Iceland review - 2013, Page 21

The Coloradoan
In 2011, the acclaimed U.S. musician John Grant relocated to Iceland. Now, two years
later, the move has borne fruit with the release earlier this year of his new album Pale
Green Ghosts, recorded in Reykjavík.
all of a sudden after a few songs at a sold-out concert
at Reykjavík venue Faktorý on July 25, everybody
starts singing “happy birthday to you” in Icelandic
to the man on the stage, John Grant.
He makes a moving thank you speech in Icelandic. Then he keeps
on performing his beautiful music from his latest and second solo
album, Pale Green Ghosts. The album was recorded in Reykjavík
in collaboration with electronic musician Birgir Þórarinsson, a.k.a.
Biggi Veira, of GusGus.
The concert is great, one of the better ones I’ve witnessed. Very
personal, as are his two solo albums.
Singer-songwriter John Grant is an American, a Coloradoan to
be precise, and formerly associated with the Denver-based alterna-
tive rock band The Czars. He launched a solo career in 2010 with
the critically-acclaimed Queen of Denmark, a deeply personal album
about his past struggles with alcohol and drug addiction and com-
ing to terms with being gay.
Grant speaks Russian, Spanish, German, English—of course—
and now Icelandic too; at the Faktorý concert he introduces his
songs in Icelandic.
We meet briefly after the concert and I ask Grant about Iceland,
his new home country, and his good command of the Icelandic lan-
guage. “I seem to make better progress when I’m out in the world
learning about new cultures and learning new languages. Learning
languages opens up a completely new world and makes you a better
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY PÁLL stefÁnsson