Derek Piotr Is Looking For Iceland’s Oral Traditions

Multi-genre musician and dedicated folklorist Derek Piotr is travelling to Iceland in the next week to work on his ongoing “Fieldwork Archive.”  A formidable collection of over 1.000 field recordings of folk songs, Derek is constantly adding to this archive of the oral tradition. Issuing a wide call, he beckons any and all on this island to join the project and offer him a song. The Grapevine was lucky enough to hear more about his work, and goals for this trip to Iceland, as he prepares for his visit.

The Reykjavík Grapevine: Hi Derek! Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Derek Piotr: For the past 15 years, I’ve made music of varying styles as a solo artist for labels including LINE and Monotype; but for the last five years, my focus has increasingly been on my Fieldwork Archive project. Fieldwork Archive is a collection of nearly 1.200 traditional songs that I have recorded everywhere from West Virginia to Berlin. My informants are sometimes performers or revivalists, but overwhelmingly I look for “non-singers” to participate — everyday people who may have never been in front of a microphone before, but who nevertheless have musical memories of oral tradition from their families or home communities.

GV: You’re coming to Iceland for a few projects, one of which is aiming to archive folk songs from around the country. Can you describe a bit more who you hope to make contact with in Iceland, and how they can reach out to you?

DP: I am doing a couple of performances in Iceland, as well as recording the start of a new solo work, but the biggest thrill is the fact that I will make three separate collecting trips: in Reykjavík, Eyrarbakki, and Akureyri. I have some informants already fixed through the Reykjavík trad community, but my hope is to meet some surprise informants — ideally everyday citizens who can share a rímur or two. I made a similar petition to your country two years ago, and a couple folks did come forward. That was encouraging!

GV: Why did you choose Iceland specifically to visit?

DP: I have several friends in Iceland; among them, Þórður Ingi Jónsson, Katie Buckley, and Linus Orri. There is so much singing in the common tongue in your country, and something that differs very much from collecting in America, is that your song texts are relatively uncorrupted or not with variants. You can probably find something like “Suðurnesjamenn” at both ends of the country and they would be nearly identical. This kind of consistency is nearly impossible in America — things get so distorted and chopped up so easily by local nonsense. All that said however, I am equally hopeful that my theory might be proven wrong. Bring me an acid, half-forgotten version of something!

black and white photo: top by Elizabeth Wolff Studio, undershirt by Molly Goddard / colour photo: top by Matty Bovan, hoodie by Eddie Bauer, bag by Calvin Klein, trousers by REI Co-op, jewelry artists’ own

GV: You are a folklorist, vocalist, and composer. How does being a folklorist and an archivist affect or inform your own music-making process?

DP: I try to keep my solo efforts somewhat separate from my folklore practice, but of course some peas always get mixed into the mashed potatoes, and cross-pollination occurs. On my last record, Divine Supplication, I worked with Ican Harem of Gabber Modus Operandi, who was gonna MC rap over one of my tracks. I had separately asked him to record the Moslem lullaby he remembered from his family for my archive, but he sort of beautifully misunderstood and combined the requests and so I ended up with a Hip-Hop Sholawat situation. Viva misunderstandings! You could never plan something like this. It is incredible.

GV: Your folk songs collection, Fieldwork Archive, is massive. Two things caught my attention: your website’s “Hear a Random Recording” option, and a recent show on NTS playing some of your recordings. I’m curious about these two different ways of presenting and sharing the archive with the public; how would you like listeners to engage with your Fieldwork Archive?

DP: The entire body of the Archive (images and audio) is Creative Commons – the goal is for the material in the Archive to not just be for the ‘heads, but for anyone and everyone, and be distributed quite wildly and widely. I try to platform material from the Archive whenever possible — I think it’s a miracle that ancient songs are in the common tongue in the 21st century, and moreover it’s incredible to me that total strangers with no back history of singing will let me document their attempts at song in permanence. Just want to run around and tell the world basically.

GV: In addition to travelling and recording, you have a few more events scheduled for your time in Iceland. Can you tell me more about those?

DP: I am doing a “holy hour healing flower” DJ set at Smekkleysa on my birthday (the eve of May 15), and am performing a live show at Mengi on May 17. The point of the DJ set is to have a wax-soft lilac space for everyone to heal from heartache, bills, strife, whatever. The live show is a mystery thus far to me. We’ll see what happens!

GV: Is there anything else about yourself or your projects that you’d like to share with the Grapevine?

DP: People can contact me directly in advance if they’d like to share their songs with my Archive – please fill out this contact form and it will zoom directly to my inbox 🙂

Don’t hesitate to reach out to Derek Piotr if you (or anyone you know) has an interest in recording for the Fieldwork Archive. Otherwise, be sure not to miss the shows at Smekkleysa or Mengi!