From The Office To The Dance Floor

Kolbrún Birna Hallgrímsdóttir Bachmann combines a routine 9-to-5 with a DJ career

“We wanted to hear more women in music in the clubs,” says Kolbrún Birna Hallgrímsdóttir Bachmann as we meet at an empty Röntgen bar, where she’s a regular DJ. By day, she navigates legal meetings, but come evening, she’s in her element mixing beats.

Kolbrún Birna Hallgrímsdóttir Bachmann, 29, a lawyer

I’m the Data Protection Officer for the City of Reykjavík. My side hustle is DJing with my friend Glódís. We call ourselves DJ GLÓKOLLUR — a combination of our names — Glódís and Kolla, or Kolbrún. We started DJing about two years ago at Röntgen because Glódís’ husband Steinþór was only booking female DJs for the whole month. We decided we wanted to be one of them.

Steinþór taught us at their home to start with. We took it very seriously and practised a lot. We mostly play house, techno and also some girly pop songs — basically, just music that we ourselves would like to dance to.

After our first gig, we just started walking into places, saying, “We’re always DJing, why don’t you book us?” acting like we knew what we were doing. We got two or three gigs just in the second week of DJing. We were really putting ourselves out there to begin with.

“I don’t play gigs that I don’t think are fun.”

We mostly always work as a duo. Sometimes it happens that Glódís can’t make it, or I can’t make it. For example, tomorrow, my friends are opening an art show for DesignMarch and I’m DJing alone. Glódís and her husband run the restaurant Skreið, so DJing is also a side hustle for her.

Creativity meets turntables

In my line of work, my mind is very stimulated in an academic way. It’s very structured — law is just that way. It’s not very creative. DJing is for having more fun; it’s a creative outlet for me.

We mostly play on weekends and sometimes Thursdays, so that works fine with my job. Also, I only work a half day on Fridays [because of stytting vinnuvikunnar, or a shorter work week], so it works well if I’m doing an afternoon gig. So far, it hasn’t happened that my gigs collide with my job, but it has happened that I played with Glódís on Thursday and then had to come to work at eight o’clock the next day and still had all the songs repeating in my mind during meetings.

The people who work in my office all know about my DJ gig. It’s very cute. When we meet in the cafeteria, they ask me about my gigs. A group of them came to see me play once. I’ve been making playlists for them when they have birthday parties. They’re all very supportive.

From legal briefs to sick beats

I love music and people, so combining these things, and creating the atmosphere and energy you want in a space is my favourite thing. Also, I enjoy playing something silly and being silly with it, doing something out of the ordinary, because my other work is so strict. DJing is more of a free thing.

I don’t play gigs that I don’t think are fun. We did that for a couple of gigs, just because we wanted to say yes to everyone who asked us. That was less fun, but we were practising and finding what types of gigs and music we wanted to play. Because this is just a side gig, it lets me pick and choose and be more specific about what I want to do.

I would say I’m an extrovert, but I also really need my quality time alone. For me, it’s all about balance. Also, because I don’t drink alcohol, sometimes, when I was out at bars, I didn’t feel like I fit in or like I was supposed to be there. When I’m DJing, I have a role. I need to be there. It helps me ease into it — I’m here with a purpose.

The money I get from DJing is money I allow myself to spend just on living and having fun. I get well paid for my other job, so that income goes into more practical things. The DJ money is more of an extra — like a bonus.

How to be a DJ

The first thing, for us at least, was to get as much music as possible. We used to say, “If we’re not the best, at least we have good music. That’s going to save us.” Knowing that you have at least 10 hours of songs, even if you’re playing for two or three hours, is also a bit of a safety net. So, find as much good music as you can, categorise it and then practise at home. There are a lot of tutorials on YouTube or TikTok — they help a lot. Don’t be afraid to fail because you don’t have to be perfect. You’ll practise and get better over time.

DJ GLÓKOLLUR is playing at Prikið on May 8 and Röntgen on May 24. For more upcoming gigs, follow them on Instagram: @djglokollur

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