Pink Street Boys, “Being Loud Is Very Important To Me”
iceblah
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What do you mean it’s only two weeks until Iceland Airwaves 2017? Where did the time go? Obviously this blog been busy watching the Icelandic football team but it’s fair to say that iceblah needed to be woken up.
There is no more effective band to be woken up by than The Pink Street Boys, officially Iceland’s loudest. They have caught the attention of, and been heartily praised by, Rolling Stone magazine, Drowned In Sound and this venerable blog. If you ask me to name 5 or 10 must-see bands for Iceland Airwaves (please do, I love writing lists), then these boys will surely be on it. Another good reason for the Pink Street Boys being the first band featured here this year is that they are almost certainly going to be the first band I see at Airwaves this year. I arrive in town at about 4pm on the Wednesday and they are playing an as yet unannounced (OOPS) off-venue show at 12 Tónar at 5:30.
I just spoke to Jónsi about noise and football and sewers and stuff like that. Oh, and their brand new album…
Traditional first question – where are you and what are you doing?
I’m at work eating lunch. I went to Bónus and got my self a salmon/shrimp salad to put on my Danish rye bread.
So you guys have been voted both “the loudest band in Iceland” and the “best live band in Iceland”. Is loudest always best?
Being loud is very important to me. Every spectacular show that I’ve been to has been really loud. Also RIP Lemmy says it’s cool.
Can I ask about your shows – they certainly are loud, and feel kind of chaotic or even dangerous. Do you feel like you have to be extra loud, as if the audience are going to expect it, like we want to feel our ribs rattling?
I think the reason we are loud is not only because we tune our amps to 11, it’s because of our playing style. Our practice room is a little bit smaller than the coffee / listening room in 12 Tónar so to be heard we have to be really tight otherwise it will just be chaos. So being really tight and turning up our amps makes us the loudest band north of Belfast.
How about a nice acoustic set in a bookshop or something?
That can be done but then we will have to play our country set.
Your newest song “wet”, comes with a pretty normal video about a naked chicken man living in a sewer. How did that happen?
That sewer used to be a hangout for some members of the band in their pre-teen years. The chicken man is a metaphor about how we feel towards life and politics.
And you have a brand new album due any day now don’t you? What can you tell us about that?
Yeah, the album “Smells Like Boys” should be out around Airwaves. Its a collection of songs we wrote after the success of our first album “Hits#1”. The songwriting hasn’t changed and neither have the lyrics, which you can read if you buy the record.
Are you football fans? You know that countries in the world cup usually get an ‘official song’, would you fancy that job?
We support Fjölnir from Grafarvogur. Their official song is terrible and i think we need to do something about that. But no we don’t really care about sports. UFC is fun.
You are definitely on my list of 5 must-see acts for Airwaves. Who is on your list for this year?
If Skelkur í Bringu, Singapore Sling or Godchilla are playing I’ll check them out.
Last one, what’s your advice for people visiting Airwaves and Iceland for the first time?
Hot dogs taste the same wherever you get them. It’s going to rain at some point. Don’t be rude unless you are funny.
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That, people, is some sound and wise advice. You can, you must, catch The Pink Street Boys on and off venue during Iceland Airwaves 2017.
