Every year, each new Iceland Airwaves brings with it a bunch of brand new vital sounding bands, and it also brings with it a great new array of fabulously named Icelandic bands. And sometimes, there is a band that fit perfectly into both categories. So, here are Vaginaboys – memorable name, memorable sounds and they […]
Every year as part of this series of pre Iceland Airwaves features I try to interview the winners of the annual Músíktilraunir competition (music experiments). The competition has an incredible record of finding brand new bands on their way up. I guess most famously of all with Of Monsters And Men in 2010, but there […]
Axel Flovent is a singer-songwriter from Akureyri who played his first Airwaves festival a year ago and is back again after a year that has seen him release a highly acclaimed EP, led by the fabulous ‘Forest Fires’ (you can hear it below) and tour around Europe. The stage is definitely bigger this year for […]
21 year old GKR is an up and coming hip hop artist from Reykjavík and one of a growing number of acts in that area and RnB getting a load of attention at home but also starting to get some outside of Iceland too. It feels like the scene, if that’s what it is, is […]
One of the more exciting aspects of Iceland Airwaves 2015, now just over 2 weeks away, is the return of the iconic Reykjavík venue, NASA. It’s going to be a real treat to get back in there having had more than a handful of incredible nights there in the past. I was always likely to […]
It feels like it has been a bit of a year for music comebacks. Blur are back with a new album which, in places, sounds beautifully like Modern Life Is rubbish. The Bluetones are coming back around again later in the year. Most excitingly of all, Nineties champs, the mighty Collapsed Lung have a couple […]
Just as 2 years ago, I couldn’t resist the late temptation to pay a quick visit to Reykjavík for the Sonar festival. The festival represents a very nice opportunity to see a good number of local favourites over the course of three days (actually, pretty much over 2 days, as there were very few local […]
Lily the Kid are brother / sister duo Lilja Jónsdóttir and Snjókaldur Svarfdal. Last Autumn they released their first E.P. and then played their first ever live shows at Iceland Airwaves. That's a nice start. Those shows received great reviews across the board, and they will be looking to follow up at their highly anticipated […]
Once again, thanks for all the voting. There were 70 votes in the end, the vast majority from outside of Iceland. It was really close between the eventual top three for a long time but thankfully, yesterday an order emerged (plus a fairly chaotic five way tie for 4th spot!). A lot of people have […]
2011: Sóley – We Sink 2012: Ghostigital – Division Of Culture & Tourism 2013: Sin Fang – Flowers I reckon we are pretty good at picking an excellent record, so let's do it again. I'm just about recovered from Airwaves and I'm ready to add up some votes and sometime between Christmas and the end […]