All In — The 30th Anniversary Interview

HOST — Ívar

So here we have Steinar and Hössi—have I got that right?

TINY

Tiny. Tiny.

HOST

Yes, exactly. Jesus Christ. That's a good start, man. Fantastic start. First of all, welcome to Bylgjan.

BAND MEMBER

Thank you very much.

HOST

I think this is actually the first time you've all come in here together to talk about the band as a band. One or another of you has stopped by before, of course.

BAND MEMBER

Exactly.

HOST

Sölvi—thirty years. How does that feel? It certainly makes time seem short, doesn't it?

SÖLVI

Yeah. It goes by incredibly fast. But it's just an amazing gift to get to be doing this thirty years later. I obviously never would have believed it.

HOST

No, no. Because you guys broke up and everything. You probably never intended to do anything again.

SÖLVI

No, no. We never intended to do anything again. And when you start out in 1996 in some garage in Vesturbær, you don't imagine that thirty years later you're going to be standing in Laugardalshöll playing in front of five thousand people. But life is strange like that. And it's just unbelievably fun.

HOST

And of course you have been performing every now and then over the years. We were just thinking back—you played Þjóðhátíð in 2016, for example. And then there was that big festival at Hella where I saw you. I honestly can't remember what year that was.

BAND MEMBER — Steini or Tiny

Besta útihátíðin.

HOST

Right.

BAND MEMBER

There were something like ten or twelve thousand people there. About twelve thousand. So we're pretty used to playing in front of a lot of people. But this is different, because it's the thirtieth anniversary.

HOST

So this time people are specifically coming to see you. These are your fans.

BAND MEMBER — probably Sölvi

Exactly. And it isn't only the concert. We've also been putting out a new song, and we're planning to put out an EP—a four-song EP—and various other things. So it's a whole package. It's a celebration.

HOST

So are you planning to take some time now and maybe keep celebrating it with more releases?

BAND MEMBER — Steini or Tiny

Absolutely. And it's not only that. It's somehow… when we've gone and played these festivals—like Besta útihátíðin—we were really surprised by how many people came. There was basically a line all the way from Reykjavík. Twelve thousand people showed up, and we were just standing there thinking, "What the hell is going on?" But now it's different. We're putting on this concert ourselves, and we're taking care of the whole production ourselves—the whole back end and everything. It's the complete package. We've never put this much into a show before.

HOST

And one of the good things about being in the Hall now is that the equipment is so much better than it was back in the old days. We've seen that at a lot of the big concerts there recently—[two artist names are unclear in the audio]—the sound is just insane. I'm really looking forward to experiencing that.

BAND MEMBER — probably Sölvi

We're putting quite a lot into the stage itself. We're making the stage bigger. And we're working with probably some of the very best people in the country when it comes to lighting and all of that. I don't want to give too much away, but we're doing things that haven't been done before. I'm really looking forward to just pulling out all the stops. We'll have all the major songs, and… yeah. This is a show. It's going to be a huge show. When we came back from the U.S. tour in 2002, we played Laugardalshöll and sold it out—which wasn't exactly a common thing at the time.

HOST

No, absolutely not.

SÖLVI — likely

And back then it was just one drum kit, a guitar amp and a bass amp. That was it. Now it's gotten to the point where you practically have to call NASA to put the whole thing together…

BAND MEMBER

We've got a full-blown band and everything.

ANOTHER BAND MEMBER

Yeah, yeah. A full-blown band.

BAND MEMBER

And then there's all the technical crew involved in it, too. That's been incredibly fun. We had a meeting the other day where we were going over what the whole thing is actually going to look like. And you start getting excited when you see it all being drawn up—what the stage is going to look like, the lighting rig, and more and more stuff being added. So people aren't just coming to see us standing there with playback and some DJ behind us. We've got an entire setup. We've got a band behind us. We're really putting something into this. It's the thirtieth anniversary, and we want to leave people with that wow factor. We're just going—as they say—all in.

HOST

Thirty years is also a fun anniversary. You've matured a little by that point. But you haven't reached some ridiculous old age yet.

BAND MEMBER

A little bit. A little bit.

HOST

You're not too old yet! And you guys also seem to be in a really good place with it. You're clearly having fun doing this.

BAND MEMBER

Yeah, absolutely. We have so many songs, and we're really grateful for that. We were fortunate enough to have a lot of memorable songs. And we've had absolutely amazing fans who have stayed loyal to the band all these years. Think about that.

HOST

And I was also thinking—you obviously had a huge number of fans overseas.

BAND MEMBERS

Yeah, yeah.

HOST

Do you think you'll do anything more for them? Go back and serve that audience more?

BAND MEMBER

A lot of them are actually coming to the concert.

HOST

Really?

BAND MEMBER

Yeah.

SÖLVI — very likely

And it's just so strange. If you had said to me when we were in that garage in '96 that we were going to go overseas, meet Eminem and Guns N' Roses, play with this artist and that artist, work with Cypress Hill and Prodigy—all of my favorite artists—I mean, that's insane. That simply wasn't even within the realm of possibility in our minds. Our number one, number two and number three priority was just having fun.

HOST

Exactly. But what was it like once you actually were in that position? Because while you're in the middle of it, everything somehow starts to feel normal.

BAND MEMBER — Steini or Tiny

Yeah, we just… It seemed completely natural to us.

ANOTHER BAND MEMBER

Yeah. None of it seemed strange to us. But then it hits you afterward, you know?

HOST

Yeah. Then later you think, "Hang on a minute. Maybe that actually was pretty crazy." And speaking of all the attention there's been around Icelandic rap and everything—shouldn't somebody really make a documentary about your career?

BAND MEMBER

Yeah, they should.

HOST

Isn't there something like that happening?

BAND MEMBER

Yeah, yeah. It's actually in the works.

HOST

All right. So you mentioned September 19th. We're not exactly here just to plug the concert—[short phrase unclear in the recording].

BAND MEMBER

Yeah, I think so. Somebody told me that.

HOST

I just thought it was such an obvious opportunity to finally get you guys in here for a conversation, because I've never actually done this before. So this is a bit of a milestone for me as well.

BAND MEMBER

It's great to come here.

BAND MEMBER — joking

You're a legend, obviously. And Bylgjan. We were always a little more on the X977 side of life, but isn't it appropriate that we finally do a Bylgjan interview now?

HOST

I think it is. It's a little sign of maturity.

BAND MEMBER

Maybe it brings out the best in us.

HOST

So—the new song you're putting out, and then September 19th. For anybody who's interested or thinking about going, I encourage you to go online and check out the event and the tickets. It's the thirtieth-anniversary concert. And judging from what I'm hearing, this perhaps isn't necessarily the last thing you guys are going to do?

BAND MEMBER

No. Who knows?

ANOTHER BAND MEMBER

Who knows? The future will tell.

BAND MEMBER — probably Sölvi

This is going to be unique. I don't think you're going to see another Quarashi production quite like this again—where we go into the Hall and we're taking care of everything ourselves from A to Z. That's one of the exciting things about it. It's completely different when you show up at an outdoor festival and you basically just arrive and step into whatever is already there, you know? But it's been genuinely enjoyable being involved in the entire process.

HOST

Exactly. Well, thank you very much for coming. And the new song will be heard in the Hall on September 19th, along with all of your greatest songs. Thank you.

QUARASHI

Thanks for having us.