Of the bands that have surfaced from the dark, cold and harsh Icelandic scenery in the last 10 years, Sólstafir is definitely one of the most acknowledged. The group became a world-wide phenomenon, especially after the release of albums like “Köld” or “Svartir Sandar”.
Also, Sólstafir came back this year with a new material, ‘Ótta’, which came out on August 29th 2014, via Season Of Mist. We took advantage of this special event and we conducted an interview with Aðalbjörn Tryggvason, the band’s vocalist. We talked about the meaning of the record, the incredible ways in which it was written, and the artist’s perspectives on music and touring. The result can be read below:
A new Sólstafir album and yet another surprising shift in style, in comparison with your first materials, like „Til Valhallar” or „Í Blóđi Og Anda”! First of all, of course, congratulations on ‘Ótta’. I have to ask you, because this is what intrigues me most: what was the reason that inspired the shift in style this time around?
Well we never really shifted any style. You write different music when you are 17 then you do when you are 27, and by 37 it’s about to be even different. Did anyone expect us to be writing the same songs year after year ? The biggest difference is maybe between „In blood and Spirit” and „Masterpiece of Bitterness”, but then again, „In Blood” is written in ’97 and ´98, while „Masterpiece” is written in ’03 and ’04. We’re still writing the same sort of music, we’re just getting better at it.
‘Ótta’ is translated in English as „fear”. Why did you choose this title for your new album? What is the concept behind your latest record?
You are right about that, it does translate as „fear”, but in our album title case it’s a different story. The album has an old time concept called Eykt. Dividing the 24 hours into 8 parts, and each of these parts have names. This was used way before ppl had wrist or pocket watches. „Ótta” is the time of the day from 03-06 AM.
Also, what is the connection between the Ótta’s cover and the album’s concept?
Well we wanted to make a bit of timeless album, based on time. Sounds strange, i know. The cover photo is shot in 1995, but it might as well have been shot in 1895. And then again it could be taken at any time of the day, since the sun don’t really set in Iceland over the summertime. And the cover showes some kind of cold isolation. And the lyrics are in way about cold isolation in a different way.
Can you tell us something about the songwriting process? I mean, how do you compose the materials and also what are the major influences that has driven you to make such an experimental orientation?
One song might be based on an country sounding hook, that we of course thought was in ridiculous idea to start with, but then we sort of grew loving it. Another song might be written on a piano, and we put some meat on it, adding all sorts of reverb guitars here and there and coming up with the perfect drumbeat. But they sort of come by themselves, the songs, you open for the „smash hit hot line”, 1-800-smash, and wait for good connection. And there it is. But you have to be quite introvert to get a good reception.
What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the production for this album?
Hmm, good question, because the recordings went really smooth, compared to the album before at least. It was a bit difficult to put lyrics in the vocal lines, since the vocal lines are all written in no particular language, and when the bullshit words are actually sounding pretty good it can tricky to replace it with good written actual lyric. But then again, it’s just work, you put the mind into it. The „Miðaftann” song was the trickiest one, i delayed recording the vocals for that one till the very last hour we were in the studio. But like i said, there weren’t many problems this time. We could have maybe have had the songs more ready, cause we wrote the album quite fast, not a single song was 100% ready, so all of them needed some work, but, in the end, we just enjoyed making the songs better and putting final touches to them in the studio. And i must say that bringing the string section into the studio was a bit of a challenge, since we had never worked with a string section before, and it was not like we wrote the notes for them down on paper and pressed record. So maybe the biggest challenge after all was to have stings fit perfectly to the songs. The arrangements were basically done on the spot; and there is not a single thing about it that i’m unhappy with.
These days, Sólstafir is widely recognised by some magazines or websites as one of metal’s most experimental and pioneering bands. What does this recognition mean to you?
Oh, I have never looked at it in that way. News to me! I’ll put it this way: When are are widely recognized, people will stop asking us what kind of music we play 🙂
We made a review and we gave 9/10, and i read on your Facebook some reviews from other websites which gave notes between 9 and 10. Are you happy with the positive reception that ‘Ótta’ has gotten so far?
This is some sort of trick question, right? Well, I can’t say anything else than yes, since the reviews have been overwhelming. I’ve stopped reading them actually, it’s just too much sometimes, because the 4 of us experience this album in a totally different way than the audience. But we put our hearts and souls into this album, so getting a tap on the back is nice.
Has the album been received differently in Iceland compared to abroad?
No, not really, everybody seems to love it. Wish i could give you a longer epic answer, but simply, I can’t.
Sólstafir is one of the most popular bands from Iceland. How is the Iceland metal scene seen from the perspective of a member of a band so known these days?
It’s rather good. Bands seem to have stepped up their game, being more pro, promoting themselves more outside of Iceland, and not basically giving up. It’s very easy to give up being a metal band from here, not many clubs have supported metal music through the years, and it’s not like you’re selling any records over here, but that has changed, bands such as Dimma and Skálmöld are selling shit loads of albums over here.
Nowadays, some artists see music as an escape from the world, from their daily routine, or, sometimes, from themselves. Do you consider music as a small refuge from the daily basis? Do you consider your music as a getaway?
I’d rather say that we’ve been living in that other world for years, having the band dominating our lives for years. And it’s kinda difficult to step into the real world coming home from touring or spending months in the studio. Friends and family members have their own daily routine that you often find yourself not being a part of. For instance, when we’re maybe at the Bahamas during the Barge to Hell cruise, we joke around that how the hell did this happen, we could have been working on a fork lift at the harbour. This band life is often one big fairytale, filled with airports, buses, hangovers, fights, sleepless nights, small backstage rooms, broken guitars in the middle of nowhere in a county you’re only dwelling in for 8 ours.
In the end, I want to thank you for this interview. I always look forward to the latest Sólstafir album, and I can’t wait to see what you have planned for the future.
Thank you so much for your support. We have big touring plans in the works for the rest of this year and the next one, so we hope to see you all on the road!
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