Iceland review - 2016, Page 18

16 ICELAND REVIEW
new places. I never clock out from music,
though, so all of my travels influence and
inspire me. I enjoy reading books, espe-
cially the novels of Paulo Coelho, and I
will be working as a guide on Langjökull
glacier this summer, taking tourists into
the man-made ice cave there.
Who’s on your playlist at
the moment?
I’m not the kind of person who is always
digging and searching for new music.
Sometimes I can listen to the same album
for a whole year! I’ve been listening to
the song ‘Gardenia’ by Iggy Pop and
Josh Homme.
Talk a little bit about your
work with jazz icon Sunna
Gunnlaugsdóttir in Patreksfjörður,
the West Fjords, which was featured
on national broadcaster RÚV in
2014. How did the opportunity
come about?
The work was through an organization
called Kítón Women in Music, and the
purpose of the organization is simply to
empower women. I got a lot out of that
trip because I was sent out into the coun-
tryside with somebody I’d never met
before and we were expected to write
music together. Because writing music
is such an intimate process for me, the
idea of working out loud with someone
else was weird to me at first, but Sunna
is a genius and we hit it off right away.
At the end of the week, we performed
a concert both with our own music and
the music we created together. I wasn’t
confident at the time that I wanted to
work in music, but after that I got really
inspired and motivated and decided to
pursue music full-time. It was a turning
point in my life.
Say something about yourself that
people might be surprised to know.
I just found out recently that I’m like
Jekyll and Hyde. I can be delicate and
calm, but I’m also really determined and
have ambition. I’m not bossy, but I defi-
nitely speak my mind. [She later tells me
that she is learning to accept these traits
and make them work in her favor].
Tell us about the most nerve-wrack-
ing time you performed?
It was at a rehearsal for a school concert
shortly after I started singing at the age
of 19. I was petrified! I started singing
the song, and then my legs shook until
I fell to the ground! My body just failed
me. When I realized that I was on my
knees in front of seven students and my
teacher, I realized how stupid it was to
be afraid, so after that, I started working
on building my confidence on stage. It’s
building slowly, but it is coming.
Do you find living in a small coun-
try like Iceland constraining as a
musician?
Not at all. I need to be here. I don’t
need large audiences; I just want to be
pleased with my work, and I am. I don’t
think Iceland is restraining because it’s
really easy to hop on a plane and play
somewhere else. I find the most freedom
in being alone in the countryside in the
sunroom of my parent’s house, which has
an amazing view of mountains and rivers.
My brothers and I transformed it into a
rehearsal space, and we often gather ideas
there and turn them into songs. I live in
Borgarfjörður, which is in the western
part of Iceland, and a lot of my creativity
comes from there; from the stillness and
the quietness of the landscape. *
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