Úlfur Eldjárn is already well known as a member of the legendary (there I said it) Icelandic act Apparat Organ Quartet – a band high on the list of the "must-sees" for this and many previous Airwaves festivals. This year, Úlfur is also playing for the first time as a solo artist and is working on more than one fascinating project that you need to find out more about. His kids have gone to bed, my kids have gone to bed. It's time for some Dad to Dad music chat…

Hi, where are you right now, and what are you doing?

I'm
at home. My kids have gone to bed and I've lit some candles and poured
myself a glass of my favorite cola-nut beverage. I'm sitting in front of
my laptop with earphones, listening to the master of my soundtrack for
the film Ash, before I send it off to the CD-manufacturing plant. By
plant I mean a factory. I don't have a plant in my home that produces
CDs. It'll be released later in the month. I'm really excited about
putting it out.

It sounds like you're going to be busy at Airwaves. How many performances will you be doing in various forms?

At least two official Airwaves shows. One with my band Apparat Organ Quartet, and the other a solo performance. We don't know yet if we'll do any off-venue shows.

You are performing as a solo artist for the first time at Airwaves, do you get nervous?

I'm starting to become really nervous about the fact that I'm not really nervous. I've played so many times with my band at this festival and I love everything about it, so I guess I'm more looking forward to it than worrying about it. Iceland Airwaves is such a joyful time for musicians in the Reykjavík scene. It's our Christmas. I try to look at it as a celebration and not focus to much on how bad or good I'm going to do on stage as a solo artist.

Your new record has been described as being inspired in part by the glory days of early synth music. Should we expect something like Jean-Michel Jarre?

It's still a work in progress so I'm not sure exactly how much Jean-Michel Jarre you're going to hear in there, but it's definitely influenced by his spirit and also the spirit of other pioneers such as Moroder, Vangelis, YMO, Kraftwerk… especially early Kraftwerk. I'm trying to marry the futuristic nostalgia I have for this kind of music with my love for classical music. But of course I'm not exactly trying to sound like the influences cited. My approach is more personal and perhaps minimalistic although it's also big minded. It's not really going to sound like Vangelis meets Wagner. That's just a part of what's going into the blender.

You have also recently launched a pledge campaign for an interactive string quartet project. Sounds very clever! Can you explain it to me?

Yes I'm trying to raise funds at the excellent crowdfunding site Karolinafund.com – I've written a string quartet that doesn't have a beginning or ending or any predefined structure, instead it's recorded in many little pieces that can be joined together in any manner that you like. For this I'm going to create an online platform where people play around with the pieces of the string quartet, join the together in any order they wish, or have them play many at a time. Compositionally there are infinite possibilities of reordering the material, hence the name, String Quartet no. 8 or The Infinite String Quartet.

The work is going to be free for anyone to enjoy online, but in order for it to work out I need to pay for programming work, some design and sound mixing work. The fundraiser should cover at least part of the costs.

It's a good cause to pledge to, because I'm letting people enjoy my creation for free. I'm experimenting with new ways of releasing and enjoying music. And anyone who pledges  gets some goodies in turn for their pledge. I hope you have time to check it out.

You'll also be appearing with your band, the wonderful Apparat Organ Quartet. Your shows are always a massive highlight – is it as much fun on stage as it is down below?

I've never been to an Apparat Organ Quartet show myself so I don't really know. But it's on our to do list – we´ve often talked about doing this – to hire some professional keyboard players to rehearse our songs and play for us, trying to imitate our show – including every move we make on stage – the best they can, so we can stay in the audience and try to understand what it feels like. But I really think it's going to be lot of fun for us. We're probably going to try out some brand new material, some new jingles and maybe even some new dance moves. This is always fun for us and I hope the audience will like it.

If you have time, what else are you going to try to see at Iceland Airwaves 2013?

There are so many acts and so little time. Two of my favourite bands in the world will be there and I'll try not to miss them: Yo La Tengo and of course Kraftwerk. Also I'd like to see Múm, one of the best bands ever to come out of Iceland. I'm curious to see what Daniel Bjarnason is doing live, what I've heard of his new record sounds amazing. I would also try to catch Sykur, another festival favourite, featuring my brother and frequent collaborator Halldór. Definitely going to try and see Love & Fog too. Then there's a new feature of the festival which is called Airwords – a whole evening of writers reading from their work. I'm definitely trying to catch my friend Ryan Boudinot who's coming all the way from Seattle to be there. Apparat Organ Quartet did a collaboration with him a year a go when we visited Seattle. We had him on stage writing instant poetry "live" to our music. I'm reading his novel now, Blueprints of the Afterlife. Such an excellent and imaginative work. I think it's going to be a really cool addition to the festival.

You can see Úlfur Eldjárn's Airwaves show on Saturday (November 2nd) in the Gamla Bíó theatre. He is also doing an off-venue show at the 12 Tonar store inside Harpa on Wednesday (October 30th) at 5pm.