Words by

Hannah Jane Cohen

Photo by

Art Bicnick

Dance-lovers Inspector Spacetime—Egill Gauti Sigurjónsson, Vaka Agnarsdóttir and Elías Geir Óskarsson—walk us through their debut effort track by track.

Intro

The simplest track on the album is the silliest at the same time. The sample at the beginning is the origin of the band’s name, which is from ‘Community.’ This summer we basically only spoke in ‘Community’ references, which was very annoying for almost everyone involved—except for us, of course.

The intro was based on this goofy bassline. It’s very simple and fun, which was convenient because Elías accidentally deleted the whole album this summer. So we had to remake everything and it actually sounds a lot better now. So deleting everything was maybe a blessing in disguise!

Dansa og bánsa

This is probably the most energetic tune on the album. It’s definitely the happiest one. We made it on the first day we officially created the band and just kept throwing vocals on and creating huge choirs of funness. The lyrics are basically “I like to dance and bounce and dance and bounce” so it’s basically a song for children. All our songs are basically songs for children. We make songs to help children practise their grammar. We try to give back, you know?

When we had nearly finished it, we thought it needed something a little more extravagant so we decided on a flute solo. We wrote one and showed it to our flute-playing best friend and apparently, it was just impossible to play—just the worst notes you could possibly play on flute! So she helped make it not so disgusting and now we love this fun, fantasy-disco song.

Teppavirki

“Teppavirki” means “Blanket Fort.” It’s definitely a lyrical miracle. Our original concept was a love song about blanket forts because they are so cute and soft and comfy and cosy. It’s a bit dramatic but many people have made their own meanings of it, which we love.

Hitta mig

This U.K. garage track follows every rule of pop music. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, breakdown and then final chorus. We should have had a key change, but there are some extra special harmonies on the last chorus, so that adds something. Still, the lack of a key change is a huge regret of ours in this juicy, cheesy pop song.

SMB

The “bloop de bloop de bloop” sample is our friend Finnur and was recorded at a pool party for the freshman at our school. We tried to put it in as a joke and it just fit the vibe of the song—a little too well actually.

Bósi ljósár

Bósi ljósár = Buzz Lightyear! In this song, Inspector Spacetime and Buzz Lightyear have a passionate love affair. But then Buzz goes back to space. He takes the kids, the dogs—it’s a very messy, horrible divorce, leaving the Inspector heartbroken. It’s deep, dramatic stuff. We’re getting into real troubles here—the nitty-gritty of modern-day relationships—in space of all places, which is really the most dramatic place to have a love affair.

Hvað sem er

We are so nostalgic for this song that it’s kind of embarrassing. It feels like years since we released it but it’s only been like six months. We like our house tunes and if you are going to dance and bounce, you need a house song, so we made one and thought it’d be the perfect first single. A safe, solid house track. It’s always good to drop a safe song first so you don’t get judged. We at Inspector Spacetime are—say it with me—afraid of being judged! Definitely.

Inspector Spacetime

The titular track. Two words. Inspector Spacetime.

We love drum and bass so we had to have a drum and bass song. It’s a simple song and the only one where we show our tough side. We are not to be messed with on this track! No, the claws are coming out, bucko! That’s definitely the vibe we try to give out. We are, as we said earlier, afraid of being judged but also don’t mess with us… because we WILL be afraid! That’s an important message and one I think we are very successful at conveying on this album.

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