For a person as obsessed with music as I am, I always hear a song in the back of my head, all the time, and that usually is my own tune. I’ve done that all my life.
I will go in a room and hear the people perform and then change it through what I hear, not on paper. I can read music OK, but I probably rebelled a little – music changes into something else when you read it.
We’re always mourning things that have died. It’s a bit much sometimes. These studios have no fresh air, and there’s this unwritten rule that they don’t have windows, either.
Icelandic people are really educated. But maybe we are at where the people in the States were 50 years ago, where they think that stuff that isn’t done with a hammer or physical power is not a job. It’s that backwards.
I try not to record them on my Dictaphone when I first hear them. If I forget all about it and it pops up later on, then I know it’s good enough. I let my subconscious do the editing for me.
I mean, I’ve never been thinking that if you’re a fan you have to buy everything that somebody puts out. I mean, you’ve got a choice. If you don’t want it, just don’t buy it. It’s also a reaction to YouTube and sharing of files.
When I write a song, I see a tunnel, and then the chorus is an open space, or the bassline is doing this shape. I see songs as a more of a geometric, spacial experience.
