Dyrdin

Members are:
Einar, the cunning guitarist, is the main song writer, and responsible for many a catchy hook. When not sweating profusely in a seedy bar playing rock music, he works for EVE Online. He used to be singer and guitarist in a noisy rock group called Wapp. He is also a professional juggler and has some degree in language studies....oh yes, and is a multimedia specialist.

Hafdís, the singer, who happens to be Einar's sister, has a B.A. degree in Russian and likes to translate Russian literature in her spare time away from music.

Tóti the animal drummer has been described as a "pummeling beast" and a "hard hitting psycho", but in reality he's got a BA degree in Russian, and an MA degree in German and runs a publishing company. He has transalated into Icelandic works by such authors as Bernard Schlink, Goethe, Bulgakov and Gogol. He's been bashing drums for many years f.e. in Risaedlan, Jupiters, Bubbleflies and currently also plays drums in legendary punk band Vonbrigði.

Magnus plays bass. By day he works in the UNIX department of Og Vodafone in Iceland.

Review of the Dyrdin Album "Dyrdin" (2006)
http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/2006/10/dyrdin-album-review.html

Dyrdin are an Icelandic band have been around in one guise or another since 1994 although this album is their first release and one I have been waiting for since I first came across the band a couple of years ago.
All but two of the songs are sung in English and the melodic indie pop tunes don't take long to overcome the language barrier. The songs are about Jón Sigurðsson who is Iceland's independence hero, love affairs with aliens including Star Trek's Mr Spock, ruined romances and kissing frogs amongst other occurrences that can somehow be applied to daily tales of life. Indeed the songs, which posses a certain charm when sung in their native tongue, and their bizarre subjects could easily pass for Norse sagas for the 21st century.
Standout tracks are prins í álögum (The Frog Prince) and snjofolk (Snowfolk) which bounce along and in doing so scream fun, fun, fun! Taking elements of C86, Sarah records and indie pop in general Dyrdin have put together a collection of well crafted and infectious pop tunes that you will want to play time and time again. Buy it and get bopping! You know it makes sense.
The album is out this week on Skipping Stones, the home of The Besties and The Charade and further demonstrates how essential the label is becoming in the indie pop world. Dyrdin will be playing Popfest which takes place between 6th and 9th October in Northampton, New England.
Iceland Airwaves website
http://www.icelandairwaves.com/artists.asp?pageID=&artistID=238"Simplicity

"energy, heart and precocious, precious honesty" - Sindri Eldon, Reykjavik Grapevine about Dýrðin at Airwaves 2005.

Dyrdin was formed in 1994 by Einar (formerly of Wapp), Maggi (formerly of California Nestbox) and Doddi (currently in Trabant). Later Einar’s sister, Hafdis, joined the band on vocals. The band performed with the help of a Dr. Rhythm drum machine, and had two songs on a compilation CD called Strump í Fótinn, released by Veraldarkeröld in 1995. After that the band took a long break but was resurrected in 2002. They started writing new songs and creating demos with the help of a computer.

A record label in USA took notice of the demos on the internet, and contacted the band, with the result of Dýrðin going to USA to perform at a Popfest festival in Northampton, Massachussetts along with many other indie-pop bands, such as The Besties, Metric Mile, Colin Clary and the Magogs, and Trembling Blue Stars. While there Dýrðin also performed in Cake Shop in NYC and P.A’s Lounge in Boston.

An agreement was reached with Skipping Stones Records that the label would release Dýrðin’s first CD around fall 2006. The label also releases CDs with The Charade from Sweden, The Besties from NYC and Watoo Watoo from France amongst others.

By that time the drummer Þórarinn Kristjánsson, from Vonbrigði and Risaeðlan, had joined the band, as well as Sigrún Vala on keyboards, and thus manned the band also performed at Innipúkinn festival 2005, and Airwaves 2005.

Following up on the forthcoming release the band will again partake in Popfest 2006 in Northampton and play various other shows with The Orchids, Secret Shine, The Besties and The Icicles.

What people have been saying about Dýrðin:

Atli Bollason, Reykjavik Grapevine
"Dýrðin’s childlike pop/rock has instant appeal"

Kelly Waldrop, The Besties:
"fucking awesome"

Jani, tekoblogi.blogspot.com:
"Dýrðin vaikuttaa omituiselta bändiltä."

Daniel, amusicalkiss.blogspot.com
"They make me dance even when all I want is to sit on my ass and drink coffee."
Paul Fontaine-Nikolov, Reykjavik Grapevine about Dýrðin at Innipúkinn festival:
"The energy was high, and one wondered if NASA would be left standing if it were full at the start of the set."

Chris Mac, indiepages.com
“they're fantastic"

Sindri Eldon, Reykjavik Grapevine about Dýrðin atAirwaves 2005:
"Dýrðin had it all: Simplicity, energy, heart and precocious, precious honesty."

miraelpendulo.blogspot.com:
"Dýrðin es la banda estrella del pop de Islandia y sus preciosas canciones han venido siendo el buzz de las listas de correo de indiepop y demás páginas de la blogósfera pop, siempre siendo recomendados y obteniendo criticas excelentes."

Dýrðin Live "Hvert i Hoppandi" (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcnPyvM7iHs

Dýrðin Live "Meistari à skidum" (December 2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofgjXEGs9cU

Interview with Dyrdin in Soundclick
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=167432

Dyrdin is an Icelandic band with alternative rock background that also likes to play pop music.

Why this name?
Dyrdin translated directly means "glory". We chose it because we are Glorius

Do you play live?
At present we have not played for a long time, but are starting again, getting another bass player and moving the old one on to keyboards, which he can't play but will try anyway.

How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?
No comment.

Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
Sure, anytime.

Band History:
Dyrdin was formed by former indie and noise rockers in 1994, purely in order to create fun, naive and catchy pop tunes. The mission was accomplished admirably and two songs were recoreded and released by Veraldarkeröld, a small independent record label in Iceland.

But since the Icelandic market is highly responsive to serious, brain-dead pop tunes aimed at horny teenagers, the band's success was a small one and it was met with ignorance.

Deriving it's influence from pop and disco, and spicing it with occasional fuzzy guitars a la Jesus and Mary Chain, it created silly parodies of the dominating teenie pop scene, with the superb aid of a Dr. Rhythm drum machine, timeless tunes of innocent wonder at the world we're living in.

The members also being fans of science fiction, lyrics revolved around f.e. a girl falling in love with Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame, and wishing she could beam away with him to faraway galaxies and explore realms where no man has gone before.

Another pop tune, called 'Brottnumin' (Abducted) was about a girl falling in love (what else) with a hideous slimy alien who only eats glass and zippers, and overcoming all obstacles fly away in a spaceship and have children on some strange faraway planet.

Needless to say, rather than finding this wonderfully hilarious the ignorant audience got alienated themselves and went back to even more silly songs about sex in much duller places under much duller circumstances. Here these gems may finally come to live, although the lyrics are all in Icelandic, and who knows, the band may have a bright future yet!

Your influences?
We all like groups like The Fall, Jesus and Mary Chain, Pixies and The Cure, and Einar, the most active songwriter has a background of creating veeeery loud walls og guitar noise with a band called Wapp, back in 1988-1990. But then again we also like, and partly imitate, f.e. ABBA.

A review of first album in Icelandic by Arnar Eggert Thoroddsen :
Dýrðina skipa á þessari plötu þau Hafdís Hreiðarsdóttir (söngur), Magnús Axelsson (bassi), Einar Hreiðarsson (gítar, hljómborð, söngur), Þórarinn Kristjánsson (trommur) og Lára Sveinsdóttir (söngur). Dýrðin stýrði upptökum, upptökumaður var Axel Árnason og Aron Þór Arnarsson hljóðblandaði. Skipping Stones Records gefa út.
DÝRÐIN hefur verið starfandi í yfir tíu ár og átti meðal annars lög á safnplötunni Strump í fótinn (1995) sem bassaleikari sveitarinnar, Magnús Axelsson, átti veg og vanda af.
Téður Magnús var mikilvirkur í hérlendri neðanjarðarsenu um og upp úr 1990 og sveitina skipa fleiri "vanir menn"; Þórarinn "Tóti" Kristjánsson er t.d. í Vonbrigði og var í Risaeðlunni, Einar gítarleikari var í Wapp og nýlega slóst Sigrún Eiríksdóttir í hópinn, en hún var áður í Bellatrix.

Dýrðin, sem leikur grípandi blómanýbylgjupopp, tók sér svo langt hlé, en sneri aftur með látum fyrir c.a. þremur árum síðan. Þessi aukna virkni Dýrðarinnar varð til þess að sveitin landaði samningi við neðanjarðarútgáfuna Skipping Stones Records, sem gefur út þessa fyrstu breiðskífu sveitarinnar. Útgáfan virðist furðu vel tengd við hina og þessa miðla því að dómar hafa verið að hrúgast inn undanfarnar vikur á erlenda vefmiðla sem hafa með neðanjarðartónlist að gera eins og Popmatters.com, www.indiepages.com og www.Indie-mp3.co.uk, Liðsmenn Dýrðarinnar kunna fag sitt upp á hár og búa til krúttpopp í hæsta gæðaflokki. Það er eins "hreint" og hugsast getur, og minnir á fyrstu smáskífur Creation útgáfunnar bresku. Barnslegt og sætt "áhugamanna"-popp að hætti Pastels og fleiri sveita. Þetta er því einskonar ferðalag með tímavél, og ferðin sú er harla skemmtileg.

Að hlusta á diskinn er ekki ósvipað og að hlusta á plötu með Ramones eða AC/DC, lögin eru hvert öðru lík, eru í raun tilbrigði við eitt stef. En maður verður ekki leiður, öllu heldur vill maður alls ekki að breytt verði út af stefnunni. Hafdís Hreiðarsdóttir, systir Einars gítarleikara, syngur barnslega um blóm og býflugur eða eins og segir í "Hunangsdropar": "Við viljum hunangsdropa ... sólskinið og söng fuglanna...og blómahafið nær eins langt og augað eygir." Mörg lögin eru þannig viljandi yfirdrifin í sætleikanum, viss kaldhæðni og grín í gangi. Það breytir þó engu um það að lögin, og platan í heild, er vel að virka.

More information:
http://www.mmedia.is/dyrdin
http://www.myspace.com/dyrdin