múmweb September 2002

Interview by Tom Williams.



Interview with Örvar from múm (Part I)

The Rotunda, Philadelphia, Pa.

July 23, 2002

How does the creative process change with you and Kristín living in Berlin and the rest of the band living in Iceland still?
- We haven't had much of a creative process since we moved, actually. We only moved last December and we had finished the album so we took it pretty slowly since then. We only did the score to the Battleship Potemkin and then we went home for a week to Iceland to do that. We also played some shows and then Gunni came over just to practice. The week before this tour we went to Iceland to practice for this.

You recorded two versions of Finally We are No One, one with the lyrics in English and one with them in Icelandic. Is preservation of culture a concern for you guys -to not become Americanized?
- Preservation of Icelandic culture?

Yes.
- It is very important to us, but still, I don't think this played a big part, was the main reason for doing it. We wouldn't probably have done it if it wasn't, it was so easy for us. We did it because we could and when we recorded the vocals in English we have so few songs with vocals that we did them in Icelandic as well. And also because most of the titles and stories and such were originally in Icelandic so we wanted to.

Gunni has been quoted as saying that he is pleased with the fact that older people in Iceland like Múm's music as well as younger people. Is that something you are proud of as well?
- Yes of course. That's very good.

How much of the album was finished before you went up to Hog Lighthouse to record?
- We had maybe 25 or 30 almost songs or ideas and we took all that up to the lighthouse.

The remote nature of Hog Lighthouse, did that have an affect on the way the album sounds?
- It probably did, but it's pretty hard [to quantify]. I can hear it in it, but I can't dissect it really.

A lot of the press coverage you guys get compares your sound to Boards of Canada. I was wondering how you feel about those comparisons?
- I don't know. The press is always comparing someone to someone. I really like the music has the right to chill things.

Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, that's not the first film that you've done a score for, if I'm correct?
- It actually is. We've done improvisations to other films, split films with other artists but this is the first time we've actually done a new score.

What was the attraction to this film in particular?
- We actually chose the film by chance. I had seen it some time when I was a kid but I didn't remember anything about it. Maybe it was because we wanted to go in a very different direction form both of the films we had done earlier and also just from the things we do normally. We wanted to have a challenge to make some kind of a new sound for us.

Does the whole band enjoy the film?
- Yeah yeah yeah yeah. It gets better the more you watch it.

Have you performed the whole score before in rehearsal's or in Iceland beforehand? a performance?
- We played it in Iceland once, yeah. We played it in Iceland once in February and now we're playing it on Thursday.

How did that go when you played it in Iceland?
- It went fine. We weren't really very prepared for it entirely. We improvised a few bits in the middle and it all went very good.

Do you like the improvisation along with the film?
- Yeah, no yeah. Afterward I was really happy with those parts of it, so we probably keep things open as well now when we play it in New York.

Do you do that during all of your live shows?
- No. Mostly if we do it it's in tiny places, in between places.

You had some problems with your previous record label in Iceland. The fact that Sigur Ros was already signed with FatCat, did that sort of make you guys feel comfortable going there?
- What made us comfortable for going to FatCat was that we had been friends with them, with Dave and Jamie, for two years. When we actually signed the contract we had known them for long and it's a very good situation and we trust them.

There's a lot of trust there?
- You can just see from all of the good stuff that they put out.

What's it like for you being what 21?
- No, I'm 25.

Being 25 and having Jarvis Cocker and the guys from Mogwai coming out and saying that they appreciate what Múm is doing, your music?
- [Expression of dissatisfaction]

It's no big deal to you? You just make your music?
They are just normal guys as well, you know. Most people in music like some kind of music.

Do you think that living in Berlin, you draw some sort of inspiration from the city from different sources? - Maybe, yeah. A lot of the German electronic artists in their interviews and stuff talk about how they feel the architecture, the atmosphere of the wide streets and how that affects their music. Coming there you can well … I could imagine what they are talking about.

So you in particular like that city? What was it that appealed to you about that city as opposed to say somewhere in Denmark?
- The thing is we were in Denmark before. Me and Gunni were just losing our apartment in Copenhagen. We were trying to find a new one there and we had just two days to either find a new apartment in Copenhagen or do something else and we had all of our equipment and we just packed it into a car because somebody said come down to Berlin because there are lots of cheap flats here. So we came down and we just found out what it was.

So you plan on staying there for a while?
Yeah. Definitely.

Is there any particular works of literature that you guys are fond of at the moment?
- Kristín is very much into Richard Brautigan. I'm very much into him as well.

Is there anything you're looking forward to the rest of this American tour?
- Yes, seeing things outside the car window. We'll be driving the whole way. We're playing 18 dates.

You guys have someone else playing drums with you this tour, right?
- We've had Adam Pierce from Mice Parade playing the last six or seven shows, but he was filling in for [the usual guy]. In Europe we played with this drummer Samuli Kosminen. Finnish. Adam comes back when we go to Japan. We play there the 17th and 18th of August.

Thank You.
- Enjoy the show





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