Iceland‘s handful of global music superstars are the exception rather than the norm.
When asked to picture a successful Icelandic musician, people might think of Björk carefully conceptualising her next project, or Laufey performing on the world’s most popular talk shows — when she’s not too busy selling out concert halls.
But there’s a quieter corner of the Icelandic music scene that’s just as successful, if not as visible. The popularity of Icelandic composers has risen sharply in recent years, often via film and cinema. Since 2010, more than 50 major studio titles have been shot in Iceland, often soundtracked by the sound of Icelandic composers in cinema halls around the globe.
One trailblazer in this field was the late, great Jóhann Jóhannsson, whose CV includes the music for movies like Prisoners, Arrival, and the Oscar-winning The Theory of Everything. When he died in 2018, the torch seemed to pass to his friend and collaborator Hildur Guðnadóttir. Another paragon of Icelandic film composition, Hildur is just a Tony short of an EGOT, having received an Emmy and a Grammy for work on TV series Chernobyl, and adding an Oscar to her mantlepiece in 2020 for Joker.
The INNI circle
A key player in connecting Icelandic music with the film industry — and its global audience — is Reykjavík-based music company INNI. Founded in 2019 by Colm O’Herlihy (pictured above, right) and Atli Örvarsson (pictured below, left), a successful Hollywood composer in his own right, INNI has become a vibrant hub for some of Iceland’s most forward-looking artists. Since its establishment, INNI-affiliated artists have secured deals with some of the largest entertainment corporations in the world, including Apple, Disney, Netflix, and HBO.
Among its recent and current projects include the TV series Silo, with music composed by Atli; Herdís Stefánsdóttir’s ongoing collaboration with director M. Night Shyamalan on Trap; and Sin Fang & Kjartan Holm‘s work on The Darkness (CBS).
INNI releases records, organises events, and acts as a music publisher, which means managing the business side of artists’ work, and making sure they get paid so they can continue to write more of that sweet, sweet music. Their headquarters on Bergþórugata — an unassuming residential street near the downtown swimming pool — houses INNI’s offices and nine recording studios.
“Music publishing is managing the writer’s compositions and copyrights,” explains Colm, speaking from LA on a three-way call with myself and Atli. “You’re basically trying to find as many opportunities as you can. You’re trying to get music into TV and film, you’re trying to find writing opportunities, you’re collecting royalties around the world and doing the paperwork. You’re trying to work for the writer and as much as you can to make an income.”
Extraordinary sounds
Originally from Ireland, Colm moved to Iceland in the 2010s. He interned for the acclaimed Bedroom Community label, quickly becoming acquainted with the Reykjavík scene, and the strange inner workings of the Icelandic music industry.
“I was working in labels and whatnot,” says Colm. “And a lot of music supervisors [people overseeing music for film productions] were like, ‘How do we get our hands on Icelandic music, and who should we talk to?’ Because a lot of the independent artists weren’t signed, so there was no way to get your hands on their music. But as we know, this place is full of composers. So I had this idea that there should be a publishing company in Iceland. This should be a thing. And weirdly, at the same time, Atli was thinking the same thing.”
As serendipity would have it, Atli was also interested in getting Icelandic music into more ears. Originally from Akureyri, he swapped the Northern freeze for southern Californian haze, living and working in Los Angeles for most of his career. An acclaimed Icelandic film and TV composer, conductor, and musician, Atli’s canon spans over 40 major studio film productions, and includes working closely with soundtrack icon Hans Zimmer.
After founding the Akureyri-based orchestra SinfoniaNord in 2014, Atli moved back to Iceland in 2016. Since then, he’s gone from strength to strength, earning a BAFTA win and an Emmy nomination for his work on the HBO series Silo in 2024 alone.
After a long time in the U.S., it took a while for Atli to get his feet back on the ground in Iceland. “I sort of got roped into being on the board of Hljóðritasjóður [the Icelandic Recording Fund],” he says. “I think it was the product of having been gone for so long. But it was actually Colm who introduced me to the Icelandic music scene.” He smiles. “It took an Irishman to do that. I didn’t have a good idea of what the Icelandic music scene was like anymore.”
The Recording Fund’s board doles out recording grants to musicians, meaning Atli rapidly got reintroduced to Icelandic music, listening to demos in most of his free time. “I always knew there were a lot of talented people here,” he says. “But it really opened my eyes. I realised that the majority was really good, and a ridiculous amount is just extraordinary.”
Decoding the steps
But Atli’s motivation wasn’t manufacturing more breakout Icelandic stars — it was creating better conditions for local musicians. “Obviously we have our superstars, but there are so many incredibly good musicians in Iceland that maybe don’t really have a chance outside the borders,” he says. “Perhaps having lived in LA for all this time, I saw what I could do to help build some sort of bridge to the outside world, and give more people the chance to spread their wings — to be full-time musicians and dedicate their life to the work they love.”
Atli corrects himself. “Actually, I think ‘help’ probably isn’t the right word. It’s a bit patronising. These people need no help creating art. They’re brilliant artists. But, the bridge that I talk about is kind of decoding the steps it takes to get your music in front of more people. I think that’s the key to it.”
Colm agrees, adding: “That was one of our goals. It was like, ‘How do we create a company that supports artists and opens up different opportunities and channels?’”
While there are multiple feasible options today for musicians to live off their work, a common stereotype is the struggling bohemian musician trying to catch their big break. According to that template, what should follow is record sales in the millions, sold out world tours — and down the line, probably some kind of tax fraud.
“I just don’t think that’s the case,” says Colm. “There are so many other opportunities. There’s writing, scoring, collaborating, producing. There are just so many different ways you can actually make a living doing this.”
Five years since its establishment, INNI has managed to achieve exactly that. “They’re just full time artists, doing their thing,” says Colm. “And they’re becoming really successful. With Atli’s experience as a film composer, he passed on a lot of that, like projects for TV and film, and connections, and understanding the industry better.”
A rising market
In contrast to other markets, Iceland has traditionally been devoid of any lingering notion of having a ‘music business’. However, in recent years, that seems to be up for debate — perhaps because of an unprecedented uptick in educated music professionals moving back home that occurred around the Covid pandemic.
“Artist-wise, Icelanders are just so music-focused, first and foremost,” says Colm. “It’s all about creating great music. The business side of it comes much later in their minds, which I think is what makes it really special and brilliant. But understanding the opportunities that are available to the artists had me like, ‘All of these things that we could be doing, nobody’s doing here.’ There’s no company in Iceland that can get this music out into the world. So it seemed like a no-brainer.”
As Colm points out, some Icelandic musicians were giving up on making their music work in Iceland. As Atli, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s success demonstrates, the lack of professional composer opportunities meant exploring new avenues overseas. Iceland just didn’t seem like it could sustain a composition career.
“At the time, there were a lot of people moving from Iceland to Berlin,” says Colm. “A lot of people were like, ‘Well, I have to leave Iceland to do this.’” But Colm had other ideas. “What’s really unique about all of this is that people [overseas] want Icelandic music. It sounds very special to the place. That was a big thing.”
Balancing art and business
When INNI was established in 2019, it broke ground as the country’s first ever music publishing company. Given Icelandic artists’ inexperience with professional music business practises, Colm claims that many were initially hesitant about the concept.
“I think a lot of people had never dived into publishing,” he says. “I guess there was no publishing company here when we started.”
Atli says this attitude is still prevalent. “Music publishing is quite an unknown entity in Iceland,” he says. “As the name implies, it comes from printing music. Back in the days, that’s how music was released — your music was on paper. And obviously, nowadays, most people don’t do that. There’s a disconnect there, because in every other market there’s still the role for somebody who handles your catalogue and promotes it and makes sure you get paid. It’s a big part of what it means to be a professional musician.”
But Atli thinks this shouldn’t interfere with the creative process. “The beauty of the music scene in Iceland in many ways, is that it’s never been money-driven, and it shouldn’t be,” he stresses. “But at the same time, if you don’t get paid for your work, you may have to take another job which takes away from your time to be an artist full time. So we wanted to try to find this balance.”
Increasing the capacity
Despite the relative lack of music industry infrastructure in Iceland, the last decade has seen the country making some great strides towards building internationally competitive organisations.
In 2014, Atli had a hand in founding SinfoniaNord, an Akureyri-based symphonic orchestra performing film scores for major productions. A similar project, the Reykjavík Orkestra, played Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s compositions for Joker and Mary Magdalene. More recent examples of building capacity in the industry include the 2022 launch of classical publishing house Wise Music in Reykjavík, and composer Ólafur Arnalds’ OPIA Community initiative in 2023, focused on bringing together contemporary and electronic musicians.
Atli didn’t intend to return to Iceland brimming with lucrative business ideas. “It wasn’t even on my mind,” he says. “But when I started taking in the scope of talent — and not just talent, but the quality of production — it was more like, ‘How do we help people make a living as musicians?’ That’s really what I wanted to do.”
As Atli points out, due to the country’s size, “everybody in Iceland has to wear five hats. You have to work three jobs. And also know how to fix your toilet.” In his opinion, this analogy applies to INNI. “It’s like, ‘yes, we’re a publishing company, but we’re also a record company, and we also have studios.’ We are what we need to be, and need to become.”
The idea of working primarily as a professional musician has been a relatively novel concept for many. But INNI’s work has definitively altered the standards and practises in the Icelandic music industry.
Family dynamics
Looking at INNI as an outsider, it feels more like a family-run cottage industry than a rigid business. Loosely consisting of close friends, INNI’s internal relationships run long and deep. There’s even some family resemblance — the music INNI represents is framed within a signature visual style, and its releases denote a particular branded aesthetic.
“We were in this house together, and it feels like we all live together,” says Colm. “So it’s this sort of family thing. We’re all friends, and we all respect each other and care for each other.”
Atli agrees. “I think that at the end of the day, it’s Colm’s extended family,” he says. He smiles, turning to Colm. “He’s the person who unites all these people. I have to give Colm huge credit for being one of these people that has this motivation not only to unite people, but to inspire them.”
The INNI family includes musically diverse artists like Salka Valsdóttir (Cyber, neonme), Úlfur Hansson, Herdís Stefánsdóttir (Kónguló), Kjartan Holm, Jack Armitage, Sindri Már Sigfússon (Sin Fang), and Smjörvi — all pictured below — along with Rose Riebl, múm, Mono Town, Ingibjörg Friðriksdóttir (Inki), Atli himself, and many others.
“Being a composer or a writer is a solitary endeavour,” Atli reflects. “But there’s something really brilliant about being able to knock on somebody’s door and ask for advice, or seeing somebody for lunch. For the people who work in the house in Reykjavík, it’s a real benefit.”
Everyday we hustlin’
Although based in Reykjavík, an integral part of INNI is its international scope and outreach. More than half of INNI’s staff are from outside Iceland and the company’s team cover a lot of ground — from Los Angeles and Portland, to Reykjavík, Ireland, London, and further afield, if need be.
“I think it’s important to have people in different territories,” says Colm. “It opens up the scope. It makes it a lot more international, where the business is happening. We’ve scored Irish films, and we’ve had films from Netflix and HBO, and projects from the UK. So it’s nice to have people on the ground in those places to facilitate things.”
INNI has also started expanding their roster with international artists. Its most recent label releases include music by Swedish artist Jakob Lindhagen and Japanese artist Wataru Sato — a development in line with INNI’s ethos.
As both Atli and Colm explain, the nature of the business depends on constant interaction and keeping up with professional relationships. INNI needs to constantly remind the world of their existence. “There’s so much noise in the world right now,” says Colm. “You just have to keep yourself visible.”
“I believe it’s called hustling,” Atli jokes. “The whole industry is based on personal contacts. It’s the people you speak with at meetings, where you tell them about how passionate you are about what you’re doing. And like anyone who works in music, they got into music because they love music.”
Between the lines of mundane email communication, paperwork, and office duties, INNI’s persistent passion is at the heart of its business. “There’s nothing better than sitting down with somebody and playing them the music, and telling them about what you’re doing,” says Atli.
Just getting started
In only five years, INNI has managed to make itself — and its artists — known to the world. Through their diligent efforts and knowledge of the international business, Icelandic music has never had a better chance of world domination.
“We just want to create more,” says Colm. “More opportunities, more art. But you have to be sustainable about these things. You don’t want to grow too big. What’s great is when you look back and you start seeing the success stories of these artists, that they’re getting better and doing bigger projects. And putting more into the world. I think that’s a huge success.”
And there’s a lot more to come. “We just signed a global deal with Warp Publishing, which opens us up to more A&R and sync opportunities,” says Colm. “Warp is a company we’ve been fans of for a long time, with fantastic people who really understand what we want to achieve. We’re looking forward to collaborating with them and their fantastic artists.”
But despite their achievements, the founders are modest about where things stand. “We’re still just a baby company,” says Atli. “We’re still figuring out what we’re doing. But I think the key to success and longevity is to be patient — and stubborn.” He pauses. “It’s a long game, you know? I’m not sure if it has taken off yet. We’re just getting started.”
Check out INNI’s existing catalogue and upcoming releases on www.innimusic.com, find many links here, and remember to watch the credits next time you Netflix and chill.
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