Interview mit Aðalbjörn Tryggvason von Sólstafir

Your new album is entitled „Berdreyminn“ – what does the title mean?
Dreamer of forthcoming events.

The Song „Ísafold“ has some „80-disco“-vibe, I’d call it. What inspired you for this song?
That 80’s vibe was more thought of as a british new wave influence, then some keyboard parts come to life, and gave it a bit different touch. It’s still a very much Sólstafir song, even though it is something we have never done before. Simple drums, fast vocals, something that just comes to life while playing together in the rehearsal room. Not too much planing, like usual, things just come.

In general, the album is very calm, and has not that many hard parts than „Ótta“ and the other SÓLSTAFIR-releases. Why did you decide that it’s time for such a atmospheric record?
Well „Ótta“ does not have many “hard parts” for sure, not sure where you are getting that. There are heavy guitars on this album, just as on the ones before, and the vocals are even more aggressive then on „Ótta“. Writing an album is just like documenting time and weather pressure, it’s never exactly the same, and you never know the results in advance. We never decide what kind an album we are gonna do, they just happen.

There are many strings and piano and such elements on the record. How do you arrange those songs live? So, will there be many audio-samples, or do you rearrange the songs for playing them live?
That’s something that we started with after „Ótta“ came out, that was the first time we used strings. We re-arrange some stuff, and then we use playback with some stuff when needed. On the last leg of the „Ótta“-tour we went on the road as a 9 piece band, doing everything live. That for sure was the best tour we have done so far, felt truly amazing doing everything live, however we are not in the position to travel with 9 people in the band at all times, so for now, we are using playback. But we will for sure play more tours as a 9 piece band later on.

What do you think: Will your fans from the early days like the „Köld“-period still like the material?
Well, „Köld“ was the first time we used clean vocals, and in Icelandic, after using English for a few years. I remember when Köld came out, I was a bit worried that people would not accept this soft organ stuff with very fragile clean vocals, but it turned out the other way around, the title song became our biggest “hit” at that time. Even later on we had the same feeling when we wrote Fjara. But we write music that we like, and we don’t always expect people to like it as well, but the more soft we have gone, the more people have liked it. But we still have some heavy stuff as well, even though we are not doing particular heavy albums.

Do you think, „Berdreyminn“ could open the door to a non-metal-fanbase for you as well?
I dont know, I dont think this way. We are still an obscure metal band, singing in a strange language if you ask me. I dont think this albums is any “non metal opener” We have done a lot softer stuff before, such as „Fjara“ or „Miðaftann“.

The artwork looks very atmospheric as well – what was the idea behind that picture as artwork for „Berdreyminn“? Why is it the perfect visualisation for the record?
It’s just somewhat desolate and dreamy. The colours match the album perfectly. Looks like total death and gloom, but there is still some life there, and that is what the album is about. Total chaos and death, but still some tiny hope lives on there.

Was it painted for the album, or did you see it somewhere and chose it as the artwork for the album?
The album cover, done by Adam Burke, was something that he had painted before, but the piece that is inside the booklet is something that he painted for us especially.

You’ve done a couple of videos for songs from „Berdreyminn“. Do you like shooting videos?
Yes, we very much like doing videos, so far we have done two for Berdreyminn, and hopefully we will do one more.

Is it for you another form of being creative as an artist, or more or less something you have to do as a band to promote your album?
Avideo is just such a great way to express visuals and atmopehere. Wish we could do videos for all of our songs. But we are not in the position to do so.

It’s the first album written without your former drummer, Guðmundur Óli Pálmason. What has changed in the songwriting-process due to the lineup-change?
Well the chemistry changed, band is all about chemistry. We had toured with Hallgrímur for 2 years before writing this album, so we knew the social part was working well. We did however write this album in the same way that we did Ótta and Svartir Sandar, we met up daily and wrote music constantly. Gummi never wrote any of the songs, so the songwriting didnt change that much, it was more about bouncing ideas together and arranging stuff, and Hallgrímur is a very talented musician, great singer, piano player along with being a drummer.

From todays point of view: was it the right decision to fire him, and in which way did this decision make SÓLSTAFIR stronger?
You have to understand that there was no other option, and it was the only solution. The band was dying, there was no friendship left, no one had fun, no one could talk, there was just rotten atmosphere with constant argument and violence. The 3 of us did not have problems with each other, but his actions and behaviour were the reason for his dismissal. It’s like talking about a marriage that you were in. You dont file for a divorce unless some serious shit has been going on. We are talking about stuff that happened 2-4 years before he got fired, but in the end it just became worse and worse. So no one could tolerate it anymore. If you have never been a touring band for years, or been in a serious relationship for years I am not gonna expect you to understand this.

There are more then a few fans that think, SÓLSTAFIR lost their soul with firing Gummi, and that you’re straight on the way to sell-out. What is your answer to those fans?
We certainly lost a member that was a great part of this band, worked long and hard for the band for many years, but the “soul” … come on. That’s bit like making a martyr out of someone, and Gummi is certainly no martyr. Hey, I also think that Motörhead lost a lot of soul when they fired Philty Animal, even though Micky Dee is way better, so I if you feel that our band lost something with him, that’s fine with me. But the band is alive, we like writing music together, touring, and we will do so for years to come. If we had not made this change, all that would have ended, and we simply did not want that. We make music that we like and love, and that has always been the case, we have been lucky that other people have shared our love for this, and that gives us the chance to travel the world and perform this music, we are truly grateful for that. And everyone that has explored our history and previous albums will know that we like to challenge ourselves with expanding our musical horizon with every album, we even try that with every song we write. After we wrote Fjara some years ago and put it on an album, with a band that had formed as a black metal band, and we got away with it, people loved it, trust me, at this point I’m not worried or could not care less if someonenbe thinks that we are on our way to “selling out”, i simply find it funny.

Thanks a lot for your time and answers. I’d like to end the interview with a short brainstorming:
Donald Trump: Pathological narcissist liar.
Germany: Home of metal, not the birthplace, but home.
Strings: Rest in Peace. Hellacopters rule!
SÓLSTAFIR in 10 Years: The same, but not the same. We will still beI doing albums that people will either freak out about or love.

Thanks again, the last words are yours:
Thank you for a good interview, I do many bad ones, this one was not one of them.

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Publiziert am 8. September 2017 von Moritz Grütz