Interview with Þráinn Árni Baldvinsson and Jón Geir Jóhannsson [Skálmöld]
Shuffling over to the other side of the greenroom, Jon tiptoed in amidst laptops, assorted wires and beer cans to sit next to Þráinn Árni Baldvinsson (pronounced ‘throw-an’), lead guitarist for Skálmöld, and drummer/vocalist Jón Geir Jóhannsson. The majority of Skálmöld are vocalists themselves, and their sound is an atmospheric blend of death metal with traditional Icelandic melodies and time signatures, featuring epic lyrical sagas about the Norse gods and historical wars. For fans of Tyr, Skálmöld is a perfect opener, and throughout the tour this relatively unheard of band has impressed the European masses.
Jon: Have you been to England before? I swear I’ve seen you once before here.
Þráinn: Yes! We played here once before in 2011 on the… Heidenfest tour I think it was. In the HMV Forum. Absolutely awesome- probably one of my favourite shows ever.
Jon: How do you find fans in England, are we crazy?
Jón: Oh yes, they were crazy then!
Þráinn: At that concert they were absolutely amazing, yeah- and the Forum has a lot of history as well. All of the bands play there, so personally we were really excited to get to play there as well. Before the show we got together and just said ‘let’s do this just for us’. Our intro started, and the whole place erupted – we were like ‘What?’ Nobody knew who we were. The crowd was amazing. Probably one of my favourite gigs ever, and I mean that.
Jon: I know a lot of bands say places like Mexico or Japan are awesome, but no one ever says England.
Jón: Well, we’ve never played Mexico or Japan before! We have a fanclub in Mexico, though. But, uh, we can actually tell you that in Italy, Hungary and Romania, the fans are pretty awesome – the bassist from Týr is coming into our interview!
Gunnar: Hi!
Jon: You’ve already said your piece about the new album and now Týr don’t have a singer because of it!
Þráinn: Did you talk about our new album?
Gunnar: Of course we did! You’re so rude!
Þráinn: So as we said, yes in Italy, Hungary and Romania, fans are really crazy – Italy have the greatest fans ever, man. But that particular show back at the Forum was great.
Jon: Now you use Icelandic poetic structure in your songs. Is this hard to stick to or do you prefer to structure your lyrics like that?
Jón: We prefer to use it. Our bass player who writes all the lyrics is a bit of a poetic nerd in a way. In some ways it’s more like mathematical problems, because you have to put certain letters at certain places and have rhymes at certain places, so it’s kinda like a linguistic Rubik cube that you have to solve. So it’s a challenge. And because of those rules, it’s more rhythmical. You say sounds at similar intervals, it’s easier to sing, and for people who don’t speak Icelandic, it’s like listening to an instrument. When we signed to Napalm Records, some people asked ‘are you going to sing in English?’ And we said ‘no way!’ Of course we were going to stick to our native language. In our songs we have an English story which you can follow as you listen to the lyrics.
Jon: Your latest album Börn Loka…
Þráinn: Yes, Children of Loki!
Jon: Why did you choose to write about this concept?
Þráinn: Basically we had an idea
Jon: Because he’s cool? [Editor’s note: Loki is not cool – Vidar is though]
Þráinn: Yes but don’t connect this with the Marvel thing! Basically we had three ideas, all the ideas were about two children travelling, and in the end our bass player had the idea of naming them after two of our kids…
Jón: We think the Children of Loki are really cool characters, and they are part of our Icelandic heritage, part of the old Nordic religion – mainly they’re just really cool characters. Especially the three famous ones: Hel, Fenrir and Miðgarðsormur. So, it’s a fictional story but we take parts of the old mythology and sagas and squeeze them in, but with different main characters.
Þráinn: We grew up with this; this is normal stuff when you’re growing up.
Jón: You learn about it in school, in kindergarten. It’s something children are taught as a part of their cultural history – you learn about where you’re from and as part of what your ancestors believed – not, like, ‘you have to believe in Odin’, but as cool stories.
Þráinn: But we didn’t have to make this cool, because ninety percent of everyone back home respects their history and thinks it’s quite cool anyway. We actually have kids wearing our t-shirts with our logos on, singing our songs in kindergartens.
Jon: That’s amazing!
Þráinn: Yeah, but I would have thought that kids in the UK would listen to Iron Maiden songs in kindergarten…
Jon: If only!
Þráinn: I thought you would be singing about Alexander the Great or Invaders or something!
Jon: If only we did! I think that should definitely be on the curriculum. I know you started off as Týr did, using folk music blended in with metal – do you still use that concept now?
Jón: When we started the band, the original idea was to have it a bit more folky than it turned out. In the first rehearsals, Baldur our guitar played flutes and mandolins and stuff, and then it kinda didn’t sound right, so he began to play the electric guitar as well. Today, we’re just playing heavy metal.
Þráinn: We don’t really think that we have to be ‘this type’ of metal, like folk metal. It just happens. For me, we’re just another Iron Maiden cover band!
Jon: I’m really interested in Norse mythology, but I’m really lazy and I don’t read at all. Could you recommend any reading that fans of Nordic metal can pick up to learn more about the history?
Þráinn: You have to read from the Völuspá and the Eddas, the beginning of the universe according to Nordic mythology. And then I think you should go into the old Icelandic sagas and the stories of the settlers. That’s awesome and brutal.
Jón: A bunch of people killing each other all the time.
Þráinn: Everyone who is alive today in the Western world is a pussy compared to the guys who were originally Icelandic settlers.
Jon: One day I promise you I’ll read the Eddas.
Jón: Do it! That’s basically where it all comes from.
Jon: Obviously I was interviewing Týr over there, and I asked them to teach me something in Faroese. Could you teach me something nice in Icelandic? Because Terji taught me some words that I couldn’t really say to anyone.
Þráinn: If you wanted to say something nice, to a beautiful girl or something, then you can say ‘falleg’, which means beautiful. You can also say ‘þú ert falleg’- you are beautiful.
Jon: What’s next for the band? Börn Loka was released last October, so have you started any further work?
Þráinn: We have started to write… It will be the best album ever! Our next task after we finish his tour is to do a couple of gigs with the Icelandic symphonic orchestra- we’re doing both of our albums and three shows that are sold out in a huge auditorium – 1800 seats!
Jón: So that’s going to be a lot of work, and hopefully we’re going to release that as a DVD. Hopefully it will be released just before Christmas; we’re doing the gigs in November.
Þráinn: And then we have theatre work!
Jón: We basically have December, January and February off, and then we’re going to start rehearsing to make our first album into a live theatre production: there’ll be actors and re-enactments on the stage of the stories in between the songs, and hopefully we’ll record an album next summer!
Jon: I love everything you’re doing- so many bands get stuck in a rut of recording an album and then going out on tour, and it seems like you’re really creatively branching out. Thanks – I think that’s everything!
Jón: They better bloody well start teaching Iron Maiden songs in kindergarten!
Skálmöld online:
http://www.skalmold.is
http://facebook.com/skalmold
Related articles
- Interview with Týr (valkyrianmusic.com)
- 4 Reasons Heathens Hate Lokeans: By a Lokean (sacrediceland.wordpress.com)
- Norsing Around for A “Taste of Iceland” + VIP Ticket Giveaway (manhattanwithatwist.com)
- …And now, a quick word about Dwarves. (lleusilver.wordpress.com)
- Valkyrie By Kate O’Hearn (theliterarylurcher.wordpress.com)
- 5 Mythic Norse Beasts (worldsoftheimagination.wordpress.com)
- Týr: Valkyrja (Review) (popmatters.com)
Valkyrian Music 
Leave a Reply