Árstíðir, the eclectic trio from Reykjavík is back with a new single and music video, heralding a new musical approach for the band in 2023. Bringing Back The Feel is a song that delivers what is promised in the title. Along with the song’s tongue in cheek Music Video BBTF invites the listener to tap its feet, whistle and smile. Make a silly TikTok dances or call up their neighbours and tell them that they love them. Alongside the other song from their upcoming album BLIK (due in May 2023 courtesy of M.A.R.S. Worldwide Music), Bringing Back The Feel was conceived during a few intense months in 2020 when the world was self-distancing.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Árstíðir, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Icelanders more or less get into music at birth. It's ingrained in our culture to always be singing and expressing ourselves. Pretty much every single Icelander is either a musician, a poet, or both.
How did your band form? How do you know each other?
In the tightly knit music scene of Reykjavík pretty much everyone knows each other. People simply gravitate towards the ones that they resonate with and then dream up musical projects over beer at Kaffibarinn: a local bar co-owned by Damon Albarn.What brought us together was our shared passion for vocal harmonies, and the fact that we all have impressive vocal ranges that allow us to harmonize in interesting and moving ways.
Your latest song is 'Bringing Back The Feel'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
We wrote Bringing Back The Feel during the first covid lock-downs in 2020. The world was collectively in an emotional rut and we felt strongly that we had to bring back the feel in ourselves, as well as our listeners. The recording process was one of spontaneity and unabashed fun which led us to make some interesting decisions regarding the arrangement. At some point we thought“yeah, we've never recorded a piano solo before, so why not now!” And then we did.
How was the music video created? Where did the idea for it come from?
During the filming, did interesting things happen?Hitherto all our videos have been big productions where we work with the best people we know in the Icelandic film industry. We have often gotten ourselves into hilarious levels of complications like when we dragged a 160 kg ice statue of a polar bear up on the extensive Langjökull glacier in the highlands of Iceland for our music video You Again.But with Bringing Back The Feel we felt like extending the spontaneity of the recording process and manifesting it visually, so we simply dragged some of our friends along and roamed downtown Reykjavík for a day, shooting the entire thing on an iphone.
What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?
Hard to say, but it would surely pale in comparison with the life we're living now and the experiences that you have when you're in a touring band.
How do you know when a work is finished?
Hehe, usually when the deadline is upon us. It's an old trope, but it's also true: art is never really finished. It just gets released.With time we've learned to embrace deadlines and to appreciate that it's the art of the process which truly matters. When you spend too much time on something one tends to overthink things, and loose the initial magic that inspired you to write the song in the first place. True emotion hides in the small dents of imperfection.
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music?
Oh yes! Between the three of us we span a pretty wide field of hobbies since we're quite different personalities and passionate about different things. This, however, is the reason why we complement each other so well musically. Because we're so inherently different, whatever we end up creating together always becomes an interesting musical mix.
What is it about music that makes you feel passionate?
Music is the language of emotions, as well as the listening aid. It's both the cipher and the key to passion. By connecting to our emotions we become better musicians, and vice versa, and emotion has always been the raw material of our music.
Who is your favourite musician?
The three of us could never agree on one musician. But we are united in feeling that both Beck and Lana Del Rey are pretty amazing.
What are your plans for the future?
In the immediate future we have a string of new singles and music videos coming out, and then our new album BLIK drops on May the 19th.After that we look forward to an extensive and exciting touring cycle in order to promote the album. At the heart of things, we're a live band and a touring band, and so we hope to see you, whoever might be reading this, on the road in the coming year or so!