In 2009 a group of four young Icelandic women began performing what they called âFriendly Concertsâ in ReykjavĂk under the name Pascal Pinon. In October they appeared at the Iceland Airwaves Festival where I was most impressed by their performance. Although I didnât know it at the time, they had already recorded an entire concept album which they later released independently; it was picked up by Morr Music in Berlin and re-released worldwide. Last October my blog-pal DJ Cousin Mary (from radio station KFJC in Los Altos Hills, California) went to the 2010 Iceland Airwaves where she saw them perform. Recently Mary did a three-hour special on Icelandic music and during the show interviewed JĂłfrĂĂ°ur ĂkadĂłttir, the primary songwriter for the group. A transcript of that interview follows:
MARY MACDONALD: Iâm talking to JĂłfrĂĂ°ur from
Pascal Pinon⊠Now tell us about your band, itâs you and your sister right?
JĂFRĂĂUR ĂKADĂTTIR: Yes, itâs called
Pascal Pinon and we mostly just play indie-acoustic pop music. Itâs always written in my bedroom so I think you can sort of hear it, because it has a lot of shyness in it because weâre both very shy⊠when Iâm writing I always do it in my bedroom and I always play very low so I hope that nobody can hearâŠ
MARY:
(laughs)
JĂFRĂĂUR: ⊠I think that maybe I can hear that in the music because it always colors it, how it comes into the world, I think, and thatâs sort of where my music is born.
MARY: Is there anyone other than your sister and you in the band?
JĂFRĂĂUR: We always play four girls when we play concerts, but we just get session players for the shows because we used to be four in the band, two other girls with us, but then after a year of working together they decided to quit because it was getting a bit hard, and me and Ăsthildur were doing everything, mostly, so we all just agreed, they just stopped being in the band⊠sometimes playing with us, sometimes doing other things⊠it actually works out a lot better this way.
MARY: You began playing when you were very young, isnât that true? How old were you when you started?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Well, this band we started when we were fourteen, and today we are sixteen, almost seventeen.
MARY: Oh, I see, so youâre still in schoolâŠ
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yes, and itâs actually Easter break now and we're using the Easter break to make the second album.
MARY: Oh, how excitingâŠ
JĂFRĂĂUR: Itâs very exciting!
MARY: You and your sister are twins, isnât that true?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yes, weâre twins.
MARY: You say youâre shy, yet you get up and perform⊠Do you enjoy performing?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yeah, I think itâs really, really fun to perform. The first concertâit was terrifying! My feet were shaking and we couldnât stand because I was so nervous and we had to sit down and my feet were both shaking really, really fast. It was awful because I was so nervous and afraid and shyâand that was the first concert. And then you just sort of learn that people arenât really that mean, they always kind of seemed to be really positive, and after playing many, many concerts, and people seem to be very happy, itâs not that frightening anymore, it really gets kind of fun and you start to enjoy it a lot because its really really fun to play your own songs in front of an audience.
MARY: There's a sweetness and a warmth to your music, at least thatâs why I enjoy your music, so I would think that would appeal to a lot of people.
JĂFRĂĂUR: I think our music, because its been called very cute, and I think that it is very cute, and itâs very warm and itâs very happy, in a way. Itâs kind of if you would imagine something very soft. I have nothing against being soft, but I also think that it cannot be too soft, and it cannot be too cute and it cannot be too much of anything. I think itâs very important that all of the things that you write, all this cuteness, and the shyness, that it doesnât get too much of anything.
MARY: Now, have you written new songs for your new CD that youâre mixing?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yes we have fifteen songs that weâre going to choose from, and we have recorded fourteen.
MARY: The songs that youâve composed, have they changed over time, from the first songs?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Well, um, weâre experimenting a bit, on the second album, with shakers and a bit of drums, because if you heard the whole album you notice that there are no drums, or shaker, or anything at all, on the whole entire album, weâre experimenting a bit with that. I think that maybe the compositions, in general, havenât changed that much. I mostly noticed that the sound is improving and weâre exploring a bit of kind of different sound world on the second album. Thereâs one song that is very different from all the other songs. I think the most, the biggest difference with this album and the other is that the first album is a really, really whole unit. Itâs a really whole albumâit has a very similar sound to all the songs and it kind of forms a very special wholenessâif that makes sense (
laughs) because it was recorded in five days and we had been practicing these songs for a long time and we knew exactly what we were going to record and we just did it. This album is recorded in three different places. It was recorded first of all in the summer, the summer of 2010, when we had a recording session, and again, when we had the next break from schoolâit was the Christmas breakâand then we did some recordings now, in the Easter break. So weâre using all our breaks to record. And the songs weâve been adding, more and more songs to the album with time. Thereâs not much similarity in all the songs as it was in the first album, so the sound is kind of different from each song. But in a way, I think thatâs also interesting, to make an album that has a very mixed diversity, or at least more diversity than the first album.
MARY: What kind of musical education do you and your sister have?
JĂFRĂĂUR: We have both studied classical music, and we are studying now. Ăsthildur is a really good piano player, a classical piano player, and I play the clarinet, I have been playing the clarinet since I was eight years old and we are very much busy at the music school all the time, except for the breaks, then when we have time to be in a band. I also play piano too, but very little. Ăsthildur plays the bassoon.
MARY: Are you attending a music school right now?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yes we are, we are in the Music School of ReykjavĂk.
MARY: Is that at the high school level?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yeah.
MARY: When will you be going to university?
JĂFRĂĂUR: In three years from now, it's a different systemâŠ
MARY: Well, thatâs a long time.
JĂFRĂĂUR: Weâre also very young⊠so it kind of adds up.
MARY: Youâll have plenty of time to do what you're doing right now.
JĂFRĂĂUR: Um-hmm. I think we just donât really realize how young we are. We have all this time to do so many things. Sometimes we kind of get lost in always comparing ourselves to some people who are older and have been doing this thing for a lot longer time. I thinks thatâs one sort of mistake that you make and you have to be very careful sometimes because we are very young and we have to sometimes be careful not to compare ourselves too much.
MARY: Well, not to compare you to other people, but to compare Iceland to other countries, it seems to me that there are a lot of musicians in Iceland, given the small population, do you agree?
JĂFRĂĂUR: I agree, and I think that there are strangely many good musicians here. I really like this whole indie community that had been formed here, and this whole music scene. I really like it and there are a lot of people in it, and itâs really lucky to be a part of it.
MARY: I agree. Do think there's anything particular about Iceland that has made this happen?
JĂFRĂĂUR: No, I really cannot tell because itâs so hard to spot something that youâre a part of. Itâs really hard to look at it as an outsider. I donât really know why it has become the way it is. I really always think it is a huge misunderstanding that it has anything to do with nature. I think thatâs just something that Björk created. Sometimes, when we do interviews, and there are people from other countries, they ask: âHas the nature affected your music in any way?â and we always say âNo!â (
laughs) because I cannot see how nature can possibly be connected with music, at least not the type of music that we make. But I understand maybe Björk always talks about how she's hiking in the mountains and looking at the wilderness⊠I think maybe this somehow works for her, but I donât think it has anything to do with the rest of the Icelandic music scene. I havenât really thought about this very much. I like the way it is and I havenât been wondering why everything is the way it is. Iâm kind of just thankful for it.
MARY: Are there other Icelandic Musicians that you particularly like, or that you feel influenced you?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yes. I really like SĂłley, who is also with Morr Music, and I also really like Sin Fang, who is also with Morr Music and SĂłley is playing with him, and I also like Nolo a lot. Theyâre not very famous, but they are really, really good.
MARY: OK, Iâll have to look for them.
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yes. I would look for Nolo on gogoyoko- have you been visiting
gogoyoko.com?
MARY: No, that sounds like a good idea.
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yeah, thatâs a really good site⊠itâs a music webshopâŠ
MARY: What about other musicians that have influenced you, in the whole world? Is there anyone in particular?
JĂFRĂĂUR: Yes, we were quite obviously interested in Tegan and Sara when we were beginning the band, when I was 14 the only thing I could listen to was Tegan and Sara and I think that without realizing it I was becoming very influenced by their music in my own compositions, maybe
I Wrote a Song, which was one of the first songs we played together. Tegan and Sara, theyâre Canadian twinsâbut theyâre identical twins. Maybe itâs different.
MARY: Could be. Did you study composition or did you just start writing songs?
JĂFRĂĂUR: No, Iâve been doing this for a long time, it started when I first got my guitar⊠it was a Christmas present from my parents when I was eleven. I got an electric guitar and I got a book to learn how to play the guitar. I learned the chords and one of the first things I did was to write very, very awful songs on it and they were all very, very bad. Then later I started writing better songs (
laughs). Then we got the idea of maybe starting a band and I was the only who could stand up and say âI have written a songâmaybe we can play it?â
MARY: Is there anything else youâd like to tell our listeners about your music or Iceland?
JĂFRĂĂUR: I think its really really fun to be in concert in Iceland, I think itâs really a special atmosphere in concerts in Iceland. I think because everybody seems to know each other⊠all the musicians are watching the other musicians, this whole scene is really connected. Itâs sort of like it is a family.
MARY: I could sense that, even being an outsider. I could definitely sense that. Thank you so much for talking with me and with my listeners, and I wish you all the best of luck.
JĂFRĂĂUR: Thank you.
And thanks again to DJ Cousin Mary and radio station KFJC for supporting Icelandic music and airing this interview.
Photo: Lilja BirgisdĂłttir
Interview Copyright KFJC, 2011. USED BY PERMISSION
