Reykjavík Grapevine - aug. 2021, Side 23

23The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08— 2021
Definition Please?
Backwards or forwards, Ólafur Kram has a sound all their own
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photos: Art Bicnick
Music
Check out Ólafur Kram on all streaming
platforms and catch them live at Toolraiser.
The winners of this year’s Músíktilraunir,
Ólafur Kram quickly became a local favourite
in the Reykjavík scene. Serving up a cacoph-
ony of genres, the band—which consists of
trumpeter and singer Birgitta Björg Gu"-
marsdóttir, guitarist and singer Eydís Egils-
dóttir Kvaran, bassist and singer Gu"n% Mar-
grét Eyjólfs, keyboardist and singer I"unn
Gígja Kristjánsdóttir, and drummer Sævar
Andri Sigur"arson—has made a brand of
punk all their own.
Yalpdrow
Ólafur Kram was originally called Gaia, but
the group went back to the drawing board
after many Icelanders had trouble pronounc-
ing it. They spitballed other potential band
names, but nothing felt right. Then, at the
unlikeliest of times, inspiration struck—or
rather, noitaripsni did.
“On Christmas night, I had an epiphany.
It was like a lightning bolt from the sky that
‘Mark Ruffalo’ backwards is ‘Ólafur Kram,’”
Birgitta laughs, causing the rest of the group
to break into giggles.
“I think it’s an appropriate name in that
our lyrics and the words we pick are very
decisive and particular,” Eydís says. “There
are many words hidden in our lyrics, so it’s
appropriate that our band name is wordplay.”
The group cites songs that, when put
in an acrostic poem, spell out the names
of band members. They also often modu-
late rhyming words to create new imagery.
“We’re playful in the way that, for example,
sjó and snjór—the Icelandic words for sea and
snow—sound very similar. So in one song,
we say, ‘he’s throwing a seaball’ instead of a
snowball and that they’re ‘swimming in the
snow,’’' Gu"n% explains.
Gu"n% also has some very powerful lyrical
commentary on the hierarchy of the Icelan-
dic words for toaster, the group explains.
“The word for toaster is very debated in the
Icelandic community,” Birgitta reiterates.
“Some people say brau!rist while others say
ristavél.”
“Brau"rist is more proper,” Gu"n% asserts,
smiling. “It’s more educated.” This then
prompts a lively discussion on when and
where it’s acceptable to use either term—a
very Ólafur Kram moment.
Knup detacude
And just like their multifaceted explora-
tion of language, musically, Ólafur Kram
is an anomaly. From one song to another,
they seamlessly journey from punk to jazz
to rock to even things like bossanova and
disco. You just can’t define them—forwards
or backwards.
“We always put our own flair on every-
thing, which I think is this chaotic feeling,”
Eydís muses. The others agree, describing
their music as “educated punk”.
“We’re the result of coming from very
different musical backgrounds. Like I"unn
has a lot of jazz in her musical background
while I just listened to Taylor Swift,” Gu"n%
laughs. “We have people that are very skilled
and educated in their instruments and oth-
ers that are new.”
The group’s sound is, as they emphasise,
ever-changing, so much so that they even
regard their debut release ‘nefrennsli / kros-
saflens’ as more of a time-capsule of their
sound at that particular time. In fact, they
play most of those songs completely differ-
ently nowadays.
“Once we tried to write a waltz for couples
to dance too, but then it wasn’t a waltz, it was
a screaming song,” Gu"n% says, laughing.
“For us, in everything we do, we go in
every direction we want,” she concludes.
An idyllic moment for the group
Another idyllic moment for the group, complete with a dog-friend
“We always put
our own flair on
everything, which
I think is this cha-
otic feeling.”