, he’s
here with his debut self-titled ef-
fort.
“It’s a very expressive, explor-
ative and dynamic album,” Sturle
explains. “We use lots of differ-
ent instruments from all over the
world—harps, waterphones, Afri-
can instruments, Nordic instru-
ments like nyckelharpa, which
is sort of a fiddle. We even have a
custom-made billy goat horn that
an old man in the north of Norway
made for us.”
He smiles. “Then we mix them
with electronics, and I use lots of
different vocal techniques, throat
singing, pop—you know, it’s a mix
of lots of different things…” he
says, trailing off.
I can’t help but grin. Only Stur-
le would put throat singing, wa-
terphones, a custom-made billy
goat horn and pop singing into the
same sentence and say it so non-
chalantly. It’s a testament to his
creativity and love of music—for
Sturle, these instruments are only
the beginning.
Kiwis & churches
The brothers are known for their
energetic live performances—
they were supposed to perform at
this year’s Secret Solstice festival
and will hopefully appear at the
next if it happens and they’ve trav-
elled the world together, appear-
ing everywhere from Shanghai
city squares to small villages in
Greenland.
“We played a show in an old
church in Greenland. There was
no electricity in the church and
it was -30°C. I had to wear all my
clothes just to perform,” Sturle
remembers. “But it’s like, now we
really miss doing that show.”
It’s easy to see how they’d
thrive onstage and when asked
about their approach to bringing
such extravagant music into a live
setting, the two reference a review
they once had where Sturle was
compared to GG Allin.
“It said, ‘I always wanted to
experience something like GG
Allin, but never thought I would
experience it from a guy walking
onstage in pantaloons and tights
eating a kiwi,’” he says, smiling.
“But then, the year later, the same
people compared him to Charles
Manson,” his brother adds. The
two then burst out in laughter.
Granted, the pandemic was
rough on them. They had around
80 shows cancelled, including
tours in Europe, South America
and Asia. However, as you’d ex-
pect, both are remarkably jovial
about their time spent at home—
even if it wasn’t ideal.
“Every morning in lockdown,
Sjur’s neighbour woke him up by
playing the ‘Seinfeld’ theme song
on bass guitar. So every morn-
ing we’d say, ‘Okay, it couldn’t get
worse than this!’ But then the next
day he’d get woken by it again.”
Sturle laughs before mimicking
the famous bass-line.
“Of course, it’s not the ideal
time to release an album. It’s prob-
ably harder to release an album
right now,” he concludes. “But, you
know, you can’t just sit on the al-
bum because you have to, right?”
No—the show must go on.
Wild boys