Mugison: Hailstorms, Gadgets… And Grandmas With Accordions

The mighty Mugison has been rather busy to say the least; promoting his brand new all-Icelandic album ‘Haglél’, appearing at Iceland Airwaves and the You Are In Control creative industries conference in Reykjavík, honing his famous Mirstrument and touring the country. We caught up with him whilst he paused for breath in Akureyri to talk ‘Haglél’, the ‘hidden diamond’ that is Aldrei and discuss why wild dancing is a rare sight in Iceland.

Tell us about ‘Haglél’… it’s all in Icelandic, right?

Yeah, it’s been on my to-do list for years to do an Icelandic album, I’d done Icelandic songs but never released any of them, so nearly a year ago I made the decision to take the whole of this summer, three or four months to finish the album and get it sorted. The original idea was to use broken guitar, it sounds a little like prepared piano, but it shifted into being more of a band album.

What does the title mean?

Haglél, it’s like ‘hailstorm’. The weather is always inspiring, especially in Iceland. It’s like a joke, the number one thing in everybody’s life is the weather, it’s the biggest issue ever.

I can imagine. I often wonder whether Icelandic artists ever get bored of being asked about their relationship with the weather but I suppose it kind of rules everything and is so unpredictable that it’s always inspiring.

Yeah, it has such a dramatic impact on you, it changes all the time, extreme winters sometimes, there might be rain, snow, sunshine and wind all in the same day, you never really know. At the moment, it’s really beautiful – it was raining this morning but now it’s beautiful.

What is your favourite track on the album?

I’d say it’s the last song on the album called ‘Púkafæla’. It’s kind of a lullaby I did for my kids for when they’re afraid of the dark and stuff, so it’s a song trying to comfort them that the darkness is actually the greatest thing on the planet.

Tell me about the Mirstrument you built?

It’s an old dream of mine, because when I started out I was into using computers and the laptop with my guitar, I stopped doing that in about 2005, but it’s an old dream to build one instrument out of all the gadgets I had. It was a little bit silly when I was playing festivals in Europe and stuff, it would take about half an hour to unpack everything and set it all up on a table, and then you look like an office man or something on a stage, and no one can really see what you’re doing. I don’t know, I was insecure about that.

The dream was to build something that was like an instrument and people could see it. I just took apart a lot of stuff I had lying around and reassembled them together. It looks like a futuristic accordion mixed with a space station kind of thing. That’s why it’s called Mirstrument, I was playing in Poland a year ago and the sound engineer said, ‘Ah fuck, it looks like a space station!’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s the Mirstrument!’

I’m working on an album using only the Mirstrument. That’s my next project, but now it’s all about my Icelandic album.

Aldrei (I Never Went South), the festival you started with your father Papamug, is now somewhat legendary and rightly so. What inspired you to organise it?

Well, I was playing this festival at the ICA in 2003 and I was one of the smaller acts there and my father was there having a good time at the bar. We started making a list of how we would make a festival, we were a bit pissed at all the rules, and for example the posters, the small acts get such a little tiny font, and all that sort of stuff, soundcheck times… we made this funny list which ended up being the rules for our festival: everybody plays an equal amount of time and really short, 25 minutes. They can only play their best material, and they have to do it a little bit different, no soundcheck, and it’s more like a community thing than an actual showcase festival.

There’s no border between the audience and the musicians, and we all get a local act to do funny stuff with us. Once we had 13 grandmothers with accordions with a teenage band, a 14-year-old on drums – that was really amazing! We try to encourage local people to do funny things. It’s a beautiful thing, like a hidden diamond really.

What were your favourite moments of Aldrei this year?

I’d say when one of the least known acts – we always make the least known act finish the festival, so they get a primetime thing going – this year we had a band called The Vintage Caravan, and since then they’ve picked up a big crowd over here. They did a kick-ass show, they’re only like 16, 17, and they’re playing this kind of Cream, blues-rock. It was so energetic, just three boys playing music and doing their thing.

I imagine it must be beautiful living in the Westfjords with the sense of physical and also mental space, but what made you stay in the Westfjords personally, when so many people flock to the city?

I’m a bit of a country boy. I like the simple life, like small things like it only takes a minute to take the kids to school, nearly no cars, just a simple life, you’re not tempted to go to a café to meet friends or something because there aren’t any cafes there – I love it, you get a lot of work done, it’s good for concentration. Then it’s great to go to the city and be all glamorous, meet all the people that you miss, so it’s a really good contrast in the Westfjords, it’s like isolation between the mountains, read a book, write music and then go on tour and see the world.

You used to be a fisherman - what inspired you to move into music, or was it always a part of your life in some way?

I didn’t take it seriously until I was 23 or something. I was just a teenager in Iceland working in the factories, and when you’re working there everyone knows you get more money if you become a sailor, so you pitch to see if there’s a spot available so they can take you on. I was lucky because my father was a captain on one of those boats so he took me for the first few rides. At the time you got a lot of money – a few days on the sea and you could buy an electric guitar. After one summer at sea I went to the music shop with all my money and bought about 200 CDs! My own money, I didn’t have to ask anybody. It was great.

You played Reykjavík Culture Night recently, how was that and what happens on Culture Night, for those who are unfamiliar?

It’s a little bit carnival-ish, there’s music and art everywhere basically in all shapes and forms. They take it to the streets. The last few years have been really good. Everybody in Reykjavík is out and about enjoying everything, it’s just really good vibes, like a carnival but we’re Scandinavians so we don’t dance that much like we should. We prefer to have a beer in one hand and give high-fives with the other.

Well, you don’t want to risk spilling any beer for the sake of a few ill-judged dance moves…

Yeah, that’s right. And also, being Nordic, we’re a bit more stiff than in countries where it’s hot all year round. 

Fair enough. Finally… we’ve just had another brilliant Airwaves; how does a seasoned festivaller like yourself get the best out of it?

For the last few years I just randomly go into the smaller places, if you go for the bigger venues you have to queue and then stay in there. The big acts I’ve probably seen a couple of times anyway, so my kick, always for Airwaves is to try to discover something I have never heard before. It’s just a great festival, they have a lot of venues. I don’t make a plan for it – I only mess it up…
 
Mugison’s new album is out now and can be purchased from Gogoyoko.