Reykjavík Grapevine - mai 2021, Síða 18

18The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 05— 2021Music
gpv.is/music
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Kristín Loves
Heartbreak
Kristín Sesselja turns breakups into bops
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photos: Art Bicnick
“I’m so pathetic, when it comes to
boys.
I let them push and play me like I am
a box full of toys.”
And so, over a jumpy, sparkling
pop beat, begins Kristín Sesselja’s
“FUCKBOYS”.
It was the song that brought
the singer to the attention of the
Grapevine, and it was one that
immediately sparked an obses-
sion in the office. An empowering,
confessional anthem about get-
ting screwed over by a fling, the
track tells Kristín’s story of being
a hopeless romantic and always
falling in love in the worst places,
culminating in a chorus of “Fuck
boys!”—a play on words to em-
phasise, if you still didn’t catch it,
the type of guys she’s singling out.
Gross.
It's fearless
Kristín began playing piano and
guitar when she was but 10 years
old.“I started learning guitar by
watching YouTube videos and
studying Taylor Swift songs,” she
says. “After that, I began writing
songs and I’ve just been writing
since then.”
Laughing, Kristín calls her
early attempts at songwriting
“dramatic”—potentially a result
of her longtime Swift obsession,
she notes. She rolls her eyes when
divulging her first song, called
“Trust Me.”
“I was on the way home from
school and I was looking in the sky,
seeing an ex’s face. But I’d never
been in a relationship. I was like
12,” she giggles.
That said, that f irst song
sparked a desire to write honestly
and fearlessly about love, regard-
less of age or experience. “I re-
member in eighth grade, I had a
crush on a boy and wrote a song
about him. I put it online and told
one friend who the song was about.
Of course, then the whole school
found out and they would sing it
to me in the hallways when the guy
walked by,” she explains. While
Kristín could have been embar-
rassed by the attention, she took
it in stride. “I was like ‘Oh, that’s
so cool! Everyone knows my song!”
She laughs. “Now I know they were
making fun of me, but hey, writing
songs is now my job so, like, joke’s
on you.”
Kristín doesn’t see her stark
honesty as brave, though, even
though most others would. For her,
it’s just who she is. “I always want
to share what I’m thinking. I don’t
have any secrets. I’m the type that
just meets someone at a party and
tells them my whole life story,” she
says, smiling.
Fuck boys
In truth, it’s hard not to be in-
spired by Kristín’s self confidence.
She has a knack for saying what
others are thinking, even if they
wouldn’t dare to say it out loud.
The aforementioned “FUCKBOYS”
is emblematic of this—it’s a heal-
ing work. Everyone’s been fucked
over in love and, finally, there’s an
earworm you and your girlfriends
can throw your middle fingers up
and laugh it off to.
“I originally saw the song as
this badass anthem that makes
you want to go to war because
you’re just so angry,” she explains.
Her producer put a bouncy pop riff
underneath it, and the whole work
fell into place. “[The beat] makes
the song funny instead of just su-
per dark and emo. I’m not actually
hating on boys!”
Hitting the right notes
Her newest effort, “W.A.I.S.T.D.
(what am I supposed to do)”, is po-
tentially the singer’s most person-
al, combining Kristín’s experiences
with heartbreak with her current
relationship, which, she explains,
is going great. It starts a cappella,
with Kristín describing her music
in two succulent lines:
“I write a lot of sad songs.
It’s kind of my thing.”
“[Sad songs] just hit the hardest,”
she says, when asked about this lyr-
ic. “I’ve liked a lot of guys that didn’t
like me back and I’m just a hopeless
romantic.” She smiles. “I just love
love, but I also love heartbreak.”
Check out Kristín Sesselja on all
streaming platforms and catch her
live and in person at this year’s Ice-
land Airwaves.
We'd dance with Kristín Sesselja in a storm in our best dress, would you?
“I just love love,
but I also love
heartbreak.”