Though only 20 years old, Ólafur Arnalds has packed a lot of musical experience into his young life.Hailing from the suburban Icelandic town of Mosfellsbær (a few kilometres outside Reykjavík), Arnalds has been attending music school since he was 5 years old.
Not only is Arnalds competent on a dizzying array of instruments, he’s also unafraid to mix elegiac, classical arrangements with balls-out rock & roll, as shown on his extraordinary debut album, Eulogy for Evolution.
Ostensibly composed for piano and strings, his debut mixes weeping violins and melancholy piano to mesmerising effect, though Arnalds punctuates his refined tapestry with ejaculative bursts of guitar and heavy-duty drums.
Having generated a heap of critical applause for his striking musical vision, Olafur is now set to tour the UK and Europe, playing a range of exquisite venues such as the stunning Holywell Music Room (Oxford) and the Roundhouse in London (as part of the Erased Tapes label night).
What first drew you to music, and what kind of musical background/training do you have exactly?
My musical lesson history is very long and varied, and I'm not going to bore you with all the details. But yeah I have had musical lessons since i was five on all kinds of instruments; piano, guitar, drums and more. About two years ago I stopped taking lessons on instruments and decided to concentrate on theory and composition. My parents are completely responsible for my development with supporting me all this time. I have always wanted to be a musician and they supported me the whole way.
Judging by the undulating nature of the album, you've obviously learned a thing or two about classical arrangements. Where does this particular musical interest and skill come from?
Actually, when I wrote Eulogy for Evolution I had had no training in this subject, but now I study classical composition at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts.
So what instruments would you say you play well?
Phew. The instruments I play well and play a lot are drums, guitar and piano. But I also play quite often the mandolin, banjo, ukulele, bass and loads of weird instruments me and my father collect. Next on my list is the cello or violin.
So how did Eulogy… develop? Did it grow organically as you went along, or did you have a pretty fixed concept of what you wanted from the beginning?
I guess a little bit of both. I just started writing without really knowing how I wanted the album to sound as a whole, and then after I had written maybe half of it, I started getting a picture in my head of how I wanted the album to be. So I started writing songs already knowing how I wanted them to sound before I had written them. And I deliberately used themes from other songs for new songs to connect the whole album together.
No doubt you have a lot of muses, but did you have any particular inspirations in your mind when you were making the album?
I do it so unconsciously that I barely even know who is inspiring me. The soundtrack from American Beauty comes to mind when I think about some of the songs. Also Chopin. But inspiration comes from everything and it's really hard to tell which things have the most effect. It is very hard to realize for yourself what makes you do what you do, you just do it, you know?
Who else was involved in creating Eulogy…
Not a lot of people really apart from the hired string section. I was studying pop music with an Icelandic producer, Þorvaldur Bjarni, at the time and he supported me a lot. He let me use his studio and got me a really good deal for the string section and stuff. My friend, Gréta Salóme, did come up with some ideas for "1953" and she played the violin solo. But I recorded, mixed and mastered the album myself.
It's a very narrative album - was there a story in your mind as you wrote the music? Or was it based on any existing film or story?
The concept of the album was inspired by the death of my uncle, which I took kinda hard. And shortly after his death, his first grandchild was born which now bears his name. The concept is the circle of life and death, but I can’t say that I was constantly thinking about that while writing. It's just this image I wanted to create with the album as a whole. But I rather want people to fit the album to their own lives. The photos in the booklet tell the story, but I didn't want to make it too obvious or personalize it. People should just make it about themselves or whatever they want to.
The album begs the question: would you like to write for films? And what are your favourite soundtracks at the moment?
Yeah, that is definitely something I am interested in and in fact I already have quite a few offers. I will start working on my first major film score early next year. I can't tell for who it is yet, but it's pretty cool. Also, hopefully work will start soon on a French animated film that I am supposed to score, but I don't know when that will be. Some of my favorite soundtracks I can think of at the moment are Babel and The Green Mile. But there are loads more…
Obviously you managed to merge some heavy rock elements in the album too. Are you still playing drums with hardcore band Fighting Shit?
I’m still in Fighting Shit, and we’re the best band in the universe! My background is actually much more rock than classical. I grew up within the punk/hardcore scene in Iceland, playing in loads hardcore and indie bands. It's just different ways of expression. The things we say in Fighting Shit couldn't be said with Eulogy for Evolution and vice versa.
You’re about to go on tour in the UK and Europe – how will you present your album live?
My live show consists of me on piano and electronics and a string quartet. I will never try to present Eulogy as it is on the album live, because that’s not really possible with such a small band - so don't expect the songs to sound the same as they do on the album! Half of the songs will be from an upcoming new EP, Variations of Static and we will also play some brand new, unreleased songs. I'm counting down the hours until the first show. I live for the road!
Source: www.icelandicmusic.is
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