Dr. Gunni is an Icelandic music legend. These days he's busy the whole time it seems just keeping up his amazing website and blog which is updated so often that I'm ashamed and is constant source of great and unexpected MP3s. He's also a DJ on Icelandic radio and a regular on television, presenting the brilliant pop quiz, Popppunktur, which I have often considered a good enough reason alone for learning Icelandic. Then there's Dr Gunni the journalist; every fresh edition of Grapevine newspaper brings a new installment of his "History Of Icelandic Music". And then of course, there's his music. The good doctor has been a solo artist, a member of the bands Bless and the wonderful Unun and most brilliantly of all, the seminal eighties rock band S.H.Draumur. They're a unique band, if they sound like or influenced by anything it is possibly UK bands like The Fall or Joy Division. They supported the Sugarcubes in the U.K. in 1988. Probably the most exciting, enticing thing about Iceland Airwaves 2010 is that S.H.Draumur will play their first show for 17 years in Nasa at 11pm on Thursday. I could not resist asking (OK, begging) Dr Gunni for a little chat…

Hello Doctor , where are you right now and what are you doing?

I'm fine. I'm sitting in front of my computer in my office. Not listening to anything!

How many jobs do you have? As far as I am aware you are musician, journalist, radio presenter, tv presenter? Anything else?

I don't have any jobs. I just do stuff that I like doing. On top of the things you count up I've worked in a bank, a record store, but these were jobs. I've made Popppunktur board game (the second edition is coming out soon), wrote a children's play, and stuff. I keep forgetting what I have done. Ah yes, sometimes I also pose as a consumer watch dog.

Your "History Of Icelandic Rock" in grapevine has reached part 23, and has made it as far as 1985 – it will be huge by the time you reach 2010! Will the whole thing be compiled?

I guess so yes. This Grapevine thing is based on my book from 2001, but I will write another book about Icelandic rock music from 1956 – 2010. This will come out next year. It's based on the old book but will be completely different also.

What was the greatest year, or your favourite year, in Icelandic music history?

1981 because my youthful brain was so acceptable. Also there were great records coming out: Þeyr, Purrkur Pillnikk, Fræbbblarnir, Taugadeildin, Fan Houtens Kókó. Totally great stuff!

So, the big question, how come so many exceptional bands and so many just plain good bands come from this island? The town I am from in England has a similar population but has produced nothing of note musically. What's the secret?

Ah, the question that EVERYBODY asks. There's no real answer to this. You can either be chauvinistic: It's because Icelandic people are so great, or mystical: It's because of the nature – but neither is right. Maybe it's a mix of many things, the way Icelanders are, the isolation of the country, the freedom and lack of discipline for young Icelandic people… Something like that!

I bought your solo album, "Stori Hvellur", during my first trip to Iceland Airwaves, and I still love it. Do you have a favourite song or band you've been involved in?

S. H. Draumur is the best band I've been in because we were at the right age when we were in the band. Goð is the best album I've done. My 1997 children's album Abbababb! is quite good too and the Unun stuff is fine. All the other stuff is pretty good too!

The resurrection of S.H.Draumur is the big story of the Iceland Airwaves 2010 line-up. This will be your first show for 17 years. How did it come about?

The band split in 1988. We did a failed attempt to re-release our stuff on CD in 1993 and did one show, which was fine. The CD was crap though, the sound was bad and the booklet got fucked up. The band has since disappeared from the collective consciousness of Icelandic music lovers, best shown by the fact that God only scored a number 198 last year when a book about the best Icelandic albums was release. We just want the recognition we deserve! Also my friend Grimur Atlason is the boss of Airwaves now and when he offered us to play and Kimi Records wanted to do the CD, all the puzzles fell in the right places. Also "17 years" is mentioned in the song Glæpur gegn ríkinu (Crime against the State)!

There will be 5 or so other bands playing at Iceland Airwaves at the same time as you – so why should people choose to see S.H.Draumur?

If I need to tell them they can just piss off for all I care.

Have you seen the festival line-up? What other bands are you excited to see?

The line up is overwhelmingly great. I have most often been too lazy during Airwaves but now I wanna go see lots of stuff. To name only five bands I wanna go see TIMBER TIMBRE, a band I fell in love with after hearing one of their tracks on tv show Breaking Bad, CROCODILES, a cool rock band. I would have gone to see OH NO ONO, but unfortunately they play at the same time as us. SKELKUR Í BRINGU is a fine Icelandic art-skuzz band (I don't know what that means but they're good), NÁTTFARI is a cool band which could have been nearly as big as Sigur Rós, had they kept on (the split and are reforming now) and so on…

And finally, you wrote a guide book last year, so how about a few local tips for the festival first-timers?

Hmmm… Go get coffee at Mokka or Kaffismiðjan, go swim, i.e. at Sundhollin (not in the Blue lagoon – it's a rip off!), go to the flea market at Kolaportid and get some weird food samples like rotten shark at the food court. Also check out record stores Havarí, 12 tónar and Smekkleysa, and the 2nd hand store Lucky records and Geisladiskabud Valda!

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Read Dr Gunni's own article from a recent grapevine about the band here.

As well as the main show above, S.H. Draumur are playing at Havari store on Thursday at 4pm.