Reykjavík Grapevine - okt. 2021, Síða 8

8 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10— 2021
Telling your story takes courage. Telling
someone else’s story takes empathy. Gu!rún
"r Eyfjör! Jóhannesdóttir, or GDRN as she’s
known in front of the mic, is no stranger to
either. First launching into the public eye as a
refreshing young voice in Iceland’s pop scene,
she’s now known around the world as Gríma
from Netflix’s mind-bending, chill-inducing
hit series Katla, AKA one of the most popu-
lar Icelandic shows in history. When the
pandemic turned the world upside down,
Gu!rún turned it into an opportunity to
better herself, her craft and hopefully—her
community.
“I want to be like her”
Growing up in an interdisciplinary artistic
family, Gu!rún began playing music when
she was just five years old. She picked up a
violin for the first time and began classical
lessons after seeing Sigrún E!valdsdóttir
performing on television with the Icelandic
Symphony Orchestra, telling her mother, “I
want to be like her.” Shrugging off the sugges-
tion to learn the piano instead, Gu!rún
With credits to her name in both music
and television, GDRN talks storytelling, taking
on her first acting role and creating music in
these atypical times
Words: Desirai Thompson Photos: Art Bicnick
From ‘What If’
To Reality

uncovered a passion that would accent her
life for years to come. Eventually, she picked
up jazz singing and jazz piano, two passions
that would come to help define her signature
GDRN style.
Feeling adrift after high school, unsure
of what step to take, Gu!rún even consid-
ered studying medicine for a time. In the
mid-2010’s, she decided to take a year off,
begin working and keep herself open to
possibility. It was during this time that fate
revealed its plan for her.
“My two friends asked me if I wanted to
check out some of their beats,” she remi-
nisced. “They were starting to produce music
under the name Ra:tio and they were like,
‘Do you want to sing something over it?’ We
just had so much fun. We released the song
‘Ein’ in 2017 and two days later Alda Music
reached out and said, ‘We want to sign you.’
It all happened pretty quickly.”
The Beginning Of Something
Big

Gu!rún’s star has been on the rise ever since.
Her debut album ‘Hva! Ef’ (‘What If’) dropped
in August 2018, garnering all manner of
nominations at the Icelandic Music Awards
including wins for Pop Singer of the Year
and Pop Album of the Year, while her single
"Lætur mig" was awarded Pop Single of the
Year and Music Video of the Year. “It was
surreal,” she shares, “I didn’t realize that it
could actually happen—to be a musician like
this, but I’m so thankful for it. I just stumbled
upon the right self in life.”
It was then, in February 2020—right on
the heels of the release of her second album,
the eponymously titled GDRN—that fate
struck again. “It was like fifteen minutes
before COVID,” Gu!rún quips about the
timing of her album release. With a jarring
swiftness, her release concert and all upcom-