I lose energy and I can’t do as many things as I want. So I have to plan days when I’m not doing anything. I find that a bit boring, but it’s necessary.
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.
I’m not that keen on fierce dictatorship. I think that sort of the point of working with somebody is them coming up with stuff and feeling free to do that.
Kids draw masterpieces – they’re the best painters ever. I think the same with music. They could totally write amazing music if they just had the right tools.
The reason I do photographs is to help people understand my music, so it’s very important that I am the same, emotionally, in the photographs as in the music.
There are certain emotions in your body that not even your best friend can sympathize with, but you will find the right film or the right book, and it will understand you.
I’m not as religious as some people about “the album.” To be honest, that was a product of a format. You had vinyl, and you could fit five songs on each side, and that’s 45 minutes.
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’ve written arrangements for choirs and strings in the past, but I usually write music with my voice or a keyboard and then I’ll get someone who is good at writing scores to write it out. Or, if I have the luxury of time.
I knew if certain people recommended something, it would be good. There’s always going to be those people. It just depends on what they’re called: curators or radio jockeys or bloggers.
When I was a teenager in Iceland people would throw rocks and shout abuse at me because they thought I was weird. I never got that in London no matter what I wore.
I think after Iceland’s independence in 1944, we were not very sure of ourselves and our confidence was really low. It took one generation to sort of get over that. I’m second generation.
But I’m not interested in politics. I lose interest the microsecond it ceases to be emotional, when something becomes a political movement. What I’m interested in is emotions.
And then within the past 10 years Iceland discovered the stock market and it just went, went, went, went, went. I think it hit a roof and it’s just crashed. Just a small percentage of the nation did a lot of damage.
