An Icelander Abroad: Andrea Kristinsdóttir Reflects On Her Successes So Far

New York-based Icelander Andrea Kristinsdóttir is an award-winning audio engineer, composer, sound designer. Currently she is working at Vox, the American media company famed for its explanatory journalism. Hired in May of this year, Andrea began as an audio engineer on their daily news podcast “Today, Explained,” but has since added sound design, composition and audio engineer credits on another Vox podcast, “Explain It to Me.”

An international Icelander

Perusing Andrea’s biography, I soon realised it’s more a question of where didn’t she grow up as opposed to where she did. Meeting up on a sunny evening in Brooklyn, New York, she breaks it down: “I was born in Iceland, and then when I was two months old we moved to Virginia, and when I was one we moved back to Iceland, and then Kenya at five, Japan six, seven Cambridge, nine New York, twelve Pakistan, fourteen Zimbabwe, no – twelve Zimbabwe, fourteen New York, and then Massachusetts, and then back to New York.” Her father’s job at the UN kept them moving, but despite the relocations her family would return to Iceland every summer. She tells me with a smile that staying connected to Iceland through childhood was “so amazing, so complicated, so beautiful.”

Andrea has held a long-blazing love for the audio medium. As a high-schooler she began work scoring student films and short films. Then, she got her start working in the New York studio system as a door-opener for a recording studio. With her foot (literally) in the door, she took a few tentative steps forward, asking to arrange the microphone, or to hit record — and the only way from there was up.

Since those early days, Andrea has scored numerous films, composed themes for celebrity interview podcasts such as “Storytime with Seth Rogen,” and worked as Recording Engineer for Marvel’s Wolverine: The Lost Trail, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and much more.

The past few years have included a handful of accolades: Webby Awards for “LeVar Burton Reads,” a Signal Award for “Blind Plea,” as well as Ambie and iHeart nominations. Andrea admits that she lives “in a perpetual state of hunger, of wanting more and more, going, going, going,” but adds that “it does feel really nice to take a second and acknowledge that things that I felt so far away from a few years ago are in the periphery of the work that I’m doing currently. That’s really rewarding.”

Iceland For The Radio

I’m incredibly excited to ask Andrea about a particular piece she made, centred on Iceland’s Ring Road. “Before Route One” is a piece made by Andrea for BBC Radio 3’s “Between the Ears,” which saw (or heard) Andrea, her mom and a producer travelling Route One counter-clockwise in four days. The trio stopped along the way to see family and friends, hear stories and collect audio, ending up with a piece that is sonically immersive and stunningly beautiful. Location recordings amidst glaciers and geysers allow for ambient water flow to be interlaced with oral histories and shared folklore.

“I wanted it to carry the love that I have for Iceland and how special it is to me,” Andrea says of “Before Route One.” “There are so many things that make it feel like Iceland… it’s a very specific lens and I just wanted it to feel as much as possible like Iceland — to carry as many voices, as many little stories,” she explains. “To paint as much of a picture as I could in sound of a place that is so known for its visuals was the interesting task.”

The stories heard from Icelanders encountered along the way bring about an incredible, almost nostalgic aspect of oral storytelling. I was struck by how well the piece captured the sincerity that comes with telling folklore; stories that have, for centuries, instilled in Icelanders respect for nature around them. In a time of elf-themed walking tours and souvenir figurines of trolls golfing, folklore isn’t often imparted sincerely or accurately to communities outside Iceland, which makes Andrea’s piece distinct and powerful.

“I think from the outside, there are all kinds of skits and jokes in popular culture, in the U.S. about it,” she says. “There is a fun element to a lot of it, but I don’t think there’s any of it that’s a joke. I think it is quite sacred and quite beautiful, and it should be revered.”

“Before Route One” is a piece where Andrea boasts presenter, sound designer and composer credits. “I think the beauty of podcasting and radio is that you can wear a lot of those hats, and it is a little bit more flexible than a lot of other industries,” she explains.

What’s In a Name

I first learned of Andrea Kristinsdóttir by hearing her (very clearly Icelandic) name in the credits of “Today, Explained.” Like many other Icelanders working internationally, Andrea’s name had been truncated at various points in her career, seeing her use the nickname “Andí” while her patronymic “Kristinsdóttir” was chopped down to “Kristins.”

“I think I wouldn’t get shortlisted for jobs initially because they would assume my English wasn’t as good or there was a foreign element — that was really problematic,” Andrea shares. “I noticed that change very quickly when I shifted my name. That helped me very early in my career to be able to get a foot in the door.” However, she’s using her full name these days, saying, “now that I have a little bit more behind me and under my belt, I feel like I can do this.”

Working on “Today, Explained” was the first time Andrea made the point of ensuring she’s credited with her full name. Upon that insistence, a host even stayed in the studio longer to do take after take of her name until he got it right.

“For me to just hear my full name feels so important, because for so long working in the States it had to be shortened and people haven’t wanted to put in the effort,” she shares. Using the name Andrea Kristinsdóttir holds twofold significance for her: “I know for myself, years ago, hearing a female name would have meant the world to me,” and as for Kristinsdóttir, “when you’re outside of Iceland, it’s really nice to have the full name, because it acknowledges your identity.”

So if you tune in to Andrea’s work, make sure to stick around and hear those end credits.

Listen to Andrea’s work on Vox’s “Today, Explained” and “Explain It to Me,” and access her past work from her website andikristins.com