Atlantica - 01.09.2004, Blaðsíða 53

This year’s
festival will
have quite a
wide variety
of acts from
around Europe
and North
America.
Rock
S I N G A P O R E S L I N G
G U S G U S
P
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O
TO
S
C
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M
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runs the festival and other smaller events throughout the year, has devel-
oped a knack for getting talent to Iceland just before they become cost
prohibitive and/or famous. As Árni Einar Birgisson, one of the organizers of
the festival, says:
“We try to follow the music scene closely and now, after five festivals, we
have a sort of worldwide network of friends and associates that tip us off
on interesting things. Sometimes we get very lucky. For instance, we had
The Rapture playing in 2002 when they were virtual unknowns and last
year we had TV On The Radio which practically no one had heard of at the
time. Now they're all over the music press, being played on MTV…”
This year’s festival will have quite a wide variety of acts from around
Europe and North America. In terms of electronic music this year, you’ll get
to hear the organic electronica of Four Tet from Domino Records playing at
a showcase for that label. Four Tet’s latest album, Rounds, made numerous
“Best of 2004” lists in the past year. Then you have Canada’s Kid Koala
(a.k.a. Eric San) whose talent with a set of turntables has helped to raise
DJ-ing to the level of a fine art.
The festival won’t be scrimping on rock either, with danceable funk-punk
from Radio 4 or mood-altering substances like The Stills, who have been
hailed for their “pop sixth sense” by the BBC. We put another band who
are coming to the festival, The Shins, under the microscope after their
show at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark (page 18).
MORE THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A STICK AT
With the local talent, what stands out most is the abundance. Iceland isn’t
a big country; close to two hundred and eighty thousand people live here.
But for its small size, Iceland has over a hundred active music groups, who
break-up, reform, and recombine like strands of DNA in the deCode labo-
ratories. There are vibrant scenes all over the country, from the metal-
heads in Húsavík to HipHop producers in Akureyri and rock and electroni-
ca communities in the capital.
Playing at the festival is a prerequisite for bands applying for the Reykjavík
Loftbrú (translation: air bridge) program, which was put together by
Icelandair and the City of Reykjavík to support young musicians. If a band
has played at Iceland Airwaves, that band can provide the Loftbrú orga-
nizers with information about bookings overseas and the organization will
provide the band with airline tickets. This makes a huge difference for
young artists, who usually book their own tours and do not have a major
label credit card to pay their way. Henrik Björnsson, the affable singer of
Singapore Sling and occupying the centre of this month’s cover, says
about Loftbrú:
“It’s essential for indie bands, especially for us, travelling to America. It’s
so expensive that we just wouldn’t be able to do the tours. It wouldn’t be
possible without Loftbrú. Maybe we would go once a year, but that would-
n’t be enough. [Our label] is a fairly new label from New York. I don’t know
what they would do without this.”
For some bands, the show they put on at Iceland Airwaves isn’t necessar-
ily different for them, but it may be the audience’s only chance to see them
play in Iceland. Bardi Johannsson (far right on the cover) from Bang Gang,
recently returned from a summer touring some of the larger festivals in
Europe including the Montreaux Jazz Festival.
“I don’t play very often in Iceland. I only play once or twice a year maxi-
mum, because the bands that are playing every week are playing for the
same crowd and it’s kind of boring for me. So I just play one or two times
a year when it’s a special occasion and I try to play the best gig possible.”
AND A GREAT PARTY TO BOOT
The festival is a successful event in that many people come back for a
second or third time once they’ve experienced it. A huge percentage of the
festival-goers are from the international music press, much more so than
you would find at other European music festivals. Last year it seemed like
everyone was from some publication or another. The reason is simple, and
as Neil Strauss of the New York Times put it, “[the] chances of stumbling
into a bar and being blown away by a previously unknown band at Iceland
Airwaves are much greater than at comparable music conventions in
America.” But what makes the festival so successful? We asked Arnar
Eggert Thoroddsen, who writes about pop culture for Iceland’s oldest
newspaper, Morgunbladid.
“The consistency of the festival is what has made it so successful. The
Icelandic way has always been to make everything bigger and even big-
ger still and then, of course it explodes. It was a masterstroke when the
organisers gave up the big concerts in Laugardalshöll and instead con-
centrated on getting as many Icelandic bands as possible, plus a few
semi-famous ‘hot’ bands.”
Every year, the party draws you in deeper. You get caught up in a stream of
people bar-hopping slightly more urgently than usual. The nightlife goes
late enough on a regular weekend, but during the festival all the musicians
are trying to outdo each other at the rock lifestyle. You would be forgiven
for thinking that life is always like this in Reykjavík.
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