From Iceland — Outclassing Metallica

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Krummi: Sorry I couldn’t get you into the show. I couldn’t even get my girlfriend in.
Grapevine: That sucks. If you’d known that, would you have signed on for the show?
Krummi: Well, she was my ex-girlfriend. It doesn’t really matter. Of course I would have signed on. Actually, I’m really flattered we were able to play this. It’s just sinking in.
GV: (Derisively) Are you a Metallica fan?
Krummi: I really liked them when I was young, dumb and full of cum.
GV: Is it just me, or has the Icelandic press not covered the fact that you’re playing here much? It seems like a big story.
Krummi: They haven’t. But the foreign press has. I’ve been doing tons of interviews. Kerrang! magazine is doing a cover story about us right now. And Chris Lopez, this great photographer, has been shooting us today.
GV: So you’re on a roll?
Krummi: We’ve been on a roll for the last two years. Playing and playing. People sooner or later catch on. We’ve been working like dogs.
(At this point in the interview, Krummi’s voice is cracking and he is shivering. We are standing outside, as I couldn’t get inside Egilshöll. He has about forty-five minutes until the biggest show of his life. I ask him if he wants to go in and he laughs. I can interview him as long as I need to.)
GV: You’re playing the biggest show of your life, aren’t you nervous?
Krummi: I will probably get nervous when I see the people come in.
GV: Uh, Krummi. I don’t quite understand this. You’ve been sober and making sense. I was told you were an incoherent rock star.
Krummi: (Nodding and very sober.) I’ve always been very excessive. We all are. It improves the dynamics of the band.
GV: One more time, why did you name your last album Halldór Laxness?
Krummi: Laxness was a high society writer and we wanted to take him to our level, take him to street level… and it seemed like a weird title for a rock album.
GV: That’s interesting. Isn’t that too interesting for a rock interview? Are you telling me you read regularly?
Krummi: Yeah, we’re always reading. Everybody but (he catches himself before naming the one Mínus member who doesn’t read as much). I’m reading a good Iggy Pop bio right now. But, of course, I love Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Yeah, we’re all intellectuals. We like to be able to back up our opinions. Stand up for ourselves when we have to. It’s good to be, you know, literate.
(Interviewer can’t stop staring at tattoo that reads “Mamma” on Krummi’s neck as Krummi discusses literature.)
GV: What are you listening to, right now?
Krummi: I listen to 70s and 80s metal, and country and blues, you know, boogie woogie.
GV: Country?
Krummi: Gram Parsons, Merle Haggard, George Jones. I have a side project, Moody Company. We do country.
GV: Thanks. You should go. Biggest concert in Iceland’s history and all. Good luck.
Krummi: Yeah, I need it.
GV: Do you need it? I really didn’t get that impression.
Krummi: No. But I don’t want to sound overconfident.