Credit: Rakel Unnur Thorlacius via Instagram
Kiddi’s girlfriend snapped this awesome photo of Nanna in Iceland.
Credit: Rakel Unnur Thorlacius via Instagram
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Nanna was interviewed on Rás 2 on February 5th about the Nordic Playlist, which we’ve posted about before. Excerpts from some of the songs she picked were played on air, and the host asked her a few questions about the playlist and other things. Here are some highlights from the interview:
When asked about her new “yellow” hair, Nanna replied jokingly that she dyed it because she had too much free time on her hands. There was no particular reason for the new hair color, other than trying something new. They are currently getting their new practice space (supplied to them by the town of Garðabær) ready and making sure it’s comfortable enough so they can spend a lot of time there. The band has not yet started working on new songs a group, but they have plenty of song ideas. Nanna stated that she has a good feeling about the upcoming songwriting process, and is excited to get started. OMAM's goal is to have the album ready by the end of the year, but it might possibly get delayed until early 2015. They talked about Silhouettes playing in the credit list of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Nanna told the story of seeing the movie while in the USA, and waiting for the song to play during the credit list. When the song started, everybody else had left the movie theater. Nanna states that she spent quite a bit of time selecting the playlist, listening to a bunch of Nordic artists in the process, and discovering some she had never heard before. Nanna has started experimenting with writing songs on the computer, but states emphatically that Of Monsters and Men are not about to turn to “electro folk.” Just uploaded to YouTube: OMAM’s full set from the Main Square Festival in France, 2013.
Years before Of Monsters and Men came into existence, Arnar and Árni played together in a band called Hydrus. Arnar played guitar and sang, and Árni played bass and keyboards. The band also included future Cliff Clavin singer Bjarni Þór Jensson on guitar and vocals, and Gauti Rafn Ólafsson on drums.
Hydrus participated in Músíktilraunir three times, from 2003-2005. These pictures were included in newspaper features about the competition. The first picture is from 2004, and the second from 2005. The band was variously described as playing melodic rock, hard rock/heavy metal, or stoner rock. Credit: Morgunblaðið Nanna was interviewed by Icelandic TV a couple of days ago about the Nordic Playlist that she recently picked. When asked about the next album, she answered the same way as before: it will be out late 2014 or early 2015 - definitely not in 2016.
You can watch the interview at the link below. It will be available online for 90 days. Video Article The January 30th issue of the web-based magazine “Kjarninn” features a list of the five best known and influential living Icelanders, as judged by the editorial staff. Nanna is fifth, Jónsi from Sigur Rós fourth, former Chelsea and Barcelona star Eiður Smári Guðjónsson third, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, first woman in history to be elected head of state, comes in second, and (no surprises) Björk Guðmundsdóttir is in first place.
Here is what they had to say about Nanna and OMAM: Of Monsters and Men have recently been taking the world by storm. Their world tour, which ended on August 31st in the band members’ home town, Garðabær, helped spread their fame with lightning speed. Their first album, My Head is an Animal, was among the best selling albums of the year in many places when it first came out in 2011 [Note: The international edition actually came out in 2012]. Since then, it has continued selling well. The band member that has received the most attention is the magnificent singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir. Although the band has only been together for a short time, Nanna Bryndís has charmed people all over the world, and the future is most certainly hers. An interview with Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir for BYT Interviews. Interview made by: Jenn Tisdale. June 7, 2013
BYT: Hello! How are you? Nanna: I’m excellent, thank you. How are you? BYT: Aren’t you a darling for asking. I’m very good. I want to get something out of the way first…everyone is very attractive in the band. Is that a thing in Iceland? Should I move? Nanna: Oh yeah yeah yeah, you come to Iceland and you drink the water and you just become beautiful. BYT: Damn it. I knew it. I don’t drink enough water and certainly 0 magic water. Nanna: Ha ha ha ha BYT: So where are you guys right now? Nanna: Right now we’re in Texas. BYT: Oh shit. I am sorry about that. That’s not our best *state. (*Austin doesn’t count.) Well, things have certainly happened very fast for you guys. Are you freaking out? Nanna: No, not really. I am being weirdly calm about it, maybe. Ha ha ha, ummm….but yeah things have moved very fast. Sometimes maybe when you’re on the road for like 2 months and you don’t see any of your people you do start to feel a little crazy but because it’s so different…I was used to just being in Iceland the whole time where I was just doing my thing and now you are always in a different city. It’s pretty crazy but it’s like, it’s also pretty cool. BYT: Sure, and it always seems so fast, when you read about a band’s success. You were doing your solo project, Songbird, in 2009 and then you involved more people and became Of Monsters and Men. Was it that easy? Nanna: Ha ha ha…I wouldn’t say it was easy. It’s not easy of course. Oh this thing we’re doing it’s definitely hard work so yeah yeah it hasn’t been easy. It jus kind of worked out really well for us for some reason. We weren’t really pushing hard for them to work out the way they did, but they did. BYT: It’s like you’re in a relationship now and that happened because you weren’t really looking for love at the time. Nanna: Yes, ha ha ha. We didn’t think we would be touring after you know such a short amount of time. BYT: Yeah you have been touring a lot. You’ve been through a lot of Europe and over here you’ve been playing a lot of festivals. You were at Coachella in April. Is Coachella just a disgusting, muddy nightmare with drunken people just having sex wherever they feel like it and also celebrities? Is that Coachella because that’s what I’ve heard. Nanna: It’s funny because it’s just a huge party, in the middle of the desert and we were like “No no, this is really weird.” But not too disgusting. BYT: Were there any celebrity sightings? Nanna: Yes! I didn’t see her but I was walking and my friend took me by the shoulder and was like “There’s Lindsay Lohan,” but I missed her…but she was there. Danny DeVito was also there. BYT: Oh he’s very small. Nanna: Ha ha ha…I also missed him as well, that’s probably why. BYT: So obviously this is an amazing opportunity but are there things you dislike about this whole process? You guys are human beings. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe you miss your home. Maybe you have a cat, or a dog, or something. Nanna: Yeah yeah yeah, you know as much as this thing is like…I feel like I would be such a dick if I ever were to complain about my situation because it’s great! I get to tour. I get to see all these places. I get to hang out with my friends and just play music and it’s you know it’s the best thing I could ever imagine. But yes there are days when you just really want to go home and you really want to see your family and friends. I think that’s just part of it. I think that’s what happens to every touring musician. We’ve only been doing this for about 1 ½ years. Hopefully it will be away from home a lot more I guess. BYT: Do you guys ever have time at all to go out and do anything recreationally? Have you been able to go out and do normal things? Hang out? Before you came to America, had you been here before and is there anything here that you’re like Oh America! or Oh…America…sigh. I am always weirdly paranoid about outside opinions of this country. I know how we look. We are perceived as lazy, terrible and constantly trying to take over other people’s countries. I get it. I guess what I’m asking is…do you like us? Nanna: Ha ha ha ha…do we like you? Ha ha ha, yes we do like you. I’ve never been here before and it’s a lot different from Iceland. I kind of like it. What I really love about America is the cinemas. I love going to the movies because like you get so much popcorn. BYT: Ha ha ha…we do give you a lot of popcorn. Nanna: You guys give us a lot of popcorn. It’s fun. I went to the movies the other day and there was this one thing that happened that I thought was really funny. So I was watching this movie and this bad guy came on the screen with like being bad and someone stood up and was like “Fuck you!” like at the screen and I was like: This is amazing. This would never happen in Iceland. Everyone is just really open here. You’re not shy and like Icelandic people.[Note: Nanna was misquoted in the interview as saying “fat guy” rather than “bad guy.” After she replied to us and pointed this out, we have edited the post to reflect what she actually said.] BYT: Is that a major difference between America and Iceland? Is everyone very reserved in Iceland? Nanna: Yeah I think everyone is very aware of their personal space, you know. BYT: Oh yeah, we don’t do that here. Pft…why would we give you any privacy? That’s just silly. Nanna: Ha ha ha…. BYT: Well I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me. I hope this wasn’t too all over the place. Nanna: No thank you, this was really fun and different from other interviews. In a good way. BYT: Oh you’re just saying that because I made you say you liked America. Nanna: Ha ha ha. Video of the Year: Je t’aime comme tu es (Daniel Bélanger) Friend of Mine (D-Sisive) Anything (Hedley) King and Lionheart (Of Monsters and Men) Feeling Good (The Sheepdogs) Of Monster's and Men's video for 'King and Lionheart' is nominated in the 2014 JUNO Awards in Canada! "WWM nominated for a JUNO AWARD - 'VIDEO OF THE YEAR' for Of Monsters and Men, King and Lionheart!!" ~WeWereMonkeys |