Jóhann Jóhannsson - The dark soul of modern classical

“Nice to meet you, my name is Jóhann and I come from Reykjavík. I started my career together with a bunch of friends, trying every which way to make the dirtiest European rock of the Eighties known back home. I didn't succeed, not as I wanted to anyway, so I decided to try the reverse path: to make isolated Iceland known to Europe, to bring the continent closer to the island. Together with two other friends I founded a label, Kitchen Motors, and I believed in it. It seemed impossible, but the present shows us that we made it. Today I make a living writing scores for Oscar-nominated films, and along the way I've also found time to record for Touch and 4AD, work with Marc Almond and Jaki Liebezeit, perform at the Beaubourg and form my 8-bit quartet”. This seems to be what this true prophet of Icelandic music, this living institution to whom we owe almost entirely the hype now surrounding every sound coming from the island of ice, tells us with his gaze when we meet him. This gentleman from another era speaks to us as if he were still the boy full of dreams he once was, his elegant clothing clashing just as much with his reddish beard and the remnants of the never-dead metalhead within him. We meet him just a few months before the Oscars, for which the extraordinary soundtrack he composed for “The Theory of Everything” is among the most credited nominees. He welcomes us warmly, even though time is short, telling us how many interviews he's had to give in recent months, too many for his taste and his shyness: “I'm still a bit Icelandic inside, I'm delighted with all this attention for my music, but I like it less when it lands on me personally”. He asks us to focus our questions on his latest projects and doesn't answer the few questions about his past. Thus leaving intact that aura of curiosity around his story, one of the most incredible and unthinkable of the last few decades of music.

I want to start by asking you something about your relationship with cinema, since you've been working a lot in the world of soundtracks lately…

What can I say, I'm a film buff and I take cinema very seriously. I consider myself quite lucky to have had the chance to work as a composer with so many important directors.

And where do you find the correspondence between music and cinema? And how do you relate, through music, to the images, dialogues and stories of the films you compose for?

The role of music in a film always depends a great deal on the film itself, but being able to serve the needs of the picture is certainly a factor of primary importance. A film is the sum of many components, and music can be, among these, one of the fundamental ones.


How did you get into the world of film music?

Through the classic scores of Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone: they are undoubtedly my earliest influences.

Let's talk a bit about your latest work, the wonderful soundtrack for the hugely anticipated "The Theory of Everything": how did you get involved in the project?

Quite simply, James Marsh, the director, contacted me and asked me to work on the score. I was immediately very interested, mainly because I was and still am incredibly fascinated by the figure of Stephen Hawking (whose life the film "romanticizes" through the love story with his wife Jane, ed.). And also because I love James's work, especially "Man on Wire".

Stylistically and in mood, this is quite different from all your previous work, starting with last year's "Prisoners"...

Yes, the two films show two different sides of my music. "The Theory of Everything" is much lighter and more accessible than "Prisoners", which is a much darker, more meditative and melancholy work. In terms of mood and atmosphere, it's much closer to what I usually do, unlike "The Theory of Everything", which is indeed much lighter and more melodic than usual. That's because it's the score for a warm, emotional film full of life, whereas "Prisoners" was decidedly darker: one of the things I love most about working with soundtracks is being able to play with different colors and moods. Besides, I felt the need not to fall back once again on the "usual" dark atmosphere I've been developing and evolving for years, and to create something that would broaden my range as a composer.

What does each soundtrack represent in your artistic journey? Do you see every new work as a new chapter in a single, linear path, or more as an additional piece of a less defined puzzle?

I don't like repeating myself, and I like to challenge myself by diving headfirst into things I've never tried before. I think it's quite easy to risk repeating the same thing too many times, with too little variation. But I definitely feel I have a fairly well-defined range of expression, within which I like to move spontaneously. I think there's an underlying logical and thematic unity to everything I do.

How much, and what, changes in your approach when you work for film or on "commission", compared to when you compose and produce your own solo albums independently?

Basically, I work the same way for both. Film music obviously has more defined parameters to respect. I could say that, in a sense, when I work for film I'm no longer really a composer as such, but a filmmaker in every respect. Your only duty, the only thing you have to focus on, is the film itself. But the "trick" is to keep your personality and individuality intact even while staying within those parameters. When I work on my solo material, I start from a blank slate, so it's up to me to create my own parameters and restrictions - in that sense the difference is substantial. But as far as the core writing process goes, it stays the same.

Has your way of composing evolved over the years? And how important, at the performance stage, are the collaborators you surround yourself with?

I always write alone, but when it's time to record or perform, I always work with lots of friends and collaborators. That's often the part of my job I enjoy most, when I manage to gather together lots of wonderful, talented people to play in a room together: it's something priceless.

About the past, I just want to ask you this. Before reaching such a huge audience as a composer, you spent years working on the cultural promotion of your homeland, Iceland, embarking on a mission that seemed complicated but ultimately succeeded. The explosion of hype around Icelandic music of every kind in recent years proves it. Now that you mainly work in Europe, how do you experience this massive export of Icelandic music? And what's your relationship with your homeland today?

Iceland is a fantastic place to make music, full as it is of sensational musicians and boasting an extremely active, vibrant scene. So I'm not at all surprised that, at last, so many Icelandic artists have managed to break through!

I'm curious to hear something about your new work with BJ Nilsen. You've collaborated with him a lot, on many projects, even though you started out as two completely different artists... What can you "reveal" to me about it?

It's another soundtrack, which I wrote and produced with Benny (Benny Jonas Nilsen is BJ Nilsen's full name, ed.). A decidedly close collaboration, even though it mainly took place through exchanging material remotely, through which we tried to forge a genuine hybrid of our styles. A wonderful experience - I really hope to work with him again soon!

I've rarely heard about you playing live... So let me wrap up by asking: what's your relationship with the live dimension? Any chance of seeing you perform "The Theory of Everything", maybe in Italy?

I love playing live, but I haven't had much time to do it lately because of all my studio commitments. I hope to play more this year, starting after spring, and since I love Italy, I'd really love to play there too.

(January 18, 2015)

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