Samaris - Fairy tales and dreams beneath the ice

We meet Jófríður Ákadóttir a few hours before the show that saw her band Samaris perform at Circolo Magnolia in Milan, on a mild late-summer day. The impression is that of being in the presence of a genuine ice fairy: piercing blue eyes and pale skin contrast with her lively gaze and the constant smiles crossing her face. Before starting the interview, there's time for a quick exchange in which I share my conviction that a kind of magic pervades Iceland, its people and its places, citing as evidence what's shown in the Sigur Rós documentary "Heima". Her reply is initially deflating: "anyone can look good with a camera in hand, they nailed the perfect locations and shots, but it's still just a film." Then, though, she adds: "Either way, I'd suggest you come visit us, you wouldn't be disappointed. For sure, our houses are at most two storeys high, I was genuinely shocked at how tall your buildings are. And, please don't take offense, but also at how ugly they are!" Full agreement on that. Now, we can begin.

Can you start by telling us something about yourselves? Not much is known out there…

We founded this project in 2011. Áslaug and I already knew each other and had been wanting to venture into something we'd never done before for a while. We got in touch with Þórður, who was an old friend of hers, and asked if he'd like to join in: he set up a meeting with us a few days later and we got together to discuss what we wanted to do. It felt like things could develop well, and that's indeed what happened: the result of that is Samaris today. Everything is still going well even though we're quite different from one another: Þórður, for instance, can be pretty disorganized at times, partly because he comes from a much more anarchic world than the one Áslaug and I are used to. His interest in music, though, is fantastic, and he's also really good at creating those sounds with a computer, something I don't think I'd ever be capable of. This clash of personalities is genuinely interesting, and it's also the key to our collaboration.

So you were all three already active on the scene before you started collaborating?

Yes, Áslaug and I played together for years at the Conservatory, a decidedly traditionalist environment with a pretty rigid view of music, while Þórður had already been working in the techno world for a few years. I, for that matter, had already released two albums with the folk project I share with my sister, where I also play guitar (she's referring to Pascal Pinon, ed.), so, all very different experiences.

How did you get there, and how hard was it to reach this balance, both human and artistic, between the three of you?

I think it's a very important aspect of our collaboration, and of artistic collaborations in general. Managing to work together can become stressful, and it's never easy, especially at the start, but at the same time it's something really interesting. The decisive thing in our case is that there's no leader, no number one, and that matters: you have to be able to set your own ego aside, to accept heading in a certain direction even when you're not entirely convinced, if the others are sure, but also to be honest about it. You have to find a balance, it becomes a bit of a challenge! In our case, the secret is to develop as much as possible all the ideas that are shared by the three of us, but it's a decidedly more spontaneous thing than a calculated one!

Why did you decide to debut with a collection of previously released tracks?

Actually, we had a new album of entirely new material set for release, but in the end, after talking it over with the label, we decided to push it back. That's because putting it out in summer would have been counterproductive: it's a season when the urge to relax and unwind peaks, and the urge to work fades away in a particular way. So we agreed with the label that it would be better for both of us to wait and release the album this coming winter: so, to fill the "gap", we came up with the idea of putting out in a single release two EPs we'd put out in Iceland in 2011 and 2012 respectively, which the people at the label had liked a lot. There's another reason behind the choice too: these tracks are the ones we worked on over the last two years, but they're very different in mood from what will end up on the new album. We wouldn't be able to work on material like that anymore simply because it no longer represents who we are, so we wanted to take the chance to put it out while it still did represent us. Besides, the two EPs came out in extremely limited runs given the few resources we had, so if we hadn't released the compilation, those tracks would probably have been lost forever.

So you have a new record on the way?

Yes, we'll finish it by the end of the month and it will probably come out next January, again on One Little Indian.

When you founded the project, did you ever expect to see your music spreading across Europe after just two years?

No, absolutely not! When you start something you can never make predictions about what will happen. We started out with the sole goal of having fun, but I have to admit it's exciting to know that people are listening to and enjoying what you do. Another curious thing is that our music is reaching places we don't actually know, since we've travelled very little outside Iceland! This is our third experience in a European country, and I have to say it's strange to think that your music is known by people who live in places you've never even set foot in!

And do you think this unexpected fame has changed, or could change, anything about you, as people and as artists?

I really hope not! When you start out you always do it with the best intentions, but then it's very easy to lose your bearings, maybe even unconsciously, once you start travelling and playing, people start appreciating what you do and asking you things, and the label starts expecting your record to sell a certain number of copies. In the end I think the secret is staying connected to what you had at the start: if you begin with nothing and then find yourself with everything you could want, I think it's important to keep working exactly as if you still had nothing. I really hope we're managing to do that, and keep doing it.

After the success of names like Björk, Múm and Sigur Rós, in recent years we've seen a real proliferation of Icelandic musicians reaching Europe. What do you think of this genuine explosion of musical Iceland?

I think it's a really great thing, it's a bit like it's become a sort of genre in itself lately, a melting pot into which every artist from Iceland gets thrown. And while on one hand that's a bit limiting, because it implies we all make the same kind of music, on the other hand it's definitely convenient to be placed in the same category as great artists like the ones you just mentioned, who are certainly major influences for the young bands emerging from Iceland. People who, incidentally, back home are still seen as completely normal - you can run into them on the street and stop to chat with them just like you would with a friend: and it's really strange to see that in Europe, instead, they're treated like idols you can't even get close to! That's how it works for us, everyone helps everyone else, and these artists who found fame in the past definitely keep helping the young, up-and-coming musicians a lot.

One Little Indian in particular is working a lot with Icelandic artists! How did you end up working with them?

They contacted us last November, after hearing us play at a festival in Iceland, and they immediately seemed very interested in our work. So far things are going really well, and I hope we'll keep collaborating harmoniously.

How deep is the bond between your music and the island?

Very deep, especially when it comes to the lyrics. Few people know this, and I think this is the first time we've talked about it in an interview, but almost all our lyrics come from a series of poems from our tradition. Works we try to bring back to life, which almost always date back more than two centuries, and which very few people know today. The nice thing is that they're written, obviously, in archaic Icelandic: modern Icelandic is already one of the least spoken languages in the world, and the ancient form is even more mysterious, so it's a bit like our lyrics hide secrets because of that. We really like that aspect, combined with the fact that we also choose these poems based on the sonic context, using them almost like actual musical instruments. In that sense the language is a huge advantage, because it blends really well with the instrumental base. The themes are also very tied to tradition, ranging from the human soul to nature - which, given the island's characteristics, we're also a bit frightened of - all the way to subjects closer to the spiritual realm. We're not that interested in religion itself, but in the mysteries surrounding it, which in turn sometimes shade into darkness, another theme that comes up a lot in the old poems.

Going back to what we touched on earlier (which opened the interview, ed.), do you think this aura of magic that we "Mediterranean" people tend to find in Iceland and its elements - the landscapes, the people, the language - has some basis in truth, or is it just a suggestion in our minds?

I don't know! Honestly it's a bit hard for me to say, being Icelandic myself - it would be like trying to judge yourself, which is almost impossible since you can't observe yourself from the outside! You should probably try asking someone who isn't Icelandic but who has lived in Iceland long enough to absorb it, and maybe try to find the source of this magic! In any case it's interesting - maybe it's because our country is quite far away and isolated, almost surrounded by nothing, since really there's nothing around it but ocean. It's also quite hard to reach, so we don't get people arriving and staying for two or three days for work and then leaving, and even for our own people it's often hard to move from one town to another. That probably makes everything a bit purer and less contaminated. It's also true that it's a very young country, one that developed quickly over the last century but was quite poor before that, just a collection of fishing villages and farming communities. And being isolated from the rest of Europe makes us somewhat detached from what's going on elsewhere - we're often surprised by things happening far from Iceland, trends, fashions, customs... We're a bit... out of this world (laughs), but I think that also feeds into this image of purity that others have of us.

To close, and looking ahead to the show you'll be playing in a few hours: what differences should we expect between your music on record and your live performance?

Not many, to be honest. First of all because part of our music is built on electronics, and those backing tracks are the same whether they're used in the studio while recording or on stage. Lately we've also been developing the use of electronic effects on voice and clarinet a lot: this allows for a much more organic approach, with Þórður effectively becoming the director of everything, having control over both the electronic-rhythmic backing and the effects. We don't have many instruments, so we try to make the most of using the laptop, while also avoiding reproducing what was recorded in the studio too literally. Still, at the core of our approach is the desire to have fun - that's a much more important aspect than many people think!

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