Here's is an old interview with Nanna and Brynjar from January of 2013, which we've just translated. It appeared in Víkurfréttir, the local news magazine for the Suðurnes region in Iceland, which is where Nanna and Brynjar are from. A video of the interview can actually be found on YouTube. The print version of the interview is a slightly abbreviated version of the YouTube version. As many fans will immediately realize, Nanna and Brynjar did their awesome cover of "Kids" during this same session.
A lot has changed for OMAM since this interview was conducted, but we think fans will still enjoy reading it. Here it is:
January, 2013. Víkurfréttir have given their “People of the Year” award for 2012 to Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Brynjar Leifsson from Of Monsters and Men. Nanna, who is from Garður, and Brynjar, who was raised in Keflavík, are certainly well deserving of the award. They are members of Iceland’s most famous band, whose album was one of the most popular releases in the USA last year. Their fame has traveled far, and they have toured the world over in the past year. Brynjar and Nanna Bryndís talked about this incredible year in an interview with Eyþór Sæmundsson, journalist with Víkurfréttir.
How do you feel about being “People of the Year” in the Suðurnes region for 2012?
Nanna: It’s brilliant. We are very grateful. This is an honor.
In short, how has your year been?
Nanna: We started the year by going into the studio to work on the international version of our album. We recorded two new songs. In March, we started our first American tour. After that, we toured Europe, Australia, and ended up back in North America.
When the year started, you probably didn’t suspect that all this success was to come?
Brynjar: No, it became much bigger than we had dared to hope. It’s also a lot harder than I expected. I thought we would be able to sleep in until noon and relax, but we always had to wake up at 8 in the morning. The media has been demanding.
Nanna: We’ve been traveling all over the place. In the beginning, we were thinking how brilliant it would be to see so many new places. But we’ve hardly seen anything. We only see the areas surrounding the concert venues.
What were the highlights of the year?
Brynjar: That our album went gold in the USA; it sold over 500.000 copies. Also, playing Lollapalooza in Chicago and all these music festivals we had only heard of but never been to.
Nanna: There are so many memorable moments. For instance, at Lollapalooza somebody brought an [inflatable] cake and it ended up on stage. There were so many great moments that we had this year.
Any rock-n-roll moments during the year?
Nanna: Maybe one. I managed to break a guitar during a show. It was an accident, actually. I was hitting the guitar in beat with the drum, and my hand accidentally went through it. It may have looked like a rock-n-roll moment, but it was probably just lame. I’m clumsy.
How did your music career start here in Suðurnes?
Brynjar: When I was in the fourth grade, I began studying piano at the Keflavík Music School. However, I always wanted to learn how to play the electric guitar. When I was 12, I started taking guitar lessons from Ómar Guðjónsson, and took electric guitar lessons for 8 years. Every now and then, I would play with my friend Finnbjörn from Sandgerði. We hardly ever played for an audience, but we practiced a lot and had fun.
Nanna: I was pretty young when I started begging my mom for piano lessons. But she thought it would be simpler to give me a guitar, and enrolled me in lessons when I was 13. One thing led to another, and soon afterwards I started writing songs.
You both went to Fjölbrautarskóli Suðurnesja [FS, the high school in Keflavík]. Did you play live during that time?
Nanna: I kept putting myself in difficult situations by playing during school events. I was always trying to promote my original songs with the other students. Of Monsters and Men actually played in FS once, which was very memorable. Just as we were playing, somebody decided to give out free hot dogs, and people went crazy. I’ll never forget that.
How did Of Monsters and Men get started?
Nanna: I had been playing my own songs a lot, and decided to go on a tour around Iceland with a collective called Trúbatrix. I was shy and nervous about going alone, so I asked Brynjar to join me for the second half of the tour. It went so well that we decided to continue working together. Raggi joined later, and Arnar joined right before we participated in Músíktilraunir. At that point we decided to become a band.
Who were your main musical influences?
Nanna: I listened to The Cure a lot as a teenager. If I were to go back further than that, it would be some sort of nonsense.
Brynjar: There was a guitar with no strings at home when I was a kid, and I watched the Beatles movie “Help” over and over when I was 4-5 years old. The Beatles were my first musical love. I loved that album and movie.
Do you follow Icelandic music closely?
Brynjar: Yes, I would say that. I recently bought the new album by Ómar Guðjónsson, my old guitar teacher. It’s very good. We also listen to Moses Hightower a lot.
Nanna: Yes, we all listen to Moses Hightower a lot. Steini, who plays keyboards with us now, is a member of that band, so there is a strong connection.
Is there any Icelandic or foreign band or musician that you would like to work with?
Brynjar: I will be making an album with Kanye West. That’s actually not true, but it would be ridiculously cool.
Nanna: When we go on our European tour, Mugison will be opening for us. I’m sure that will be great. We might be able to play with him during sound checks. I’m a big Mugison fan, and I listened to him a lot when I was younger.
Is there one person who is in charge and writes all the songs?
Nanna: No, it’s very democratic. The band is where it is because of working together in unity. Raggi, Arnar, and I often bring the ideas for songs, but we usually work on them together.
Brynjar: There is no dictator in the band. Nanna and Raggi create the outlines for the songs, and we finish them together.
What’s next for the band? Are you writing new songs right now?
Brynjar: What’s ahead is lots of traveling.
Nanna: It’s very difficult to write when you’re traveling all the time. We try to find time between shows. That process is very different from what I’m used to. All of a sudden we have to be organized, but it used to be fairly chaotic.
Have you started planning your next album?
Nanna: I think everybody has some ideas, but we haven’t talked about what we want to do. That’s fine, because usually it works best if we let things happen. When we sit down and start working on the ideas, the outcome will probably be something new and different from what we originally planned. That’s what makes this exciting.
Do you consider yourselves famous?
Brynjar: Abroad, it’s maybe immediately after shows that we notice something like that. But that’s about it. I don’t think anybody knows who I am, not even in Iceland.
Nanna: I’ve seen a few fan pages that are dedicated to me. It’s strange that people are so interested in me.
How have your families reacted to all of this?
Brynjar: They have reacted well and have been supportive. I mostly feel sorry for my brother. People keep asking him, “What’s going on with your brother?” Recently, he created an alternative, imaginary brother named Gulli, and when people ask him what’s up with me, he messes around with them by referring to the imaginary brother.
Nanna: My family are very curious. I noticed that during the family Christmas parties. Other than that, they have not changed the way they act towards me. Everybody is excited and wants to know what’s going on.
Have you thought about how long your fame might last?
Brynjar: I haven’t thought much about it, but I’m aware that because it happened so quickly, it could be over just as quickly. The only thing one can do is enjoy it while it lasts.
Nanna: When we make our next album, we will make it the way we want it. That’s what we did for the first album. If that doesn’t work, we will still be able to look back and say that we followed our heart.
Does your record company give you freedom to do what you want?
Nanna: Yes, I would say so. Of course they are involved in all sorts of things, but in terms of music we have been free to do what we want. There has only once been any friction, and that’s when we were making a video for the song Mountain Sound. We rejected the original video, because we were deeply unhappy with the outcome. Originally, we didn’t want to appear in the video, but the record company wanted us to appear so that people could connect the music with our faces, which is understandable, of course. However, it didn’t turn out so great, so we didn’t use it. [Note: Nanna is talking about the original video for Mountain Sound, which has never been released or shown publicly. Of course, they did release another video for the song, in which the band members actually appear.]
If you weren’t in a world-famous band, what do you think you would be doing?
Brynjar: My dream was to attend FÍH [Icelandic music school] and become a music teacher, but then I realized I probably wasn’t good enough, so I gave that up. I want to continue to study music, and I would also like to become a pilot. Being a school teacher wouldn’t be so bad, either.
Nanna: I had just started art school when the band started doing well and I had to quit. I would like to go back later, and maybe also study philosophy.
Are you on your way to becoming rich?
Nanna: I used to work in a convenience store, and I would make maybe around 100.000 krónur [around $850] per month. My income is maybe 30.000 kr. [$250] more than that now. To keep all of this going, we need to pay everybody else before ourselves. There are so many people around us who keep everything going.
Brynjar: I still live with my mom and dad, and I think that tells the whole story. When we are on tour there are probably about 5-7 people with us. There are a lot of expenses that people don’t realize. Many people thought we were rich after we played Jay Leno. It’s not like that at all.
Nanna: We are the last people to get a piece of the cake. We have to make sure that everybody else is happy. Of course it matters, because we have to be able to make a living, but at the same time, we are doing what we had dreamed about. I’m not worried about becoming rich. We will be rich in our hearts.
Bulletpoints:
Of Monsters and Men set a new record on the Icelandic album chart. Their album, My Head is an Animal, was number one for 18 weeks, more than any other album since the beginnings of the chart.
My Head is an Animal reached the sixth position on the Billboard album chart, and was chosen as album of the year on Amazon.com.