Interview: Arcane Roots
We took some time out. We toured a lot, we did a lot of records, and we worked that band as hard as we could at the time. It was just clear that we all needed a break from it. So we took that break, and then we came back and started writing with Bjarni. Daryl started getting into the fold, and before we knew it there were five of us instead of three, and it's a whole kind of rebirth of the band. Totally different dynamic now, and we're having a great time.
Photo: Jez Pennington
Jody Dunstan sat down with Jack and Bjarni of Arcane Roots at ArcTanGent 2026 to discuss the band’s rebirth as a five-piece, ten years of Melancholia Hymns, and the making of their new EP, A Wave Across the Sea.
E&D: Nice to meet you guys, please give us a quick intro.
Jack: Hey, this is Jack and Bjarni from Arcane Roots.
E&D: So you’ve been away for a while? What’s happened?
Bjarni: Well, I was never in the band, so. . . I’m the new addition for these guys!
Jack: Yeah, we took some time out. We toured a lot, we did a lot of records, and we worked that band as hard as we could at the time. It was just clear that we all needed a break from it. So we took that break, and then we came back and started writing with Bjarni. Daryl started getting into the fold, and before we knew it there were five of us instead of three, and it’s a whole kind of rebirth of the band. Totally different dynamic now, and we’re having a great time.
E&D: Was it just a timing thing then, or had the band run its course?
Jack: I think anyone who’s done the band thing knows how much it can weigh you down. We absolutely loved doing it, but to a degree you have to put the rest of your life on hold when you’re doing a band like that, and we were touring non-stop. It became clear that there were other things people wanted to do, and we didn’t feel like there was room to do both. So it felt easier to just pause everything and take the break, instead of trying to do both and failing at both. So we took the break and everyone did what they wanted to do.
E&D: I guess if you force yourself to keep doing it, it probably comes across, doesn’t it?
Jack: Yeah, it was the right thing to do. I think everyone feels a lot better coming back now. We feel energised and excited. Like I said, it’s a whole new thing to what it was. So yeah, we’re having a good time.
E&D: So Melancholia Hymns is ten years old now, how does that album feel in retrospect?
Jack: It feels wild. I don’t know where that time went, but that makes total sense. I’m still super proud of that record, it took everything out of us. We worked so hard on that record, harder than we probably allowed ourselves to really tell people, the feelings we went through to get that record done. It was crazy. We were all really proud of it, and the fact that it’s ten years old now is crazy to me.
E&D: It’s one of my favourite albums.
Jack: Thanks so much.
Bjarni: It was a great album.
E&D: And it hasn’t aged much, I don’t think.
Jack: I think that’s awesome. I still enjoy listening to those songs when I do, and it’s been really fun playing them with the new set-up. Because we put so much onto the record itself, it’s been really fun exploring how to reimagine that with a five-piece, especially with Bjarni on keys. And then Daryl being able to do different soundscapes and the electronic drum parts, it’s opened up so many doors for the live show.
E&D: So you are feeling refreshed?
Jack: Totally. We’re now able to do things we could never dream of doing before on stage.
Photo: Jez Pennington
Bjarni: Yeah, adding sections to things and letting the hard creativity take over as well, trying to bring new things in every single time we play them.
E&D: Bjarni, how did you meet the band?
Bjarni: Andrew, when he moved after the band split, he moved to Iceland, that’s where I’m from. He ended up renting a studio next to mine, in the studio complex in Reykjavík. We just started chatting and making music together, and I don’t know how that happened, but it just did. We ended up bringing it to the band, and that’s how it started. So I didn’t meet these guys until last year.
Jack: We’d already done the track. [‘A Wave Across the Sea’]
Bjarni: So the first time we met was when we were setting up for our first practice for 2000trees – we’d never met!
E&D: I hope you get on with them then!
Jack: We do!
Bjarni: So it was a bit like, are we gonna hate each other?
Jack: Basically, yeah, the first day at school vibes. The first time we met was when we were doing a photo shoot.
Jack: Which is actually arguably more awkward. It’s like, “Nice to meet you.”
Bjarni: Hey man, how’s it going, mate? Don’t smile! So it’s been an interesting journey.
E&D: So the track ‘A Wave Across the Sea’, please talk us through that, there are some different versions on the EP.
Bjarni: Yeah, it was a song that just kept on being developed. It got bigger and longer, bigger and longer. So we had to stop at some point and create a single out of it. That’s the point where we sent it to the guys. So Andrew and I had been cooking this thing for months, or years even. The alternative endings, we just felt like we had to release them because they were good. We spent so much time and effort on these sections. So it’s not really a song, but it’s a song with two choruses and three verses, and then a random ending. Sort of an odd one. It’s very proggy.
E&D: So I was thinking almost classical, where you have variations.
Bjarni: Yeah, that’s my background, film and classical music. Andrew liked the idea of playing with the form, so we thought about it as a film score, essentially. There’s a whole narrative story behind it, so we’re actually scoring a film in a way, or scoring a story or a scene. And that’s the way we’re trying to work moving forward as well.
E&D: It’s interesting, I asked the same question to Arnór from Agent Fresco: why is there so much creativity in Iceland?
Bjarni: There’s nothing else to do. It’s also isolated, and there’s less pressure. There’s no money in music, so people tend to do it out of passion rather than as a profession or a career. And I can hear it, people allowing themselves to just do whatever. It doesn’t always translate, but when it does, it’s good. I think it’s just space, and people have time.
E&D: It’s quite a dramatic place, isn’t it?
Bjarni: It’s very dramatic. You drive twenty minutes outside of town and there’s nothing. It’s just you, completely isolated. There’s barely any animals. So it’s stunningly beautiful, I suppose that has an impact on it. You can see it in Sigur Rós’s music as well, it’s very spacious and very dramatic.
Bjarni: And in Agent Fresco, I know Tóti [Guðnason] is a film composer as well.
Jack: And it’s got to be something in the water. Is it that sulphur?
Bjarni: That sulphur, yeah. It’s all that fart water we drink that makes us like. . .
Jack: And your skin is so smooth!
Bjarni: So smooth and shining, like elves!
Photo: Jez Pennington
E&D: So what’s next?
Jack: Well, we’ve got a show in London at the end of the year, that’s how we’re closing out the year.
Bjarni: Yeah, but in November.
Jack: Yeah, which is going to be an audio-visual show, bigger than anything we’ve ever done.
Bjarni: Daryl is the mastermind of that. His real job, other than being a drummer, is as a VFX designer, so he’s pouring his heart into this amazing screen we’ve rented at Outernet.
Bjarni: Yeah, just pushing it as far as we can. That’ll occupy us for the year.
E&D: So, the question I ask every band: who would you collaborate with, if you could collaborate with anybody? And why?
Bjarni: Oh wow, anyone. . .?
E&D: Yeah, anybody, living, dead or fictional.
Jack: Fictional! Fictional is incredible!
Bjarni: That’s too far. I’d probably collaborate with John Williams, the film composer. . . Just because, I mean, he’s the GOAT really when it comes to. . . I grew up with his music. I just want to see him work, see that brain, you know, writing all the music.
Jack: Yeah, I’ll get in on that!
Bjarni: Yeah, you can come watch.
Jack: You’re going to collaborate with John Williams, and I’m going to watch.
E&D: That’s your contribution?
Jack: Yeah, that’s my contribution. I’ll make the teas as well.
Bjarni: Jack likes to watch.
Jack: Yeah.
E&D: Is there anyone you’d like to collaborate with, Jack?
Jack: Erm, I mean, yeah, so many people I’d like to collaborate with. I’d love to get in on a Trent Reznor production, I’d love to get in on a Nine Inch Nails production. Speaking as a drummer, I’ve always loved Nine Inch Nails’ rhythms, and I love the sounds. So getting in on something like that would be incredible for me.
E&D: That’s interesting, two people in the same band and those are the two you’ve picked!
Bjarni: It’s two film composers as well, so. . .
E&D: Excellent, thank you so much guys, it was great to meet you.
Photo: Jez Pennington
