Iceland review - 2019, Page 87

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Iceland Review
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quence, the new album features a range of music:
some new, some they’ve been working on for longer,
but most importantly, there are plenty of new ideas
the band is excited to work on in the future. “We’re
not emptying our account with this album, we still
have some stuff to work on,” Hjörtur says.
A band is a battlefield
Working together since they were teenagers, tour-
ing the world, and dealing with life – the good and
the bad – has tested Hjaltalín’s bonds and strength-
ened them. While Hjörtur praises the group’s co-op-
eration, he says it isn’t always simple. “It’s like any
friendship or marriage. There are issues, peaks and
valleys. One thing I think people don’t really get,
with any band or artist, is that this type of intimate
creative work is maybe the hardest thing you’ll ever
do. It requires so much from you, and forces you to
leave your ego behind completely. Decisions need
to be made, and every single person you’re working
with is super smart and capable. So the co-opera-
tion has been good, but it can be difficult as well.”
“That’s also part of growing up together,”
Sigríður adds. “In the beginning, we never really
talked about anything serious. It was just a lot of
fun and we were enjoying ourselves. But then, with
everything that we’ve gone through together – for
one, the things that were going on in Högni’s life,
which had a tremendous impact on all of us – peo-
ple’s honesty grew hand in hand with the friendship.
We’ve never had issues of a scale that was insur-
mountable, but we’ve had to work on solving the
disagreements that come up. And that has made all
the victories greater as well. Today, we’re not afraid
to have those conversations.”
Hjörtur agrees “We’ve done so much together,
played so much abroad, often under difficult
circumstances. I won’t compare the experiences,
but it’s a little like having served in a war together.
Our UK tour in 2009 was like being in the trenches.
Even if we can be difficult towards one another, it’s
brought us even closer together.”
Hjaltalín sounds like Hjaltalín
Two singles from the upcoming album were released
earlier this year. Taking five years to complete the
project wasn’t the plan from the get go, but life
interfered. Members of the band moved abroad,
got busy with other ventures, graduated, and had
babies. Still, they all got together regularly to work
on new music. And all of them are excited to show
the world what they’ve been working on, which pulls
from every creative phase they’ve gone through.
“We’re taking elements from all our records: the
symphonic sound from our early days, but also the
stripped-bare electronic elements that came later.”
Hjörtur tells me. When asked to say what the new
album sounds like, he says it simply sounds like
them. “I’d rather have people say ‘this song sounds
like Hjaltalín’ than ‘Hjaltalín sounds like this.’ I
mean, we made a disco song, but it still sounds like
us.”
A shifting landscape
With eight years since their last release, not only
has Hjaltalín changed, but the musical landscape of
Iceland as well. For one thing, there are fewer bands
releasing albums and more solo artist releasing
singles. Sigríður tells me that what they’re doing is
different. “We’re a band, there are many of us and
we try to work in a way that we can execute live. Like
we did in the concerts in Harpa: we take something
that’s complicated and big and bring it out through
our live performance.” Hjörtur interjects, “We had
16 or 17 musicians on stage.”
“Another thing that changed was that people
aren’t necessarily releasing albums like they used
to, they’re focusing on singles instead,” Sigríður
says. “It’s not a change for the worse, it’s just dif-
ferent. The idea of the album as a whole however,
how it’s put together, the artwork and all that, we
believe in that concept.” Hjörtur agrees. “I think an
"THIS TYPE OF INTIMATE CREATIVE WORK IS MAYBE
THE HARDEST THING YOU’LL EVER DO. IT REQUIRES
SO MUCH FROM YOU, AND FORCES YOU TO LEAVE YOUR
EGO BEHIND COMPLETELY."