Track By Track: Mammút’s ‘Kinder Versions’

Mystical and intimate post-rockers Mammút recently dropped their newest album, ‘Kinder Versions’. To get the meaning behind each emotional tune, we sat down with the band.

1. We Tried Love
This is our love song. We created two different worlds for it—one like velvet and the other more rough and striped. The song is a conversation between the introverted and extroverted sides of yourself when going through heartache. It is written with love, for love. We wanted the vibes to be nothing but kind and filled with a reverb of peace. It is one of the most innocent ones we have created. We wanted children and animals involved and strong symbols of tenderness and innocence. It brought us all joy inside our tears like Stevie Wonder once so beautifully put it.

2. Kinder Versions
‘Kinder Versions’ refers to memory and how we create kinder versions of past situations and moments there. It is a struggle to get a clear reflection of your past because in one’s mind, the past can be brought into a wider perspective. It can also be beautified. The whole album is playing with this idea in one way or another.

3. Bye Bye
This is a subconscious intro into the next song (‘The Moon Will Never Turn on Me’). It was recorded through a laptop mic in the midst of the recording session. The song was written as a duet, and the only singer we wanted was Robert Plant. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so it ended up as a conversation between the split mind of one voice.

4. The Moon Will Never Turn On Me
When you realise that everything will somehow be ok, the world will continue spinning and you just have to sit back, let go and embrace every horrible thing that comes with it—this is ‘The Moon Will Never Turn On Me’. The song is in a way a reaction to the rest of the album. It was written in a big warehouse on the outskirts of Reykjavik. Everything sounded boomy and had to be made big to make sense in that space. We wrote it as a huge guitar anthem, but when we brought it into the studio, we realised it was the only song that didn’t ask for guitar so Júlía, Katrína’s sister, translated them into a cello.

5. Breathe Into Me
This song came together very easily, like it was written in a heartbeat. It’s a psychedelic pop ballad that plays the role of ‘the breather’ on the album. It has a slightly brighter tone, and is carefree and effortless, which is essential for the album to make a full circle. The song is about the brief moment right before the most intimate ritual.

6. Walls
Walls was the first song that was written for “Kinder Versions”. The lyrics are the result of images from a very strong dream.

7. What’s Your Secret?
Maybe this one is about the absurdness of what day-to-day conversations can turn into.

8. Pray For Air
We wrote ‘Pray For Air’ inside a tiny space with one open window. It’s about the big contradictions that appear when you have narrowed your thoughts down into a shady lane. The chorus lead guitar is saying everything that really needs to be said about this song though

9. Sorrow
Here, one’s current existence has become a threat to the past one. They play seek and hide for a while until letting go and leaping into a threatening, but oh so exciting new area.

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