“It was completely by accident that all the songs ended up being reggae songs. When we started recording, we knew that we didn’t want pop but we weren’t aiming for reggae, either. We wanted to have an analog sound, which we acheived with a blend of ProTools and a lot of the older equipment at the studio [Geimsteinn, where Icelandic rock legend Rúnar Júliusson began recording in the 60s]. It just ended up that all the songs on the album are reggae songs.”
This blend of old and new played a big role in the recording process. “I can’t imagine any of these songs with a digital sound,” Siggi explains, “so we did things like put a sheet over the drum set like Ringo used to do. We used a lot of old keyboards and some other stuff we found lying around the studio. I’m just a big fan of the old stuff because I think it sounds better than the new stuff. We really wanted that Keflavík sound.”
Siggi Guðmundsson has a lot on his plate. Apart from being one of the sound engineers at Grand Rokk, he also composes electronic music and music for television commercials, such as one for SS hot dogs although, he says, “I haven’t seen it because I don’t watch TV.”
In keeping with his determination to have absolutely no free time, Siggi and the rest of the band will be playing at Iðno on the 21st of the month, plan on touring the country and will release an album of dub remixes of their songs sometime after Christmas.
“We set no boundaries,” Siggi concludes, “Our future looks more green than orange.”
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