OK, I've run out of time – blame a few technical faults but mainly blame the incredible generosity of all 23 (TWENTY-THREE!!!) bands who made the time available to me to get a brief interview. I love them all, and hopefully I'll see them all over the next few days. I'm in Reykjavik and my festival starts in about 30 minutes with an FM Belfast in-store gig. Anyway, settle down for seven interviews in one go featuring… Jan Mayen, Atomstation, The Motion Boys, Gavin Portland, Sometime, Viking Giant Show & Vicky – what a line-up…

Hello Jan Mayen, where are you and what are you doing?
I'm (Agust – one of the guitar players) in school right now, learning about Icelandic history at the moment in the University of Iceland down town Reykjavík. It's quite boring today, but school is better than work. Especially nowadays when everyone’s talking about the possible bankruptcy of our great nation….

Who’s in the band?
Agust plays guitar, Valli sings and plays guitar, Viddi is on drums and Sveinn plays the bass – together we are the almighty Jan Mayen.

Blog readers have a short attention span, can you describe your music in 3 words?
Loud, pretty, party

Probably, 5 other bands will play Airwaves at the same time as you, so why should people come and see your show?
We're good looking guys and fun to watch – so that's ideal if you’re not in to music at all. If you’re into music on the other hand – we play tight, catchy guitar rock that could get your grandmother to move her hips.

What other bands will you try to see at the festival?
Skátar, Vicky, Æla (all Icelandic). Then we'll just walk around, checking out the different venues and see something new that will hopefully blow us away.

Everyone has an opinion, but how and why does the Icelandic music scene that seems to produce such a large number of good bands?
Because we live in a small city, the most fun thing to do is play music so Icelandic band practice a lot. And in Iceland everyone's making music for them self and not a possible buyer of your album. You know that no one's going to buy your album anyway so you make the music as weird, loud, noisy etc as you like. You make your own music your own way for yourself.

One more thing – has Nick Cave heard your song about him? Do you want him to? I have a friend who knows him!
We gave him our first album which "Nick Cave" is on when he was working on some music here in Iceland a few years ago. We don't know if he bothered to check it out – we haven't gotten a letter from his lawyer yet – but beside the song is not badmouthing him as a person. We love Nick Cave but he still is a real motherfucker. But if someone could arrange for him to listen to the song that would be great – I mean it's a great song about a great guy who just happens to be a real motherfucker.

Jan Mayen play on Saturday at 20:45 in the art museum.

Hello Atomstation, where are you and what are you doing?
We're just drinking downtown Reykjavík, and on our way to the studio to rehearse.

Who’s in the band?
Gummi – vocals, Prinz Grimsson – Guitar, LB – Guitar, Hrotti – Bass and Örri on drums.

Blog readers have a short attention span, can you describe your music in 3 words?
Rip, Rap and Rup?

Probably, 5 other bands will play Airwaves at the same time as you, so why should people come and see your show?
Because we take our shirts off!!

What other bands will you try to see at the festival?
Boys in a band, Vicky, Mammút, …every band with a female bassplayer! – and the ones playin’ at the places with the cheapest beer!

Everyone has an opinion, but how and why does the Icelandic music scene that seems to produce such a large number of good bands?
We have Lýsi to thank for that. Without Lýsi we'd be nothing!

Atomstation play at Hresso at 21:30 on friday. their new single 'Mace' is on their myspace page (link above).

Hello Motion Boys, where are you and what are you doing?
We're Motion Boys from Reykjavik city and we..re currently sipping on some champagne, watching the presidential debate, Obama is winning. We..re also writing a new song called Hope. It will never see the light of day.

Who’s in the band?
A guy called Biggi and he sings. A chap called Tobbi on keyboards. A man-machine on the drums called Bjossi 128756663. A cool cat called Galdur on the crotales and various sound modules. Then we have Doddi on bass and he..s big.

Blog readers have a short attention span, can you describe your music in 3 words?
Sophisticated,desperate and sophisticated.

Probably, 5 other bands will play Airwaves at the same time as you, so why should people come and see your show?
Because there..s nothing else interesting going on at the same time. Plus we..ve got a very talented young man called Ahimbri Djugaloo from Lagos playing with us on bongos and crumhorn.

What other bands will you try to see at the festival?
Dr. Spock, Eberg, Ghostigital, Kap10 Kurt, Jeff Who?, Sprengjuhollin, Gus Gus……..

Everyone has an opinion, but how and why does the Icelandic music scene that seems to produce such a large number of good bands?
Talk to Mani Svavarsson. He will probably have some answers.

Motion Boys play at NASA onFrida night (Saturday morning) at 1am.

Hello Gavin Portland, where are you and what are you doing?
In Reykjavik, avoiding sleep.

Who’s in the band?
Kolli, Þorir, Addi and Sindri

Blog readers have a short attention span, can you describe your music in 3 words?
Hardcore-Punk-Awesome

Probably, 5 other bands will play Airwaves at the same time as you, so why should people come and see your show?
Because they want something passionate and something they will remember when they go home.

What other bands will you try to see at the festival?
Maybe Fuck Buttons if I can be arsed…nothing else, really.

Everyone has an opinion, but how and why does the Icelandic music scene that seems to produce such a large number of good bands?
The same reason why any place produces good bands, Iceland is no different than, for example, Germany. There are loads of good bands coming out of Germany but no one thinks that’s worth talking about. People should be apeshitting over bands like Trainwreck, Perth Express, Yage and Louise Cyphre but they would rather try to find bands from obscure places that maybe not that many have heard about which is fair enough, I guess.

Gavin Portland's new album is called 'Hand In Hand With Traitors, Back To Back With Whores'. They will play at 20:45 on Friday at Hresso.

Hello Sometime, where are you and what are you doing?
Hi, hello I am in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Who’s in the band?
Danni, Diva De La Rosa, Oculus, DJ Moonshine and Noem.

Blog readers have a short attention span, can you describe your music in 3 words?
FRESH, DRUGGED and EXCITING.

Probably, 5 other bands will play Airwaves at the same time as you, so why should people come and see your show?
We play electro music live like nobody else ever, and Diva De La Rosa is AMAZING

What other bands will you try to see at the festival?
Yelle

Everyone has an opinion, but how and why does the Icelandic music scene that seems to produce such a large number of good bands?
Bad weather forces people to stay inside and you can’t watch the ceiling forever so why not make music.

Sometime will be ready to delight you at 20:45 on Thursday in Tunglid.

Hello Viking Giant Show, where are you and what are you doing?
At home drinking coffee and trying not to think about money, and it’s hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, and it’s a hard rains a-gonna fall.

Who’s in the band?
Me Heiðar; guitar, vox
Eysteinn; drums
Ingi; bass
Andrés; guitar

Blog readers have a short attention span, can you describe your music in 3 words?
Bittersweet and honest

Probably, 5 other bands will play Airwaves at the same time as you, so why should people come and see your show?
Because we wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. And we wanna get loaded. We wanna have a good time. And that’s what we are gonna do. We are gonna have a good time. We are gonna have a party. Party at the white house!

What other bands will you try to see at the festival?
don’t know, who’s playing?

Everyone has an opinion, but how and why does the Icelandic music scene that seems to produce such a large number of good bands?
Cause the music is the only thing they can’t take away from us. They have taken the money but they music is ours.

The Viking Giant Show play at Idno on Saturday at 21:30

Hello Vicky, where are you and what are you doing?
Hi! We are in Iceland, practicing our set and drinking skills for Airwaves these days… really hard!

Who’s in the band?
Five people from different places of Iceland. Orri on the drums, Ástrós on Bass, Eygló screams her lungs out and Eyrún and Lotta on guitars.

Blog readers have a short attention span, can you describe your music in 3 words?
Hard, melodic, rock!

Probably, 5 other bands will play Airwaves at the same time as you, so why should people come and see your show?
All the bands that play our night are so good, just go there and you can stay at one place all night!!  We'll have our debut album there for sale before it hits the stores and it's gonna be a show. Moustaches, mohawks, nudity, leather, booze… it's gonna be fun!

What other bands will you try to see at the festival?
hmm… we're gonna see all the bands that perform at our night, awesome line-up! Then there are so many good bands on the festival so we'll just walk around and see where we end up!

Everyone has an opinion, but how and why does the Icelandic music scene that seems to produce such a large number of good bands?
Not sure… the isolation? Might be because there is a big music scene for a small country so everyone wants to have there own style to stand out… and the nature – of course!

Vicky's album is in stores on the 16th. They will play on Wednesday at 20:45 in NASA and on Friday at 23:45 in Hresso.