Step Your Pusswhip Up: Lord Pusswhip On Trying To Be Somebody

Since his humble beginnings as DJ Pusswhip in 2012, Þórður Ingi Jónsson, aka Lord Pusswhip, has carved out a reputation for his particular brand of cool weirdo post-emo hip-hop. The past twelve months have been particularly kind to his Lordship, paying off with his recent signing to Bjarki’s bbbbbb label and the release of his debut EP, “The Hand of Glory”, collaborations with the equally iconoclastic Countesse Malaise, and a coveted spot on Sónar Reykjavík’s Red Bull Academy stage. We caught up with him to chat about it all.

So what’s going on over there?
I’m just chilling in New York. I’m going to Seattle in the morning to play a crazy house show, then LA and then back to New York. This trip has kind of a punk vibe, DIY feel to it, with house shows and smalls venues like that.

That’s awesome. Things really seem to be rolling for you.
It’s very exciting, I’m really happy. I kind of knew it would be this year. Before 2017 I was like, “2017 is gonna be my year!” and obviously it wasn’t (laughs). But that’s fine. Good shit takes time.

Definitely. How long has it been in the works about getting signed on bbbbbb?
I got wind of it last autumn when I was still living in Berlin. It took a couple of months for it to be finalised. It was really great getting validation from Nina Kraviz when I started making this more clubby shit, and she just put five or six of my tracks on a mixtape. I was really geeking from that. Bjarki has been sort of like a patron to me, which is something I’ve been desperately waiting for since I started making music.

How did you transition to making this more clubby stuff?
It was definitely just living in Berlin and being surrounded by techno constantly. I had this weird relationship with techno and house because, even though I’m a total music nerd, I kind of had a prejudice towards it. I had some weird idea of what it was because of what the DJs played in Iceland, like at Kaffibarinn and stuff like that. I thought house was just some lounge coffeehouse music. I didn’t even realise that I had listened to techno and house and I had even made stuff like that. I just started playing around with it. It kind of happened simultaneously as I stepped up my game and studied EQing and mixing and all this shit that I’m not very technically skilled at. I feel like I came into my own in terms of production.

Are we gonna hear this at Sónar?
Yeah! That’s basically it. I’m kind of showcasing this new stuff. I think in Reykjavík they know me more for the rap shit which is not exactly reflective of what I do day to day. I always saw myself more as a producer than a rapper after I started producing. It’s just more fun to rap onstage, so I’ve done that more. Now I’m more focusing on just playing the beats. If I’m DJing, it’s kind of a mix of everything—I play my own stuff and mash it up with other songs and do all this crazy shit. I’m very hyped for it.

Lord Pusswhip plays Lucky Records on March 14th, Húrra on March 15th, and Sónar Reykjavík on March 16th.