by Tina WhelskiSigur Rós’ latest album, Takk, (EMI) sounds like the Reykjavik, Iceland quartet wrote it while watching the Northern Lights streak across the night sky. The 11 linked arrangements seemingly break the snowy hush with flaring crescendos and bursting luminosity, for a meticulous mix of music, magic and atmosphere.
Sigur Rós first captured the imagination of the masses in 1999 when their second album, Ágcetis Byrjun broke outside Iceland to become a word-of-mouth hit. The Aquarian Weekly talks with Kjartan Sveinsson.
AW: ''Takk'' means ''thank you.” What made that title perfect for your fourth album and did you discover a new meaning in “thank you” once the album was finished?
Kjartan Sveinsson: We were very grateful actually with finishing it (laughs). Takk was something that had been around us for quite a while and usually our titles come about out of that. We’re very grateful for where we are at the moment with our lives. We thought it was a perfect title.
AW: How does Sigur Rós collaborate on writing? Georg Holm has been quoted saying that you all “sort of just muck around.” You plug in your instruments and start playing and songs come quite easily. Do you agree?
Sveinsson: That’s how the basis of the songs are written, just jamming really. Yeah, “muck about,” that’s a good way to say it. Then of course we start recording, then we go into the production and the songs might change then. Of course the most important part is the basis of the songs.
AW: You were in the studio quite a long time on this last album?
Sveinsson: Eighteen months I think it was. Perhaps that’s the time we need. I don’t think it’s that much actually.
AW: Arranging that material must then become a daunting task?
Sveinsson: Not just arranging for instruments, but arranging the whole thing. For instance, we add a lot of different things, loads of keyboards and percussion and that’s what takes time really. Recording the pages of songs is not hard actually. But when we start working on them, to make a good song, there’s loads of structures that you need to think about and that’s what takes the most time for us and then producing it.
AW: Many reports have said that tracks on Takk are as close as Sigur Rós has ever gotten to ‘proper’ songs—meaning the music’s more accessible to more kinds of listeners? Do you think that?
Sveinsson: I can see why people would say that, yeah. Basically I think we’ve become better at writing songs, you know? Just with time and practice. Which is natural isn’t it? When you do it for a living (laughs). I think the songs are more to the point, not like in the old days where it always took time to get to a certain place.
AW: As keyboardist, how do you personally approach this music?
Sveinsson: It’s hard to explain how…It’s more like intuition. Things happen the way they’re supposed to in a certain way. Sometimes it’s hard to find the right mood. For me when I record and then I create, I have to be there totally. I can’t be thinking about anything else. There has to be some blood in it.
AW: Can you talk about one of the songs from Takk?
Sveinsson: The song “Hoppipolla” was kind of fun because I didn’t play anything on it until the last minute. We started working differently maybe than we used to. We’re more in the control room and arranging and doing rock, instead of just being a band and playing all the time…I think I play more guitar on this record than Jonsi does. Everything’s mixed up.
AW: What do you miss about Iceland when you tour?
Sveinsson: The thing that I really miss is “home,” the root. When you’re touring you never stay more than two days in one place and there are no roots and that’s really hard actually. You’re always a visitor and always an observer. You can’t get to know a place or feel at home there. It doesn’t happen. That’s what I miss the most definitely.
AW: How about something native to Iceland that you miss when you’re on tour?
Sveinsson: I think it’s the space we have here in Iceland. Not just nature, but space in general with people and what we do here. It’s very good.
AW: What was one of your earliest experiences with music?
Sveinsson: There was always loads of music in my house that my older brothers and sisters played. So it was very natural for me to do rock. Experiences? I think when my sister played me David Bowie when I was five-years-old.
AW: Do you remember it being a specific Bowie song or album?
Sveinsson: No. It was just more that the mood of it was so nice. I remember also playing Beethoven’s 9th on the piano. I was so clever, I thought. It was kind of a mission when I was seven or something. I don’t remember. It was a long time ago (laughs).
AW: Do you want to talk about what any of the songs mean lyrically?
Sveinsson: I think it’s very important not to have a definite feeling about the songs or just songs in general. I think it’s important to let them airy and give the song a break. You know how people always connect songs with a certain era of their lives or romance or heartbreak or something. I think it’s just so important to let the songs live on their own and they can make you feel a certain way at a certain time, but not pin it down. I always kind of want the songs to be independent and not have a certain story or meaning.
Sigur Rós perform at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on February 9.
Sigur Rós performing "Hoppipolla."
Written, performed and produced by band members Jonsi Birgisson (singer/guitar), Kjartan Sveinsson (keyboards), Georg Holm (bass) and Orri Pall Dyrason (drums), along with co-producer Ken Thomas, this fourth album offers fans who will see the band’s upcoming US tour something different from their previous record, ''( )” released in 2002. For one, Birgisson sings lyrics in Icelandic rather than Sigur Rós’ invented language "Hopelandic." Songs also seem closer to “proper songs” than anything the band has done previously, which Kjartan Sveinsson addresses with good humor. He speculates that perhaps what people are hearing is that the band has just become better at writing songs since it is what they do for a living.
Sigur Rós first captured the imagination of the masses in 1999 when their second album, Ágcetis Byrjun broke outside Iceland to become a word-of-mouth hit. The Aquarian Weekly talks with Kjartan Sveinsson.
AW: ''Takk'' means ''thank you.” What made that title perfect for your fourth album and did you discover a new meaning in “thank you” once the album was finished?
Kjartan Sveinsson: We were very grateful actually with finishing it (laughs). Takk was something that had been around us for quite a while and usually our titles come about out of that. We’re very grateful for where we are at the moment with our lives. We thought it was a perfect title.
AW: How does Sigur Rós collaborate on writing? Georg Holm has been quoted saying that you all “sort of just muck around.” You plug in your instruments and start playing and songs come quite easily. Do you agree?
Sveinsson: That’s how the basis of the songs are written, just jamming really. Yeah, “muck about,” that’s a good way to say it. Then of course we start recording, then we go into the production and the songs might change then. Of course the most important part is the basis of the songs.
AW: You were in the studio quite a long time on this last album?
Sveinsson: Eighteen months I think it was. Perhaps that’s the time we need. I don’t think it’s that much actually.
AW: Arranging that material must then become a daunting task?
Sveinsson: Not just arranging for instruments, but arranging the whole thing. For instance, we add a lot of different things, loads of keyboards and percussion and that’s what takes time really. Recording the pages of songs is not hard actually. But when we start working on them, to make a good song, there’s loads of structures that you need to think about and that’s what takes the most time for us and then producing it.
AW: Many reports have said that tracks on Takk are as close as Sigur Rós has ever gotten to ‘proper’ songs—meaning the music’s more accessible to more kinds of listeners? Do you think that?
Sveinsson: I can see why people would say that, yeah. Basically I think we’ve become better at writing songs, you know? Just with time and practice. Which is natural isn’t it? When you do it for a living (laughs). I think the songs are more to the point, not like in the old days where it always took time to get to a certain place.
AW: As keyboardist, how do you personally approach this music?
Sveinsson: It’s hard to explain how…It’s more like intuition. Things happen the way they’re supposed to in a certain way. Sometimes it’s hard to find the right mood. For me when I record and then I create, I have to be there totally. I can’t be thinking about anything else. There has to be some blood in it.
AW: Can you talk about one of the songs from Takk?
Sveinsson: The song “Hoppipolla” was kind of fun because I didn’t play anything on it until the last minute. We started working differently maybe than we used to. We’re more in the control room and arranging and doing rock, instead of just being a band and playing all the time…I think I play more guitar on this record than Jonsi does. Everything’s mixed up.
AW: What do you miss about Iceland when you tour?
Sveinsson: The thing that I really miss is “home,” the root. When you’re touring you never stay more than two days in one place and there are no roots and that’s really hard actually. You’re always a visitor and always an observer. You can’t get to know a place or feel at home there. It doesn’t happen. That’s what I miss the most definitely.
AW: How about something native to Iceland that you miss when you’re on tour?
Sveinsson: I think it’s the space we have here in Iceland. Not just nature, but space in general with people and what we do here. It’s very good.
AW: What was one of your earliest experiences with music?
Sveinsson: There was always loads of music in my house that my older brothers and sisters played. So it was very natural for me to do rock. Experiences? I think when my sister played me David Bowie when I was five-years-old.
AW: Do you remember it being a specific Bowie song or album?
Sveinsson: No. It was just more that the mood of it was so nice. I remember also playing Beethoven’s 9th on the piano. I was so clever, I thought. It was kind of a mission when I was seven or something. I don’t remember. It was a long time ago (laughs).
AW: Do you want to talk about what any of the songs mean lyrically?
Sveinsson: I think it’s very important not to have a definite feeling about the songs or just songs in general. I think it’s important to let them airy and give the song a break. You know how people always connect songs with a certain era of their lives or romance or heartbreak or something. I think it’s just so important to let the songs live on their own and they can make you feel a certain way at a certain time, but not pin it down. I always kind of want the songs to be independent and not have a certain story or meaning.
Sigur Rós perform at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on February 9.
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 2/8/06.
Sigur Rós performing "Hoppipolla."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment