I met Ásgeir Trausti on a hot July afternoon, before his open air gig at the Somerset House, supporting Of Monsters and Men. The courtyard of Somerset House was still full of tourists, the crew was testing the lights and Ásgeir’s entourage was walking around. We were looking for the best place to sit down and conduct the interview, and we decided on some stairs on the side of the stage. He was wearing black jeans, a jumper and a hat and I remember wondering how on Earth he wasn’t melting when I could barely survive the heat in a summer dress. Just before we started, he caught a friend and got a cigarette off him. Before I started to ask my questions, we had a chat about Somerset House and how there are always places in your city you’ve never visited. When he spoke, he came across not as nervous, but definitely shy. He was picking his sentences very carefully and delivering them in a charming Icelandic accent. It certainly felt like I was interviewing one of the more frontmen in history.
(((o))): How and when did you start making music?
Ásgeir: I’ve just always been into music and music has always been around me and my family. My mother plays an organ in the church with choirs and my father plays the accordion and some piano and both my siblings play some instruments and sing and stuff. So it’s always been around me and I went to school to learn classical guitar when I was 6 years old and I finished that education when I was 19, which was 2 years ago. I’ve always been into that and I started to write my own music when I was only 10 years old, just playing guitar and putting some bands together in a garage and playing some crappy music, and it’s just so much fun so you just keep on trying to make some more music… and now we’re sitting here.
(((o))): How did it all happen because it seems like it happened very quickly for you?
Ásgeir: Well, I’ve always been writing music, but eighteen months or so ago I contacted a producer with some demos I’d recorded on my own, just at home. I just decided to do that one day, because one of my friends told me I had to do something about my music, and I was just like, well, why not? Why not just try it? The idea for me was just to go into a real studio for the first time and record something, like, really well, but just for me and my friends. Then we just… started recording an album, like just out of the blue. When we were done we sent some songs to a radio in Iceland and it just got bigger and bigger.
(((o))): So what’s the music scene in Iceland like right now? We seem to be getting a lot of new, exciting music coming from over there. Is it easy to break into the scene and get played in the radio?
Ásgeir: It’s much, much easier than everywhere else because it’s such a small community and if you get into the music scene and get recognised, you suddenly just in a few day know all the people in the music industry. From that you know people in the radio, you know people on the television. For me it was like - we just started recording some songs and my producer, he had been in the music scene for a while and he knew all the people, and he sent some songs to the radio and they got played. It doesn’t seem like it’s that easy outside of Iceland! [laughs] Because there are only about three radio stations in Iceland... it’s so small!
(((o))): Did you ever imagine your career in music and how whatever is happening to you right now compares to that original idea?
Ásgeir: No, I never imagined myself being a frontman, ever. I never even imagined myself making an album. All of this stuff just happened. I’m just that kind of guy - I don’t believe in myself that much, which is a good thing sometimes, but yeah, it just happened, I had never imagined anything like this.
(((o))): You went on tour with John Grant recently and he was helping you translate your lyrics. How did that relationship work out? Did you start writing in Icelandic and he translated you or did you start writing in English…?
Ásgeir: When I write my songs, when I’m recording at home some demos, I always make the songs first and make up some nonsense lyrics, words that don’t exist, to get the feel of the song, how it would sound with lyrics, you know? I just put down some bullshit in a few minutes to be able to sing and see how it would be with lyrics, because those nonsense lyrics are a little bit like English. When I showed those demos to my friends and family they actually thought that I was singing in English, but that they didn’t understand it. So then I sent the demos to my father, who writes most of my Icelandic lyrics for me, because he’s an Icelandic poet and he’s been writing poems for ages. He has been writing some for my brother and he’s just really good at what he does. It has become sort of like a family project by now, which is quite exciting. The idea from the beginning was always that we’re gonna record an Icelandic version and an English version. When we released the Icelandic version, a few weeks later we were thinking how we could translate the lyrics and wondering who could help us with it. And then my brother, I think, told me that John Grant was staying in Iceland at the time. I actually hadn’t heard about John Grant until then [laughs] and I looked him up and I just thought he was really, really good. So we called him and asked him if he would like to help us with the translation and he listened to the album and was really excited and wanted to help us. So we just started to translate the lyrics and he helped us with it. Now the English version is complete and it’s going to be released in October.
(((o))): The acoustic session that you recorded in London - was that a part of the same story, or was it a different project?
Ásgeir: Yeah, that’s just the same thing. It’s just a stripped down version of songs that are usually really big, electronic songs.
(((o))): How do you imagine your career going from now on? What are your aspirations?
Ásgeir: I try to think about it as little as I can, and just try to go with the flow. I trust the people I work with and we’re all working on the same project, we all just wanna have fun and make it happen.
(((o))): If you were not doing what you’re doing right now, what would you be doing instead?
Ásgeir: Probably learning some more classical guitar in school, maybe teaching music. I don’t know.
(((o))): You already played with John Grant, tonight you’re gonna be playing before Of Monsters and Men. Who is your dream person to play with once in your life?
Ásgeir: [long pause] I’m really into James Blake, that would be quite exciting, and Thom Yorke. I always wanted to… Yeah, I think those two.
(((o))): Looking at how your career is going right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened soon!
Ásgeir: [shy laugh] Thank you!
