Rökkva means…
something like dusk in Icelandic. Its a verb meaning “to become dark..”
Listen to the Live Interview
Episode #410: A.V.A Live Radio Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax : http://tobtr.com/9732289
GETTING TO KNOW Rökkva
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio
Interviewing:
Stefán Örn Viðarsson (Band manager)
Music business…
It’s a bit of a tricky question because I have mixed feelings about the music business. Of course it is changing so fast that something that I say today will be changed tomorrow but in general I think that the development of the music business is good. The fact that anyone can now create, record and market their music is great. Of course this leads to a flood of musicians but it gives everyone a fair shot and everyone is on equal grounds. The income from CD sales is pretty much gone so that is sad in my opinion because thing else has surfaced that might replace that “hard copy” feeling yet, hopefully the vinyl will do it but I doubt it will.
The good thing about taking money out of the music industry is that only people who are really passionate about their music will continue doing it and those who only want the money will quit or never enter the business like it is today.
I would love to have 5 minutes alone with…
Well, it’s a difficult question since there are so many musicians throughout history that I admire. I can of course only speak for myself and not the whole band but forced to pick one that could give me inspiration and knowledge I might say Freddy Mercury. His use of vocals and harmonies in his music was amazing. He is also one of the best songs writers in history and everything he did was close to perfect, a real perfectionist. On top of that he was a great piano player and I just really think anyone cloud learn a lot from that guy!
I want you to know…
Written by Viktor Ingi Jónsson, arranged and developed with Stefán Örn Viðarsson and Guðný Lára Gunnarsdóttir
The song was written by Viktor while traveling on a boat in Denmark while he was there for school. At the time he was thinking about his daughter which he missed terribly so it’s really a song written to his daughter.
It was actually a song that almost didn’t make it to the album because it wasn’t finished. It had been going under the name “the song with no name” because the lyrics weren’t finished and it didn’t have a name until we were almost finished recording in the studio. Fortunately, Viktor really wanted to include it on the album because in the end it turned out to be a great song.
Purchase link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rokkva
The album…
counts 12 songs and runs 60 minutes long which is a bit much for an album. The reason is that we have so much material from years of writing songs. We have been musicians for years and probably have over 200 songs written in total between us so it was very difficult to choose the right ones. The album is a blend between older songs written 5-10 years ago and newer ones written 1-2 years ago. Most of them are based on a piano and acoustic guitar so the sound is quite acoustic in general and we don’t really use a lot of electronic sounds although there is an electronic guitar on the album but when we perform live we don’t always use any electronic instrument and we want to focus on keeping our music as organic as possible. Our music is also very inspired by our violin players and the strings play a big part on the album which is played by our Irish violin player Austin McManus. Originally we didn’t plan on having most songs with strings but it just happened that way and it came out amazing in our opinion.
counts 12 songs and runs 60 minutes long which is a bit much for an album. The reason is that we have so much material from years of writing songs. We have been musicians for years and probably have over 200 songs written in total between us so it was very difficult to choose the right ones. The album is a blend between older songs written 5-10 years ago and newer ones written 1-2 years ago. Most of them are based on a piano and acoustic guitar so the sound is quite acoustic in general and we don’t really use a lot of electronic sounds although there is an electronic guitar on the album but when we perform live we don’t always use any electronic instrument and we want to focus on keeping our music as organic as possible. Our music is also very inspired by our violin players and the strings play a big part on the album which is played by our Irish violin player Austin McManus. Originally we didn’t plan on having most songs with strings but it just happened that way and it came out amazing in our opinion.
The songs on the album come from very different places. Some of them are inspired by lonely or sad feelings while others are an ode to our Icelandic nature but we do agree that the raw sound of Rökkva represents our connection to nature and our Icelandic heritage.
We have received great feedback from the album and we believe that most people should be able to enjoy our music no matter what their musical taste is since the album is very versatile within itself.
Iceland…
We live in a small town in south Iceland called Selfoss which means “Seal waterfall”. There are about 5000 people living in our town so the music scene is not big at all so we mostly have to look to Reykjavík regarding performances which is only about 45 minute drive away. We do have a strong connection to the local theater in town and have been playing, writing and performing there for years so we have great support from there and we have had concerts in the theater.
The local theater company also helped us in making our movie last summer which will be a 60 minute long “music video” with all songs on the album. It will be released to the public in a few months.
Links:
Purchase link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rokkva
Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/rokkva
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rokkvamusic
Website: www.rokkva.com
Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/rokkva
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rokkvamusic
Website: www.rokkva.com