Das Gespräch führte Adrian Breda
Exorcise, das Debütalbum der Band Tilbury, war 2012 das Album mit den meisten Verkäufen auf einem bekannten isländischen Musikportal. Die fünf Musiker spielten im Rahmen des Nordischen Klangs zusammen mit der norwegischen Band Møll bei der Indie-Pop-Nacht im St. Spiritus.
Can you name something you have learned by recording the album?
Patience? A lot of patience, I guess.
Considering what?
It took us a really long time to make this album. Like one and a half year. It was a very long but educating process. We had to dig deep to produce the soundscape we wanted to have. We are really pleased with the result.
What does “Tilbury” mean?
It is based on a short novel by an icelandic novellist who is my cousin. It is about a weird monster – almost like a worm – called Tellberry that sucks the milk out of cows and sheep.
So you thought this would fit to your music?
Yeah, there was also a film produced. It was very surrealistic and beautyful at the same time. I thought it kind of fitted to what we are trying to do in the studio.
How would you describe your music? You probably have to answer this question a lot.
No, it’s fine. It does me good to put it into words. I think it is like dramatic pop with melodic synth with like some sixties — folk?
So do you listen to different kind of music as well?
We all come from a broad musical background, playing in various projects so it all mixes together. I’ve been listing to Belle & Sebastian and similar music a lot. Of course we also like The Beatles and other stuff.
How would you describe the music scene in Reykjavík?
I think it is very dynamic. A lot of people are doing music which might be a reason its diversity. You can find a lot of different genres in Reyjkjavík such as ambient, techno, folk…
I assume it is quite hard to tour in Iceland because two thirds of the population live in the capital.
Yeah, the majority of the population lives in the capital but we do it sometimes. Just going to the countryside and play there. But it takes like half a year to play all the venues in Iceland
Do you think there is something like an “Icelandic sound”?
There are so many different bands in Iceland making good music. It is very hard to put it under the same soundscape or the same label. So the “Icelandic” sound is probably a myth.
Record stores in Iceland sold the same amount of CDs by Icelandic artists and Artists from abroad. Can you explain this? In Germany they sell more CDs by musicians from abroad.
Well it it isn’t even balanced anymore. People buy way more CDs by Icelandic artists nowadays. At Christmas time a lot of people buy CDs as gifts which is a typical Icelandic tradition, I guess. Almost 95 per cent of the CD sales is around Christmas. Additionally, it is more difficult to illegally download Icelandic music on the internet because it is not so well-known. We have an Icelandic torrent website where you can find every kind of music except Icelandic music. So if you share the latest Tilbury album there you get banned from this website.
What do you think about the Festival Iceland Airwaves?
Yeah, it is really good for Icelandic music and economy. When you are a teenager, forming a band, this is the goal: to get into the festival. We also have kind of a thing which is similar to “battle of the bands”. Those two events are the most important things for young talented musicians in Iceland.
Iceland got hit by the financial crisis very hard. Did experience this in your everyday life as musicians?
There has been a research showing that there is a huge increase of people coming to shows. Maybe it is because after the crisis we had foreign bands coming to Iceland because there was no money. We used to have big bands such as Muse or Foo Fighters twice a month. When the Icelandic króna dropped and those big bands did not come to Iceland anymore. Icelandic musicians or bands had a great chance. Obviously, they took adavantage of it. Furthermore, there was more pressure on Icelandic musicans to make shows. Finally, a lot of people got unemployed and decided to spend their time on what they like – for example music – which also increased the amount of musicians and bands.
Mit dem diesjährigen Nordischen Klang ist es schon bald wieder vorbei. Beim Abschlussfest heute ab 19:30 Uhr im St. Spiritus können sich die Besucher unter anderem auf die Jes Holtsø & Morten Wittrock Band aus Dänemark freuen, außerdem werden Simone Moreno & Os Lourinhos musikalische Einflüsse aus Südamerika und Nordeuropa vereinen. Der Eintritt beträgt 12 oder 8 Euro.
Fotos: Simon Voigt
