The Drop-In #16 - Sigtryggur Baldursson On 40 Years Of Bad Taste & So Much More

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Hello and welcome to the drop in where we're here at the Ricky Grippan offices talk to people who drop in at the office.
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In this case and in most cases by request.
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With us today is Sidrigo Baltison, uh the drummer, the musician, the the author of the everything, uh who's here to discuss a few different things with us.
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A new album out Friday, a new album out or a couple of albums out later this year or in the fall or this winter.
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And on 40 years of bad taste records, or smackless uh his label.
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Welcome to the show, Citrugus.
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Thank you.
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Nice to have you here.
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Uh you keep busy, it seems.
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Yo, I I'm usually bored.
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Um I sometimes put it that way.
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Um I actually been doing a lot of work at Iceland Music for the last fourteen years or so.
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I used to run the export office, but that moved into a new Iceland music office uh two years ago.
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First of first of January twenty-four.
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Yeah.
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And I uh was hoping to be able to sort of take take steps back uh during that because I wasn't running the show anymore.
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I was just doing it.
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Wait, so what years were you you're running Iceland music the last ten years, did you say?
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From 2012 till 2015.
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That's a good time to have run it.
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There's been a lot of success in that in your ten year.
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Oh yeah.
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Outstanding work.
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We've had a lot of lot of good stuff happen.
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And yeah, when I started there in 2013, uh in 2012, uh I just put one main focus on, and that was to get an export fund going.
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Yeah.
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And I had to lobby that into the parliament.
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So I started in an office here in Estesrade, and I used to invite uh parliamentarians over for tea.
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Okay.
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And some of them were old fans of me or Bogomile Font or Sugar Cubes and my my former bands.
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So they used to come over and and have a tea or a coffee, and I would explain to them why we needed to have an export fund, because we are on an island and we can't sort of jump into a car and drive to the next gig.
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Right.
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And this I Iceland is such a small uh population that if people are serious about their music they need to export.
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So those were pretty good um I think that I think you did an amazing job.
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I think you sold the car.
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I mean, you are so you're famous.
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Uh are you more famous abroad than locally or both?
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Because I mean, so your first great success is sugar cubes?
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Yeah, well, yes.
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Internationally, yeah.
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Internationally.
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Internationally.
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I ha we had another well, we, I mean me, Einar and Björk that ended up in the sugar cubes.
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We were together in another band before that called Kirkl.
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And that was our first sort of band where we were uh sort of working uh um internationally, uh intentionally.
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In Kuk, you will I mean you played Roskilde if I remember correctly.
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Yeah, we played a lot of like Western European tours.
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Yeah.
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For people tracing that down, that's K-U-K-L, right?
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K-U-K-L.
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K-U-K-L, two albums, and both fantastic, by the way.
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I mean, and I want to say it's what, 83 and 5 or something like that.
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Yeah.
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Correct.
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83 to 86.
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Yeah.
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And that band was on uh a small label in England called Corpus Christi, which was a derivative from Crass Records.
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Right.
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And Ainar was living in London from eighty two or three, eighty three probably, until uh eighty-six, just going to university there, and he made a lot of these contacts that ended up getting the sugar cubes released.
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So he was your export office at that time.
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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But then you took the knowledge you had from the sugar cubes and from all your experience and and used it to help Icelandic music.
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Yes, you could say that.
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Yeah.
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So I when I came into the fold that well, I was on the board for the export office from when it was formed in 2006.
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At the end of 2006, it started operations in the beginning of year 2007.
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Uh lady by the name of Anna Hildur was running it.
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And uh she did a lot of fantastic groundwork in sort of the funding part and getting the thing established.
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So when I took over in 2012, we had sort of an established financial ground to work from, but we still needed to create the export fund for people to be able to apply for travel grants and such.
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What's your greatest success in your tenure?
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Do you feel?
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Do you have a great greatest success that you had when you were running the export office?
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Aside from getting the funds up and running.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Aside from just the existence of it.
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I would say that was and I started um something called Record in Iceland, which is a a refund program similar to the film program, but it uh uh alludes to uh music studios in Iceland.
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Oh wow.
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So that was successful.
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Um and also the export fund, getting that up and going, I think made the biggest difference, the biggest single difference.
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It's an enormous change though.
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Um 20 years before obviously I was here before you started there and before the office started, and then it came back, and I'm you see quite an infrastructure.
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But every time I'm at an event there, you're there.
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We we always have a conversation.
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Usually thank God you're not wearing it now because we're sitting in I think 300 degrees.
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Uh usually you're wearing that beautiful tweed suits.
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You're not wearing it now, and you're you're a host to everybody, you know everybody you from every kind of music.
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I've seen you talk with hip-hop, I've seen you talk with bluegrass, which is a shame because you're a drummer and you you think usually bluegrass drummers don't talk, but yeah.
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I mean, this is a small community here that we have, and so it makes it easier to be able to diversify more.
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People aren't as well, let's put it this way people in Iceland are more used to juggling more different colored balls.
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Yeah.
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So it makes it easier for a small export office like we are, or especially were, yeah, to um be able to work with a wide variety of of music.
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So what I saw also happen during my tenure there for 12 years was uh the scope of music that is finding an audience outside of Iceland.
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It's not any not just sort of strange indie music like Bjork and Seuros and that sort of whole, shall we say, um these f sort of first ambassadors.
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Yeah.
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I guess you could throw the sugar cubes in there as well.
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But um but uh just such a variety of music.
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So now we have sort of all sorts of music finding an audience internationally.
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So people get mad when I say the name, but Caleo of Monsters Man.
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Of Monsters Men, obviously Loive.
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Cuscos.
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Yeah, and these are things I mean you don't need to you're I yeah, Emiliana Torinian, blah blah blah blah blah.
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Yeah, I think I think distinctly before the 2010s you could almost say that there was like one avenue available if you were an Icelandic band and wanted to make it abroad, and that was kind of the in the the niche weird avenue.
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And that I I mean that's a generalization, of course.
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But I love those bands.
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Yeah, I I love those bands.
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But what has then since happened is that you you see these artists like the ones we were mentioning, which are very different from that approach.
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So there's like a new way out of here, if you will.
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New ways out of here.
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Yeah, new ways out of here.
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Certainly I would say that um definitely Iceland airwaves was a big big part in sort of and has still plays a part as a as a big tool in the export of Icelandic music.
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Oh, yes.
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But Iceland Airwaves has been and still is sort of focused on I would say the indie genre.
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Yeah.
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People can argue that back and forth a little bit, what that means exactly.
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But uh and then there's Reykjavik Jazz Festival, which is we've started sort of helping Reykjavik Jazz Festival to bring in journalists, specifically uh in the jazz uh genre, but also festival directors and such and labels.
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So now we have uh a bigger export in in the jazz vein.
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That is coming up by the way the Reykjavik Jazz Festivals at the end of this month.
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Yes.
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Yes, and this is being August.
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Yeah, and it's it's kind of all over town, I saw.
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Yeah.
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Um you know, there's there's Harpa, there's Caraval.
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Yeah, there's Hotel.
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Oh beautiful.
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Yes.
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I didn't know.
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Yeah, it's uh it's expanded.
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It seems to me at least it has expanded quite massively over the past two years.
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Yes.
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Yeah, that's been growing quite well.
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And also like the the um the uh contemporary music festival, uh Mirki Musiktal.
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Yes, yes, yes.
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Um but also I mean we've yeah and Iceland music has been able to help these festivals because they're more sort of fixed on certain styles of music, yes, which makes it easier to work around it.
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Yeah.
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Um but I mean Yeah.
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So we've uh all this helps, I mean, in the big picture.
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Yeah.
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If if we talk about sort of export of of music in general.
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We're quite grateful that uh Iceland Music helped us with uh covering every single concert during the last title errors.
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Yeah.
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By uh funding a uh a little write writing workshop where we brought some youngists, yeah.
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Yes, that was able to have enough people to cover everything.
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It was great fun.
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One of the th what yeah, I mean just one of the things I I enjoy so much about the new office is that it it's it's bigger.
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Yeah, it has more people working there, a wider scope, bring in people like Artni Herbert, which is fantastic.
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It's a force of nature though, man.
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Yeah, we so yeah now we're kind of showing people how the sausage is made, that we're near the Iceland music office.
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We run, we're we're almost neighbors, we run over all the time to try to find out what's what's about to be brought, what's about to be uh screened at a festival or what's gonna come out.
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I uh and a gentleman by the name of Artney Horbow uh of the vaccines, the band of vaccines.
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Yeah, he's a he's a rock star.
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Yeah, literal rock star.
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He sends me a we he sends me a weekly update for um and we debate vigorously what what the new tracks a lot of times we don't get that in the print, but we do it does help to have some idea what's going on.
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What I'm amazed by this, Sigrider, is how all this is making it better for the people after you, but it doesn't really help you as a musician.
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You're an artist and you're always generous with your time, but you are a huge icon internationally, yes, but I think your local presence is greater, right?
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I mean, Bogamil font is something that every family will know.
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Yeah.
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Um you were like kind of a TV star.
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I mean, you used to watch your videos on TV here.
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Yeah, you you do these um shows.
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You do these shows also like you've done we can almost call them it's almost like a travel show, right?
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Yeah, but it's about music.
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You mean Jomskoland?
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No, not Lumskoland, the other one you did.
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Oh, yeah.
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It's about it's it's about strange names in nature.
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Yeah, Tintron or something.
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Yeah, yeah.
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All sorts of stuff.
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Like the uh so for context, Iceland has a lot of place names that are uh almost undecipherable.
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Yes.
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Uh some cases because they just don't fit anything else, or they might be of obscure origin or something.
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Yeah.
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And you did a TV series about that.
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And then there's which was excellent.
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And then there's Lomskullin, which is you and I think Kitty, right?
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Kit and Praye.
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And Prae will do these uh kind of a series every now and then which runs on the state broadcaster roof.
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Yes.
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We do like a s uh a series of six around six shows every two, three years.
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Yeah.
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And it documents, it's also works like a uh a time capsule.
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It also documents this the this a certain era of Icelandic music at the time.
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At the any given time.
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And it pairs up people, well, presumably from different generations.
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It doesn't always work like that, but we try to make uh generational um pairings of people to work together on a piece of music for each given show.
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Good example of this, because we covered it, is Palliant Panihem who were paired up on that show.
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Of course.
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Yes.
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They're sort of from the same generation, though.
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Yeah.
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But uh musically But they grew up blocks apart.
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So it's quite a separation.
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So they grew up blocks apart.
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Blocks apart, though, yeah.
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Blocks.
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No, but uh that's uh like that's a case in point of where that's like ended up being eventually a whole record.
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Yeah.
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The best record of last year.
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Yeah.
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They started out on that on that show.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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So yes, we do get up to that uh mischief as well.
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But that that's also because it's just not uh I'd like to point out that there's some depth in the sort of musical production of that because it's it requires a lot of both taste and then um patience to like make these things work, I assume.
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You just don't c like it you have to conjure up the idea, of course, but it's more than just conjuring up the idea.
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It has to like come together.
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Yeah.
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Well there is a uh an ideology behind the whole thing.
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Uh so every given show, say we have six shows in a series, we start by sitting down and thinking about themes.
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So every show has a separ uh certain theme and it can be sort of anything from a school like MHO to the army base, or more sort of uh things like money or religion or something like that.
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And so we try to talk about music that um has some place within the concept and it also makes it easier to sort of make up things that can fit into the concept.
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And it's sort of a creative thing in itself, and it it helps the whole process along.
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That makes sense.
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I mean you you kinda pick these kind of cultural moments or or you know, some things that kind of like if like Kepler gives a good point on the base, you know, uh it it's where traditionally we talk about where rock and roll came to Iceland.
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Yeah.
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Gives you a frame and it gives you a Exactly.
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The army base was partially like that.
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That was one of our first I'm just referring to some of the first things he did.
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We actually did one show, which was called Berlin.
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So we flew to Berlin, and it was at an interesting time when quite a few Icelandic artists were living in Berlin.
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And we did uh uh an interview with Hilde Kunatotit.
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This is in 2011.
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It's ten years before she wins the Oscar, and she was working closely at that time with Johann Johansson in in Berlin.
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And um and then we spoke to um Retrostefson, who were living in Berlin at the time, and they just had a record contract and were sort of trying to make it in the big world, which is a very interesting time to talk to a band.
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Yes, because there's a lot of stuff going on in their head, and we can run with them and watch them play a show, you know, an outdoor show somewhere in the middle of the street, and all their record label was just sending them all over the place, playing all sorts of shows.
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But they were having fun doing it, and it was interesting.
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And then they we also spoke with uh, yeah, like A.
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It's Saiperson.
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Yep, who still lives in Berlin, but yeah, he uh I think he uh kind of runs an artist residency or something out of if I'm not mistaken, out of um small town kind of east of Berlin.
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Okay.
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I think.
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I I might be That could well be true.
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I might be confusing this.
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Um but yeah, he he uh he's been there since I don't know, the late nineties or something?
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Or early been there for a long time.
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Yeah, he's been there for quite a while.
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Still puts out an album every now and then, yeah.
00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:18.640
Which is not his main focus.
00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:20.799
But he's an always an interesting musician.
00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:22.559
He comes up with interesting ideas.
00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:23.519
Yeah, he does.
00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:38.480
I mean I think he can say that one of the stranger songs to have kind of made uh made it to the top of the pops here in the past in this century is one of his creations.
00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:38.640
Yeah.
00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:43.279
Tonk of the lawn was not it was a surprise hit in a sense.
00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:44.400
But it's a hit.
00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:45.119
Yeah.
00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:45.839
You know.
00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:47.440
Kind of that kind of a thing.
00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:51.440
But yeah, I mean you're always generous to the fault, but we didn't want to talk about Bug of the Vault.
00:17:52.240 --> 00:18:01.039
Your new release, which came out Friday, which is a fantastic record, which we've been listening to constantly, not on vinyl yet, because it's hard to get the vinyl, but we have been listening to, and the lyrics are outstanding.
00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:06.319
I've been sitting with a pen and paper translating them for myself because my ISONIC is uh poor.
00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:08.880
But this ISONIC in this record is outstanding.
00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:13.920
So I know you do worked with a with a collaborator for the lyrics, but it is an outstanding record.
00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:22.799
This record actually grew as a side project from one of the Knobskolin' series, the last one we did three years ago.
00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:28.559
So we started goofing around this with this idea of why don't we make a calypso record together?
00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:31.680
Because Bogomil hadn't made a record since 2006.
00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.079
And Bogomil is always calypso.
00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:41.519
Yes, Bogomil sort of works with uh sort of rhythmic s South American music.
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:43.119
That's what he loves the most.
00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:46.240
So he's done some collaborations with Tomas Arena front.
00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:47.519
That's what I remember, yeah.
00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:48.000
Yeah.
00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:55.599
I've sort of done a lot of congero playing with Thomas in the last two years, collaborated on the Bongo record with him.
00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:02.319
And did you just perform at the uh the jazz series with Thomas?
00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:02.960
Yeah.
00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:04.640
A few weeks ago.
00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:06.480
No, at the at the in the garden.
00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:06.960
Oh, yeah.
00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:08.880
Yeah.
00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:12.480
The summer series.
00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:14.319
Which is worth seeing if you can still get in.
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:19.759
They broadcast a few shows from this summer on Rouve on Channel One.
00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:24.480
Um yeah, so uh but Bogomil always sort of yes.
00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:33.920
He is sort of this character that I cooked up in in in the er early parts of the nineties when the sugar cubes was still touring.
00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:34.160
Yeah.
00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:44.000
Actually Bogomil is born in the autumn of eighty-nine when me uh we we were touring and me and Pray were hanging out in in Ljubljana in in former Yugoslavia.
00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:44.480
Okay.
00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:56.480
And uh we're sort of finding ways to amuse ourselves, put it that way, on on a very, very long tour that was had sort of almost spanned two and a half months at that time.
00:19:56.559 --> 00:19:57.440
So we were Okay.
00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:10.400
We were going out for dinner and coming up with goofy ideas, and decided to form a jazz band made up of sort of our friends that were around our label at the time, the bad taste label.
00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:10.799
Yeah.
00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:15.839
Which is, by the way, 40 years anniversary this year, this summer.
00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:24.720
And so we were fooling around with that concept and and decided that we should create the uh sort of almost like a theater band.
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:38.319
It was almost like uh an art terrorist uh idea where everybody came together and everybody had to create a character and play an instrument that they normally wouldn't play or always wanted to play.
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:38.880
Okay.
00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:45.119
And basically a band was formed called uh Conrad B's Jazz Orchestra.
00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:56.400
And Brah was Conrad B, and he was the uh Supreme Glorious Leader, so he got to pick the songs and the the these are just goofy old cover versions that he loved.
00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:56.720
Yeah.
00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:13.279
Mostly of sort of old jazz stuff, and he was trying to get his friends from the punk label to play in this stuff, and everybody sort of dressed up, and the guys were all wearing suits, and girls were wearing sort of dresses and pearls and stuff.
00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:16.319
And this was not part of our repertoire at the at the moment.
00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:20.640
This was very funny and sort of get up for us to do.
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:28.640
So, but we enjoyed it a lot, and there was a lot of drinking involved, and it was a big party basically for us and our friends.
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:33.839
And a sort of a party with a purpose, a sort of concept, conceptual party.
00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:42.559
And we had a lot of fun with this and played some gigs at Hotel Borg and sort of venues in Reykjavik, where we murdered uh some famous jazz tunes.
00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:54.000
We quickly realized that we had to have a few people within the band that could actually play the instrument that they were trying to play, although most of us were just goofing around to stuff we'd never done before.
00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:58.480
And that's where Bogomil was born as a uh Yugoslavian crooner.
00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:05.759
And here we are talking about his latest album.
00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:06.319
Yes.
00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:12.480
His latest album is basically a collaboration with his two friends from the Kit and Praye.
00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:20.319
And uh Bray, you have to be careful what you say next to Bray Valtima, because he's very quick at coming up with ideas.
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:26.240
And he's one of these songwriters who can basically just churn out a tune.
00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:29.599
And his he his mind works amazingly quickly.
00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:34.880
And so he started coming up with these funny versions of calypso tunes.
00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:48.160
I was ranting on about my love of calypso and how that genre has this wonderful way of approaching lyrics where most many of them are sort of hard to decipher whether people are loathing or loving.
00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:53.039
And that sort of fine line, that sort of that sort of trickery, which is a lot of fun.
00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:54.480
Is there an example of that?
00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:59.680
Sorry, that of a calypso record outside of your own that that has this lyrical complexity?
00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:02.480
Because I was so shocked by the lyrical complexity in your record.
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:04.400
I did a record in 2006.
00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:10.079
The last record, next to last record Pokemon did was called Bananavelt, and was known as Fleece Trio.
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:10.559
Yes.
00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:13.440
They're fantastic, yes.
00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:14.000
Yes.
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.240
Fleece in this case is about F L I with an accent cover.
00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:25.759
That also yielded uh a few uh still popular than then hits, but they've been on the radio ever since.
00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:28.880
Like The Weatherman's Lying's Lion Galiwa.
00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:30.240
That's an old calypso.
00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:33.039
We were most that record is mostly cover versions.
00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:33.440
Yeah.
00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:37.440
That we took and sort of redid in our own way with Icelandic lyrics.
00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:43.599
But many of them were actually just translations of the original lyrics, which were amazingly funny and and witty lyrics.
00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:48.559
Like The Weatherman's Lying, which sort of makes perfect sense in Iceland.
00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:54.400
And wash your hands and clean your fingernails, which is a want of sarcastic to it.
00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:58.079
But uh ended up becoming a hit during COVID.
00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:00.880
Whoops.
00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:01.839
Whoops.
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:03.599
Oh goofy stuff like that.
00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:19.200
And uh yeah, so Braya basically liked the idea and started sort of coming up with these funny strange calypsos, like um one which is about sort of um he had not quite scamped.
00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:20.799
How can we explain that?
00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:24.160
Um Midwinter Depression.
00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:24.640
Yeah.
00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:27.759
Light depress The lack of sun depression.
00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:32.720
The lack of sun depression that hits many Icelanders in January and February.
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:33.119
Yes.
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:37.680
He came up with a wonderful song about that, which is called Sonbreck.
00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:41.680
Yeah, shotefrekerek, which means rather let's boil an egg.
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:42.559
Yeah.
00:24:43.440 --> 00:25:00.480
And uh so that idea was born, and then we've sort of done songs as varied as talking about sort of uh yes, the uh orange threat in the west and yes, saw that one, yep.
00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:04.880
Yeah, and the weather, of course, Gita Weather, it's a great tune.
00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:06.640
Um and all sorts of stuff.
00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:19.440
I I felt like you know that that song, Sho Schulterfreger Eck, is well you you you like the lyrics are bleak in a sense.
00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:25.920
But you have this sort of I guess you call it the refrain, like you know, you should rather boil an egg.
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:30.160
Which to me is like, yeah, I mean it's it's actual advice in a sense.
00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:30.559
Yeah.
00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:36.000
Because if you are feeling depressed, you actually have to do small basic everyday tasks to get through it.
00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:36.640
Exactly.
00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:41.759
So it's it's it has like a few layers of you know, just it as an example.
00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:42.400
Yes.
00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:43.359
It is layered.
00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:44.319
It is very layered.
00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:45.359
The humor is layered.
00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:45.680
Yeah.
00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:46.960
You could say that.
00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:56.400
And I mean the the whole orange thing in the West, the lyrics to that are they're not extremely direct on that point.
00:25:56.720 --> 00:25:56.960
No.
00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:01.599
But you know, obviously if that's you know I mean they're not super direct.
00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:02.000
No.
00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:08.400
They're not which uh which is great because I don't think it ever should be in an lyric, maybe, but No.
00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:09.759
If you know what I mean.
00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:13.359
In a sense, but yeah, I think yeah, I also enjoyed those lyrics.
00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:30.319
But it's uh it's it's I was because they it was such a to me the the vibe of the lyrics were so uh relatable as towards the Fleece album from 2007 that I had I assumed you were writing the lyrics.
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:30.960
Right.
00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:36.319
So he's probably as good at mimicking uh styles.
00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:37.440
Styles, I assume.
00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:38.559
Per perhaps.
00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:43.119
Although I I think he basically just found his own way of doing things.
00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:59.200
He might have referenced some of yes, some of the sort of stylistic uh k meanderings that happened during that uh time, but uh certainly he has his own way of approaching it.
00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:06.559
So that that album's out, it's it's on vinyl, and I'm I'm hoping to be able to tell people that they can order it online somewhere.
00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:07.359
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:08.880
They can order it online.
00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:15.119
Um store which is Bad Taste is based Bad Taste Records, yes.
00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:20.160
Which actually has its anniversary, this we should get into that people.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:20.559
Yes.
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:32.000
Like uh so I uh just because it it always hits me the thought that there is also this amazing Christmas album called Myones Your Uh from 2006, I think.
00:27:32.319 --> 00:27:34.480
Yes, that's the second record I made in 2006.
00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:41.119
And it it became somehow uh I guess an accidental Christmas classic.
00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:43.200
It's sort of a cult classic, yeah.
00:27:43.599 --> 00:27:55.279
Well it's who whatever cult that is, the one of the members of the cult works at the state broadcasters, so every Christmas there is there's gonna be Miami's Christmas.
00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:55.839
Yeah.
00:27:56.160 --> 00:27:57.599
Which makes me happy.
00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:00.160
But uh it's it's uh it's one of my favorite Christmas albums.
00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:00.880
Yeah, thank you.
00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:01.839
It's a very good one.
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:09.920
There are some unusual Christmas songs on there which might sort of speak to a certain group of people.
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:15.359
There's like the the one and only gay Christmas song that I know of.
00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:16.000
Yes.
00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:20.160
In an Iceland's uh vocabulary of of Christmas songs.
00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:26.400
Um there is the painfully funny song about the mayonnaise Christmas.
00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:27.200
Yes.
00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:32.240
Um I mean Yao, which is kind of cool.
00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:34.400
There the there's a certain humor to it.
00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:44.319
It's like a a party record, not taking the it's you know, it doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's it's kind of funny and sort of yeah.
00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:47.759
Although there are sort of classic Christmas songs in there as well.
00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:53.119
And it's all played by a wonderful swing band, and they're obviously having a blast as well.
00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:56.240
So yeah, it was a fun record to do.
00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:00.000
It was a real sort of fun atmosphere on the recording sessions.
00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:01.279
I can't believe that.
00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:02.400
Yeah, sounds true.
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:08.480
So as you keep saying, SmackLazzer or Bad Taste Records is turning 40 this year.
00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:09.119
Yeah.
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:16.640
And maybe for context, uh, you know, Bad Taste Records, so SmackLesser were founded back in 1986, obviously.
00:29:16.880 --> 00:29:17.119
Ew.
00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:22.880
Um by a group of people who are subsequently more or less became known as the sugar cubes.
00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:23.440
Yeah.
00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:26.400
And our friends from the Medusa clique.
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:26.880
Yes.
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:34.319
Which was a uh literary clique in Iceland that called themselves the Surrealist Operation.
00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:40.559
And uh they they had a very interesting gallery here called Skrukkubooth.
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:43.599
Back in the eighties.
00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:44.160
Okay.
00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:52.400
Um which was one of the galleries, one one of the sort of most colorful galleries in Reykjavik for quite a few well, a few years.
00:29:53.599 --> 00:29:55.599
And did some very interesting stuff there.
00:29:55.839 --> 00:30:00.000
Um I would say quite quite ahead of their time.
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:06.000
They were doing quite a lot of uh um Göttinger um what is uh performance art?
00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:14.240
Yeah, performance art, stuff like that, which was basically yes, pretty obscure back back back then.
00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:36.000
Um and then yes, I mean people like Schoen and Thor Elton and uh Johamar, Ener Melax, and and more guys, Mahtias and and others, they were part of this group, sort of came together with the Kuk people and we ended up forming this sort of bad taste organization.
00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:39.359
Um the summer that we formed the sugar cubes.
00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:44.240
Which is also the summer that had the uh famous Reikan Gorbachev summit.
00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:44.640
Yes.
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:52.559
Which uh I think prompt like correct me if I'm like m not remembering this correctly, but prompted you prompted you guys to make a series of postcards.
00:30:52.799 --> 00:30:53.119
Yes.
00:30:53.359 --> 00:31:07.039
Actually prompted us to make one postcard because in the in the um formative years of bad taste, and the actually the beginning of the sugar cubes, the first year of the sugar cubes, had two guitar players.
00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:07.279
Right.
00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:29.839
Friderik who's in Putkopilnik was the second guitar player in the sugar cubes, and he was also a graphic designer, and he designed this postcard of Reikan and Gorpachev, which actually made some money for this grassroots organization of ours, which was called Bad Taste, and started handing out bad taste awards to people in sort of charge of culture in Iceland.
00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:31.759
Yeah, yeah.
00:31:31.839 --> 00:31:34.079
Yeah, so I'm in key positions here and there.
00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:44.240
It was all tongue-in-cheek, and we were just basically, you know, 20 plus people that wanted to raise some hell within the arts environment in Reykjavik, which we started doing.
00:31:44.319 --> 00:32:02.000
And but yes, it was all sort of quite a lot of tongue-in-cheek going on, and um then we decided that we needed to make this some other money-making scam for our organization, so we decided to create a Pah band.
00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:05.599
And uh called this Pop band.
00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:17.599
Einar Melaks came up with a name when we were having coffee and he had you know the sugar cubes, something sweet and and sort of rather um meaningless.
00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:24.880
So the sugar cubes were formed as a as a band, and that sort of exploded in our face a little bit.
00:32:25.039 --> 00:32:27.039
Uh because you couldn't make any more postcards.
00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:27.680
No.
00:32:28.319 --> 00:32:35.680
Until later, in eighteen eight or eighty nine, eighty-nine, I think, we released a whole series of postcards.
00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:36.880
Those I remember, yeah.
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:38.559
That Braille designed.
00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:39.039
Yeah.
00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:44.319
And there were summer postcards, and then there was like Christmas cards.
00:32:44.640 --> 00:32:53.680
Wait, wasn't the theme kind of like, you know, how they sort of you know, executive or middle manager sort of like does the thing or the audience?
00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:55.119
Yes, it was sort of fishing.
00:32:55.440 --> 00:33:00.319
It was supposed to be for tourists sort of to understand the Icelandic psyche.
00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:01.039
Yeah.
00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:06.160
And uh so that was the concept back in 89.
00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:15.359
So looking at them today with sort of the tourism in Iceland that's going on now, within uh in hindsight, they're they're like a work of art, really.
00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:18.480
They're sort of a piece onto themselves.
00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:21.599
And last time I checked, still like they have been reprinted.
00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:21.920
Yeah.
00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:22.960
You can still get them.
00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:25.279
They're available at the SmackLaser shop.
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:25.519
Yeah.
00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:27.759
And I think you can also get the sugar cubes.
00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:29.839
I think maybe those also are have done pretty well.
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:30.960
Yeah, the Regan goes.
00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:32.400
Oh, it's sure, yeah.
00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:33.359
That band, right?
00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:33.680
Yeah, yeah.
00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:39.200
Oh, the sugar cubes are just may have ended up being something maybe more eventual than the postcards.
00:33:39.279 --> 00:33:39.839
I can't be sure.
00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:43.839
Yeah, they I mean the postcards didn't do multiple world tours, I think, uh.
00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:44.960
Or release.
00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:51.359
And the first sugar cube single we released in Iceland on our on our own, which was called Moreoman.
00:33:51.599 --> 00:33:54.240
Yeah, it's more one cube per person.
00:33:54.799 --> 00:33:58.480
It's um that's sort of goofy.
00:33:58.559 --> 00:34:03.039
It's it it it's it's a two-song seven inch.
00:34:03.359 --> 00:34:04.640
Birthday or Amalle?
00:34:04.799 --> 00:34:04.960
Yeah.
00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:08.880
And a song called Cat Cat Cat on the other side.
00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:09.440
Right.
00:34:09.679 --> 00:34:10.159
Remember that one.
00:34:10.559 --> 00:34:12.719
Sort of a goofy little rockabilly tune.
00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:13.440
Yeah.
00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:16.880
And um yeah, funny enough.
00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:19.760
Amale didn't get much radio play here.
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:23.199
The radio played a little bit of the other rockabilly tune.
00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:33.119
It wasn't until the record was released in England, uh just a year and a half later, that it sort of started making some headway.
00:34:33.519 --> 00:34:37.360
Yeah, wasn't it selected as uh the single of the week or something?
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:45.360
Yeah, uh, Melody Maker Maker, which uh must have almost prompted the panic at the uh at the uh bad taste offices.
00:34:45.679 --> 00:34:46.159
Yes.
00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:57.599
I uh Einar said uh you know, famously when Derek told him that the song had reached single of the week at Melody Maker In, I said, Oh fuck.
00:34:58.800 --> 00:34:59.920
It's gonna be a problem.
00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:00.639
Yes.
00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:05.760
Which uh Well why is it a problem to have the number one single?
00:35:06.079 --> 00:35:12.480
Well He was just referring to sort of we yeah, we weren't really planning for that.
00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:14.800
Yeah We were planning for postcards.
00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:16.000
We were planning for postcards.
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:17.199
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:19.519
No, it was sort of tongue in cheek again.
00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:23.119
I mean we were trying to hold on to our old sense of humor.
00:35:23.280 --> 00:35:23.519
Yeah.
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:24.000
Yeah.
00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:42.800
No, I mean that yielded eventually three albums uh between eighty-eight and ninety-two, if I remember correctly, and quite some success and a lot of touring as you know, Pokemon Font is is one of the results of those tours, I guess.
00:35:42.960 --> 00:35:43.440
Yeah.
00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:54.880
Uh uh, but Bad Taste, however, has been run as a label ever since and has put out hundreds of albums over the past four decades, still putting out albums, yeah.
00:35:55.199 --> 00:36:08.960
Is yeah, I guess the I mean you can argue that another label here has been existed longer in some way, but not under the same name and it's all mergers and acquisitions all of the time.
00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:09.840
I know all of the time.
00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:11.679
But that taste has been around the whole time.
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.280
On the same Kenitella, on the same social security number, right?
00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:26.159
With an impressive catalog, and I'm still running a store where you can buy these things, both in person and online.
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:32.559
The store also is I mean, as long as I've been involved with iSonic Music, the store has hosted in-store performances.
00:36:32.800 --> 00:36:33.679
Yeah, yes.
00:36:33.920 --> 00:36:34.400
Yeah, yeah.
00:36:34.639 --> 00:36:34.960
The whole time.
00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:36.159
Almost always.
00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:38.079
Always some performances.
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:45.519
But now, I mean, in the last three years, it's sort of taken on a new a new air, I I guess.
00:36:45.679 --> 00:37:00.239
After Kalle and Sika came into running the shop, they sort of created the this version of the shop, created a cafe upstairs, a little bookstore, and downstairs is the record shop and the performance venue.
00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:00.800
Yeah.
00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:08.079
And you and speaking of the next thing, you were playing last night with uh Pirkupilnik.
00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:08.960
Yeah.
00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:13.679
And you guys have been releasing an album that hopefully comes out this fall.
00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:14.480
Recording, yeah.
00:37:15.199 --> 00:37:16.159
Sorry, recording, sorry.
00:37:16.559 --> 00:37:17.920
Massive sessions from what I hear.
00:37:18.159 --> 00:37:19.920
Yeah, we have one single out.
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:20.239
Yeah.
00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:23.360
Yeah.
00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:26.880
Not gonna translate that, but Doctor and and Swine.
00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:32.719
And then we have uh we have a uh uh yes, a record in the making.
00:37:32.800 --> 00:37:34.480
It's in the mix right now.
00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:38.400
And this band actually pre predates the sugar cubes.
00:37:38.559 --> 00:37:40.480
Yes, it is and cook.
00:37:40.800 --> 00:37:47.840
So it is originally it lived for just over a year between 1981 and 1982.
00:37:48.159 --> 00:37:50.400
Yeah, a year and a half or a year or something like that.
00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:51.840
Yeah and a half, something like that, yeah.
00:37:52.079 --> 00:37:53.599
And originally you weren't a member of that band.
00:37:53.840 --> 00:37:54.960
I'm a later edition.
00:37:55.199 --> 00:38:01.760
But my friends Braille, the bass player, Fredrik the guitarist, and and Einer were all in that band.
00:38:01.840 --> 00:38:06.159
And funny enough, we were all sort of in the first version of the sugar cubes as well.
00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:06.719
Yeah.
00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:09.440
And then uh Frederick dropped out.
00:38:09.760 --> 00:38:10.320
Right.
00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:14.800
Now he's dropped back in and you guys have started playing re recording again.
00:38:15.280 --> 00:38:25.760
Put together the old punk band the I I saw what you guys called an open uh rehearsal last year, and it was thrilling.
00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:28.480
Like uh well, personally it was thrilling.
00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:36.400
I'd never seen the band, uh having listened to it for years, but uh it l seemed to me that you guys were having a very good time.
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:38.480
And the playing was good.
00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:38.960
Yeah, yeah.
00:38:39.119 --> 00:38:40.880
And it was very it was a highly enjoyable experience.
00:38:41.199 --> 00:38:42.480
Oh, we are enjoying it a lot.
00:38:42.800 --> 00:38:50.480
So it's uh so I'm like I'm making assumptions here, but I assume you guys are doing it because because it is fun.
00:38:50.960 --> 00:38:51.599
Yeah.
00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:54.559
It's not making us a lot of money, not yet.
00:38:55.039 --> 00:38:56.800
Might do so in the future.
00:38:57.599 --> 00:38:57.920
No.
00:38:58.239 --> 00:39:00.239
It's not a a money-making venture.
00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:05.199
It's basically just for fun and uh companionships.
00:39:05.920 --> 00:39:08.400
But speaking just to get one of two, right?
00:39:08.639 --> 00:39:09.440
Yeah, the two.
00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:10.880
I was gonna get to the second one.
00:39:11.280 --> 00:39:11.840
Patan.
00:39:12.159 --> 00:39:12.639
Yeah.
00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:21.760
So there again, you're you're collaborating with uh a former band member, that in that case, not from the sugarcoops, but from Kirk.
00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:21.920
Yeah.
00:39:22.079 --> 00:39:22.239
Right.
00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:22.719
Yeah.
00:39:23.039 --> 00:39:30.800
Because Picky Moins and the the bass player of Kirk, and you have already put out one album, I want to say two years ago.
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:32.719
Yes, in 24.
00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:50.960
It was released by a little label on the East Coast, uh, a little Washington label called Love It Records, which is sort of a derivative of of um uh Discord, which is a label there that releases sort of East Coast punk.
00:39:51.199 --> 00:39:51.760
Oh, okay.
00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:55.199
Fugazi in minor threat, bands like that.
00:39:55.519 --> 00:40:04.159
But the guy who runs that lab label is a guy by the name of Brian Lowitt, who's been coming to Airwaves for many, many years.
00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:05.199
Right.
00:40:05.440 --> 00:40:06.320
I remember that guy.
00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:11.920
Yeah, and he Yes, he's been starting to put out some Icelandic music recently.
00:40:12.559 --> 00:40:18.639
He put out Soleil in 22, I think, the vinyl of Mother Melancholia.
00:40:19.440 --> 00:40:28.000
And then he put out the uh the um Fluid Time record that we did on Patan.
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:33.360
Um and now he's putting out some other records, I think.
00:40:33.440 --> 00:40:38.719
He's going to be putting out Project that Lee Vjörson is doing.
00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:43.119
And who else?
00:40:44.239 --> 00:40:49.440
Some other band, Icelandic band, which I can't remember at the time.
00:40:49.760 --> 00:40:53.840
And then we're working on starting to mix uh a new pattern record as well.
00:40:54.239 --> 00:40:57.920
Is he and are you releasing it here or is he releasing it, or what's the plan?
00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:00.480
Uh he will probably be releasing it.
00:41:00.800 --> 00:41:04.239
I don't know if we'll license it to Smackless Aheros.
00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:08.000
I don't think we're gonna bother with that sort of stuff.
00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:11.039
But uh Yeah, most likely.
00:41:11.280 --> 00:41:20.960
But that project is is kind of fun uh different to Purkupilik, which is like a four-person uh straightaway rock band.
00:41:21.280 --> 00:41:26.559
Straight up sort of rock band with Einar's wonderfully special vocals on top.
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:27.679
And performance.
00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:28.480
Yeah.
00:41:29.119 --> 00:41:30.000
Performance.
00:41:30.320 --> 00:41:46.480
Um this is more sort of studio meanderings based on different kinds of grooves, and then we invite friends over for sessions and sort of all sorts of people come and collaborate with us on this, which is a lot of fun as well.
00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:49.360
Yeah, I personally enjoyed the the first album, I must say.
00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:50.639
So I'm looking forward to this.
00:41:51.039 --> 00:41:51.360
Thank you.
00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:52.960
Very different approach.
00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:55.119
Have we checked all the boxes?
00:41:55.599 --> 00:41:57.920
There's always more boxes with you, Sick Trevor.
00:41:58.480 --> 00:41:59.039
Always more.
00:41:59.199 --> 00:42:01.519
But um yeah, I I think those are the key.
00:42:01.599 --> 00:42:11.840
Uh yeah, I mean I think we should mention uh yeah hopefully we we we'll we'll manage to put this out in time, but maybe not because it's it's only two days away.
00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:23.360
But one of the uh things that uh are being done for the fourth year anniversary of Schmeckles uh is a rave out in Hapnafjord, Sapropo Requick for the for the eclipse.
00:42:23.519 --> 00:42:23.920
Yeah.
00:42:24.159 --> 00:42:29.039
Which uh uh I guess Björk is hatlining, we could say.
00:42:29.440 --> 00:42:29.760
Yeah.
00:42:29.920 --> 00:42:30.880
That's one way of putting it.
00:42:31.119 --> 00:42:31.360
Yeah.
00:42:31.679 --> 00:42:34.639
She's sort of shall we say curating it?
00:42:34.800 --> 00:42:35.440
Curating it as well.
00:42:36.239 --> 00:42:38.559
Inviting friends of hers to come and play with her.
00:42:38.719 --> 00:42:40.000
It's all DJ sets, I think.
00:42:40.239 --> 00:42:40.960
It's all DJ sets.
00:42:41.119 --> 00:42:56.239
And I saw that well, there's uh an interview in the latest issue of The Regular Grapevine with well, Björk, of course, and then uh a separate interview with I think every single artist who is performing at that particular event.
00:42:57.039 --> 00:43:05.280
Um you know, it's like uh to take an example, Ronia and Itake.
00:43:05.599 --> 00:43:06.639
Yeah, uh Nakord.
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:08.000
NACRD.
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:15.840
And all I think artists that in many cases Björke has been collaborating with during Side Project?
00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:28.559
Yeah, Side Project is there, and then it relates to the the moon sessions or whatever the we call them that uh she's been doing at the SmackLesser store for a few years now.
00:43:28.800 --> 00:43:33.199
Um interesting sort of afternoon raves, sort of middle of the yeah.
00:43:33.599 --> 00:43:34.639
Afternoon DJ sets.
00:43:36.400 --> 00:43:37.519
Healthy hour of afternoon.
00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:37.920
Yeah.
00:43:38.079 --> 00:43:48.639
She's brought in some really interesting people like Arca and others to come and DJ there with her, people that are sort of interested in uh the forefront of interesting electronica.
00:43:49.039 --> 00:43:49.440
Right.
00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:51.199
So that's one of the things.
00:43:51.360 --> 00:43:55.679
Uh are we looking for any more sort of public celebrations or yes.
00:43:55.760 --> 00:43:59.840
I mean we're doing a listening party tonight of uh a new release on SmackLissa, which is
00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:03.440
Oh yes.
00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:07.039
Who was a pioneer in electronic music in Iceland?
00:44:07.519 --> 00:44:13.519
These are recordings he made between nineteen sixty-three and sixty-six, I think.
00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:16.880
Very uh out there for the time?
00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:18.559
Very out there for the time.
00:44:18.719 --> 00:44:24.880
He was studied with Stochhausen and one of the one of Björk's favorites, I know.
00:44:25.280 --> 00:44:25.440
Okay.
00:44:25.840 --> 00:44:32.320
Yeah, she does mention it in in this just to name drop the interview again in the latest issue.
00:44:32.559 --> 00:44:42.159
But uh uh it's uh demonstrating also that bad taste is on an ongoing project.
00:44:42.719 --> 00:44:51.280
Just to mention that, I mean in recent years, bad taste has been on the forefront of releasing sort of contemporary music in Iceland.
00:44:51.679 --> 00:45:12.960
There's a lot of young contemporary composers, funny enough, mostly women, that uh like Baura Kisla Dotir and um and and others that are really sort of new, I think three three new records that came out very recently are by them.
00:45:13.679 --> 00:45:14.960
Uh contemporary music.
00:45:15.039 --> 00:45:29.679
And then there's this whole sort of new label now called Platan, which is people that used to be in in in uh in uh post-trevink, which is a collective, an Icelandic sort of DIT collective.
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:30.960
Very interesting.
00:45:31.119 --> 00:45:34.320
And they've they've started collaborating more with Smeckless now.
00:45:34.400 --> 00:45:38.320
So Smeckless is manufacturing this new record with them.
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:43.760
That's part of the package because some of those few of those people are actually performing with Björk.
00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:44.079
Yes.
00:45:44.239 --> 00:45:55.280
In uh it's uh So I I I'm quite sort of happy about the rejuvenation of of Smeckless as an organization.
00:45:56.159 --> 00:46:18.000
Yeah, I would say the like I I love the posturing, I love the post-term collective, uh, but I I feel that they're uh i in an in a sense um related to like it has similar sort of I don't know what's uh basically young people trying to do things on their own terms.
00:46:18.239 --> 00:46:18.800
Yes, yes.
00:46:19.119 --> 00:46:28.320
Without the uh sort of shall we say influence of of bigger labels or organizations, very sort of anti establishment.
00:46:28.639 --> 00:46:29.679
Anti-establishment, yeah.
00:46:29.760 --> 00:46:36.000
And uh even though in in a sense kindred spirits, so it seems like a uh a match that makes sense.
00:46:36.400 --> 00:46:37.119
Absolutely.
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:38.320
That's good.
00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:46.960
Um I think uh we should probably wrap this up by thanking you for dropping in, Sethrugur.
00:46:47.440 --> 00:46:47.840
Yes.
00:46:48.320 --> 00:46:56.400
And uh and encouraging people to go to I guess smackless.is and get some of those records.
00:46:57.119 --> 00:46:58.559
Check out the Bogma font record.
00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:00.159
Check out the Bogman font record.
00:47:00.320 --> 00:47:05.119
I'm sorry, but the rave is sold out if we manage to you actually get this out before that.
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:06.880
Um so don't worry about that.
00:47:07.199 --> 00:47:07.679
Just no.
00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:09.039
You can just have a phone mall.
00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:15.119
There yes, there are sort of regular events at SmackLa to commemorate the whole year.
00:47:15.440 --> 00:47:15.679
Yes.
00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:20.239
Um it's been we've been running these in our in our event list things.
00:47:20.320 --> 00:47:22.480
There are quite regular events.
00:47:22.559 --> 00:47:25.039
And I was talking to Kale more recently about that actually.
00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:31.199
But uh there is, I think almost at least a weekly thing going on for the next few weeks that I know of.
00:47:31.280 --> 00:47:36.079
So people should look that up at the Graphon site if they want to.
00:47:36.320 --> 00:47:41.920
So yeah, thank you for coming in and telling us about all of these different things that you're not doing.
00:47:42.079 --> 00:47:49.280
Uh I think we're all happy to reclaim you from uh from bureaucracy.
00:47:50.159 --> 00:47:52.079
Kind of, except for you did a great job with bureaucracy.
00:47:52.400 --> 00:47:54.000
Uh yeah, thanks for the service there.
00:47:54.400 --> 00:47:55.360
Thank you for the service.
00:47:55.920 --> 00:47:56.719
Thank you.
00:47:57.039 --> 00:48:09.519
And uh I and I think if people remember from the beginning, I think the advice you might be getting out of this about how you lobby things, i it won't work for you, but it will work for Setregur.
00:48:10.960 --> 00:48:17.039
You know, people won't come over for you to for tea if you're just if you're a star.
00:48:17.280 --> 00:48:18.320
Thanks for listening and watching.
00:48:18.480 --> 00:48:20.320
See you later, and bye-bye.