Interview with Biggi Veira

Interview with Birgir Þórarinsson aka Biggi Veira of GusGus
By Guy Hornsby
There was no plan, no clue where this would go.” Biggi Veira, early member and chief musician of Icelandic triumvirate GusGus sits relaxed, in the gently pulsating surroundings of a central London record shop, casting back to the formative days of the band. “But I reckon now I’d be doing music forever, in some form. It’s too good to give up”. It’s a twelve-year journey that in 2007 has culminated in their 5th studio album, the aptly-named ‘Forever’.
GusGus are not what would be classed as an average dance music outfit. In fact, back in the beginning, they were much more of a collective, a group of like-minded friends and acquaintances, with an idea that they could make music, or film, or anything…. . Musicians, actors, singers, photographers, all from Reykjavik’s melting pot of culture and creativity, they gradually formed a proto-band in 1995, GusGus in name, but not in any sense akin to what we see today.
Formed originally with the production of a film in mind, when the impetus (and money) dried up, Biggi Veira it was the score that then became their focus, and signified Biggi’s first involvement with the band. Their self-titled first ‘album’ “just a compilation of stuff from the first few years” saw them signed to 4AD, and become a going musical concern. But the early years and albums were years of upheaval in the band and the music.
‘Polydistortion’ and ‘This Is Normal’, while both critical successes, and a showcase of the band’s desire to merge audio and visual themes to devastating live effect, brought scant financial reward, and, in 2000, with the advent of the new millennium, seven of the original members departed, leaving just Veira and Stephan Stephensen (the gloriously monikered President Bongo) to forge ahead. But Biggi doesn’t see it as a negative: “It was what was just happening, and we just adjusted to it basically. But it was all steps in a progression, it was never a drawback”. With vocalist Earth completing the trio soon after, (and a last 4AD album, ‘GusGus v T-World’ sealing the past) they regrouped to work on their next album, which would become 2002’s ‘Attention’, and put them firmly on the musical map in Europe and beyond.
The album was released on Darren Emerson’s Underwater imprint, and saw immediate success, with a string of singles – David, Call Of The Wild, Desire – that crossed over onto the dancefloors of Europe and re-cast the band with a more club-centric sound, even if it wasn’t the first intention. “I feel that on each album we have progressed,” says Veira, tracing the development over the years. “From the first to the second album it progressed maybe in a way that I wasn’t maybe too keen on, [but] the progression to Attention, it was the step forward I was aiming for.”
Fast forward to 2007, and Forever (released on their own Pineapple Records, and via former Underwater contact Matt Stuart’s Gung-Ho! imprint) has been a fair wait. But while the hunger for a follow-up existed, the band bided their time. “We had an album ready to release two years back, and of course it was closer to [Forever], had some of the same tracks, but it was [too] similar to Attention.” Was it a question of waiting till the music fitted more closely to where GusGus was heading? “The concept of degeneration was a lot on my mind when I was working on the music [this time]. But degeneration not as a bad thing, but as a progression.”
And while many tracks do bear the hallmarks of the previous album, change was a central theme.
“Attention was like other stuff at the time – Electroclash was big at the time – a mix of punk and some drum-orientated music. With Forever I’m trying to progress the music, it’s [about] losing a bit of its simplicity.”
But before Biggi falls into oft-played out self-aggrandising that often blights his talented (and not so) peers, he’s quick to rationalise his talents.
“I would describe us as musicians. We’re not producers, so it’s difficult to me to take the tracks and point them in a certain direction.” But, as some recent efforts from so-called DJs and producers have resulted in bloated collections of club tracks, less ‘albums’ and more extended EPs, he cheekily affirms his own beliefs: “producing an album in that way with that dynamic… maybe that will reveal who are the producers and who are the musicians.”
So what is GusGus’ sound? Can it be pinned down?
“Most of [our tracks] have a strong melody to them. And we’ve always had great vocals.”
This is evidenced again on Forever. With Daniel Agust’s (a former member pre-2000) mesmerising efforts on Moss, and Pall Oskar’s on Need In Me. It’s certainly a style that’s always found a kindred sprit in the UK, where they’ve arguably enjoyed some of their biggest success.
But while to the casual observer, the links between the volcanic extremes of Iceland and Britain’s stoicism may be tenuous, Biggi has his own theory.
“I think the culture that’s come closest to Iceland is the UK. There’s a link in our humour, our irony, and the fundamentals in life. Basically, we’re [both] peasants” he says, before qualifying his statement with a laugh: “it’s good – peasants are cool!”
Certainly, both countries had a big punk scene, which meant influences crossing the Atlantic, and not with any of our neighbours – “the Germans, they are too gay to be punk! The Scandinavians are just too Scandinavian!! The punk scene changed Icelandic music completely and most of the music was based on that.” And Biggi seems to give a knowing nod to the past. He’s an effervescent character, full of energy and the spirit of his musical predecessors, but married with an intelligence and logic fitting to the swathes of electronica which encapsulates GusGus’ sound.
So, almost three decades after punk, and how have things changed? The internet, Cds, software.
“There have always been a lot of records that are not very good. [With downloads] I think it holds hands a bit with the change of availability. In Iceland it’s two years since the last vinyl shop closed down. So Beatport is saving my life!”
But does this mean more chaff and less wheat? Is it harder to pick up interesting music with so much to choose from?
“The more stuff is put out, the more of a gap there will be for something different.”
To Biggi, it’s subtle changes, and trying to understand the dynamic behind them. Take the minimal techno scene:
“There’s a change to last year. It’s sexy. It’s [more] about the groove, more musical”. But the importance lies with the innovators, not repetition of successful music. “There are always things that are genuine genius. I think if people focus more on the genuine genius than on the sound and the patterns themselves, then it’ll take music forward. If it’s drowned in the formula and the pattern it will die.”
So what will 2007 hold for GusGus?
With Forever finally out, will they finally return to the UK? “We’ve not played since [Back To] Basics in 2005. Of course we want to come back. We are hoping to do some sort of mini-tour off the album. I promise it won’t be so long…” There is pair of performances at Glastonbury now rubber-stamped, so it seems that we will once again bear witness to a band that is rightly exalted as unique, both musically and figuratively.
How many British artists would lists relaxing pursuits as climbing?
“I regularly go and take a mountain and just… do it!”
Maybe it’s just Iceland, a land free of hustle and bustle, and blessed with stunning beauty that seems to lend a laconic and rounded attitude to its inhabitants.
“All environments have good and bad things. The environment will affect you in a way, but it is always upon the individuals about that what we produce. So I must just think that we are just great musicians?!”
Half joking, maybe, but with GusGus it’s pleasure in music that seems to be their overriding raison-d’etre. Long may it continue.
GusGus:
www.gusgus.com
www.myspace.com/gusgus