Interview

SOLSTAFIR

Mardi 26 mars 2013

Hi ! How's the tour going ?

Gummi : Hello ! Really well, really well.

How long have you been on the road ? How long is this tour ?

Gummi : I think it's twenty-three dates and then we do extra three or four after the tour before returning to Iceland. So almost thirty gigs for us.

You've toured massively since the past few years and not so much before I think...

Gummi : No it's getting more and more this year. We didn't really toured that much last year... No actually it was the year before that we didn't tour much because we were writing an album.
We kind of started this whole touring thing in 2009. We hadn't been touring since a long time ago basically.

How come ? Because the band started in 1995...

Gummi : Yep but we didn't play outside of Iceland until 2005 I think. It was the first time. It took us ten years just to get out of Iceland. And then it was building slowly at first I guess but now it's kind of escalating and we're touring a lot more.

© ChamO

Can you sum up your career a bit ? How was it like for the band before 2008/2009 ?

Gummi : It was kind of strange. We started out in 1995 like you said. We didn't even play live in Iceland until 2000 I think. There was no scene in Iceland, there was nothing. There were like three bands and no places to play. And even if you'd play, nobody would show up, because there were like ten people listening to metal in Iceland at that time. But then, this kind of hardcore/punk scene came along in Iceland and we started to play with those bands which I guess maybe has influenced us in a way. Then the scene evolved, it was quite strange, like black metal bands playing with hardcore bands or death metal bands. It was just too small to divide it. So from 2000 till 2008 or so, we were mostly playing in Iceland and a few gigs outside of Iceland as of 2005. In 2005 we released our second album. It was the first one on a proper label so I guess that changed things a bit although it was kind of slow. We've never been like the flavour of the day or the flavour of the month. We've never been the big thing. We still have a steady growing. I think that's what's the healthiest.

And what kept you going so long as a band without performing much ?

Gummi : Stupidity ! We were too stupid to create actually. We say that all the time, we should have created so many years ago. Most bands give up. Like I said, it took us ten years just to get out of Iceland. Most bands give up after five years or something if they haven't made it big. We're just stupid enough to love what we're doing. We love playing music, that's it. Of course, it's nice that people listen to your music and all that, and I know this sounds as a cliché, but we do it for the love of music, not for anything else really. And I think we've kind of proven that by doing this for such a long time before people even notice us. So yeah, that's the love of playing that keeps us going.

© ChamO

How do you like life on tour ?

Gummi : I actually quite like it because it's quite simple. You come to a venue, you know what you have to do. You just have to load in the stuff, do a soundcheck, then it's dinner, then you play, hang out a bit, load out... It's really simple. I had many jobs in my life, all kinds of jobs. I hated every single one of them, but this one, I mean I don't consider it a job, but I quite like it because it's simple. It's not always easy but it's simple.

Do you have any specific highlights from tour you could share ?

Gummi : From touring ? Well... I don't know. There are so many great things that happen all the time, and some not so great things. So highlights or lowlights, I don't know. But most of the time, it's quite... I wouldn't say boring but it's not as glamourous as people think.

Because every day looks like yesterday when you know what you do ?

Gummi : Yeah it's basically always the same. But then of course sometimes there are great parties and we have good friends all over and it's great to meet them.
Somebody said on this tour : "It's always either Friday or Saturday, and then once in a while it's Sunday". It can be a lot of fun.

You released tour last album in 2011. Are you working on a new one ?

Gummi : Yes, we are writing a new one. We started writing a few songs before this tour. I don't know about other bands, but we can't really write music on tour. We have to lock ourselves in the rehearsal room and just jam for hours. Like when we wrote the last album, we would show up at our rehearsal place at 10 in the morning, stay there until 4 or 5 in the afternoon and just do that five times a week. I guess we'll do some of that after we return home.
We are hoping to have a new album out early next year.

Do you have other future projects after this tour ?

Gummi : Making the new album, and then we've got some summer festivals and then we are trying to book our own headlining tour, but I don't wanna promise anything yet. Nothing is solid yet. But hopefully we will have our own headlining tour next winter.
Then record an album, get it out early 2014.

© ChamO

You're also a photographer, do you still do that ?

Gummi : Yeah I do. I guess it's like writing music, the inspiration comes and goes. You can't be creative all the time I think. Sometimes you have to kind of stay away from it for a while and then the creativity comes back to you. It's the same when we write an album and we record it, afterwards we feel basically just drained. You put all your efforts into it and when it's done you just kind of have to take a little break so to speak.

I saw on your Last.fm page you like Duran Duran a lot.

Gummi : Yep ! (laughs)

What other things are you listening to ?

Gummi : Right now I've been listening a lot to The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble