Endless Dark are one of the many young Icelandic bands performing at Iceland Airwaves for the first time this year. Lots of things set them apart from your ‘typical’ Icelandic Airwaves act: they hail from tiny Snæfellsbær in the Icelandic countryside instead of 101 Reykjavík, they take inspiration from MySpace emo such as Attack Attack! (!) rather than glacial landscapes or elves, and while this is their first time at the festival, they’ve already scored a manager and begun embarking upon international tours.
And, as guitarist Gummi tells us, Endless Dark’s members prefer to play in only ONE band. “A lot of Reykjavík musicians play in three or four bands. We are always been in the same band, which makes it unique, I guess,” he says when asked if forming a band is different when you live outside of Reykjavík.
Gummi and his fellow band members (Egill on keyboard, Keli on bass, Atli on guitar, Daníel on drums and singer/screamer Viktor) play modest when asked about the tours. “Oh, we did some shows abroad, for example in the UK. That was really amazing; we felt proud to be invited there. And we are definitely planning on expanding our success – we’re mixing a new record and we plan on playing lots of shows.”
They might not be your typical Icelandic band (then again, what is), they might not even be to your liking, but these hard working youngsters betray bucketloads of honesty, determination, ambition and vision. Kudos to them!
Who are you? What can we expect from your Airwaves appearance, and what can we expect of you in general?
We’re six guys from small towns on Snæfellsnes that have nothing better to do than play music, and we love every second of it! You can always expect a lot of crab-core and energy from our performances and Iceland Airwaves will be no different.
What are some of the acts you want to see at this festival, and why?
Bombay Bicycle Club, Agent Fresco, Dikta and Reason To Believe are some of the bands we’re definitely gonna see and we hope you’ll check them out too.
Are there any acts missing from the bill that you’d like to see on there?
We’d like to see more bands in our genre, but the beauty of Airwaves is that there are so many different kinds of music.
Wow. There are, like, one million ‘international’ acts on this year’s schedule. Have you heard of any of them? Are you excited to see any of them? Do you believe this changes anything for the festival in general, and its spirit?
The only bands we’ve heard of are Bombay Bicycle Club and Robyn, and we’re pretty excited about seeing them.
Looking back, do you have a favourite edition of Iceland Airwaves? And if so, why?
We are young, so this is our first experience of Airwaves.
A lot of our readers are first time Airwaves-visitors. Do you have any tips for them? What to see, what to do, what to avoid, etc? Where to buy records? Or a good place to grab a bite or get away from it all for a while?
We’re also first time Airwaves visitors so… don’t pick a fight if the guy is bigger than you? And there aren’t that many record stores in Iceland so just buy records wherever you find them. Same goes for food.
Given that most Airwaves-visitors won’t have a lot of time in their schedule to see the Icelandic countryside, are there any nature-havens close by that you’d recommend?
I guess it’s just the typical places all the tourist go to… Blue lagoon, Geysir and that shit.
Has a lot changed in the Icelandic music scene since Airwaves 2009? How about Airwaves 2002?
We have no idea… I guess there are more good bands.
Who are your favourite Icelandic acts these days?
Reason To Believe, Agent Fresco and Dikta.
A lot of international journalists like to ask: “How has kreppa affected the Icelandic music scene.” Do you think the question is valid? Do you have a preferred way of answering it?
Yeah sure the question is valid. It’s more expensive to tour and release records but… if there’s a will, there’s a way.
Anything else?
Just have a nice time at Airwaves and come hang with us!
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