GOOD KARMA
I Meet Karma Brigade: My Favourite Icelandic Band
Last weekend I was in downtown Reykjavik. As I sipped on an overpriced beer (which is the norm in Iceland) and chewed the fat with a close friend, a band began a sound check behind us. What I didn’t realise, was that I was about to have the best night’s entertainment in quite a while. On a tiny stage surrounded by towering book shelves; the audience so close we could see the whites of the band’s eyes, Karma Brigade began to play. A few days later, after some social media messaging, an email, and a brief phone call, I had the privilege of sitting down with the band in their studio to talk with them about their music, art, contemporary culture, and more besides.
The band consists of: Agla Bríet Bárudóttir (lead singer), Jóhann Egill Jóhannson (Drums/synthesisers), Steinunn Hildur Ólafsdóttir (keyboard/piano/vocals), Hlynur Sævarsson (bass/vocals), and their latest addition, Alexander F. Grybos (lead guitar/vocals). All of them are aged nineteen and twenty years old. They met and began playing when they were young teenagers. Steinunn recruited the others, using her music school facilities for rehearsals. Early gigs included playing all kinds of venues, even swimming pools; the band hauling their equipment around Iceland in a trailer. Before Karma Brigade found their current sound, they covered a variety of musical genres, including reggae, Icelandic folk, and Let Me Entertain You by Robbie Williams, to name a few. They toured for a stint overseas, busking the streets of Copenhagen and taking the trailer act to Berlin.
Karma Brigade on tour in Germany.
When quizzed about their catchy name (made funny by the fact that many Icelanders can’t pronounce ‘brigade’ properly), they couldn’t quite remember when and how the name arose, but they like to think, like the fire brigade comes to put out fires, they are ‘the bringers of good karma’. Though they have described their sound as ‘post rock’, in conversation, they thought that ‘alternative rock’ was an equally apt description of their style.
States of Mind1, their debut album, has its origins with the song Vertigo; its composition long preceding the other tracks. Within seconds, the album gets off to a profound start (the first track is also titled States of Mind). Oceanic tones ooze into your ears, seconds before the voice of the late twentieth century philosopher, Alan Watts, begins to say: “Now, first of all, by way of illustration, I would like you to consider a mild, but nevertheless comic, form of suffering, which we constantly undergo; the experience of fear. What is fear? What, in other words, when you worry, are you actually feeling? A great deal of the doctrine of primitive Buddhism, as we have it recorded from the Buddha’s own teachings, is concerned with one’s close attentiveness to inner feelings and states of mind.” No sooner has it begun, is the listener brought to consider the existential state of man and our inner experiences; a daring move by even a well established group, let alone a first album. But as you try to consider Watts’s words, a rip-roaring guitar riff sweeps you away to the end of the track; a heartbeat-like pulsing thumping to a halt afterwards.
They began work on States of Mind in 2019, and it was almost three years in the making, not finished until October 2021. Apart from dealing with the global pandemic, the band struggled to find professional help in producing and mixing the album, so, biting the bullet, they undertook the daunting task of doing it themselves – and a fine job they have done.
Karma Brigade: Steinunn Hildur Ólafsdóttir (left), Alexander F. Grybos (top left), Hlynur Sævarsson (centre bottom), Jóhann Egill Jóhannson (top right), Agla Bríet Bárudóttir (right).
The second track (the aforementioned Vertigo), creeps toward you with the subtle tapping of a hi-hat and electronic organ, when the haunting voice of Agla evocatively breathes into life. A tight, staccato bass riff then takes over, with a delicate, echoing guitar along for the ride; the stirring, melodic chorus accompanied by the lyrics: “Running, running through this empty state of mind, and I, won’t stop until they get out of my mind.”, followed by an extended bridge section that has a distinct psychedelic feel. When asked about the lyrics above, I felt a shift in the room; Agla coyly commenting on what they meant, describing it as ‘super dark’.
The lyrics of the first five tracks are claimed by Agla as an expression of her emotional journey in making the album, with all the struggles it involved. The track Fallen, though it gets off to a sensual start with a smooth Latin vibe, transitions beautifully into a touching chorus, Agla’s voice singing, “I’ve Fallen, haven’t I?” being a particularly moving moment; the lyrics coming from a place of sincere melancholy.
Possibly the most interesting track on the album is Stasis; an instrumental piece with three particular parts. The opening bars have distinct Morcheeba chill-out vibes. But then, just before the second minute, with raw, scraping strings, a classic rock guitar solo flies in to take over; rivaling anything done by such bands as AC-DC, Wolfmother, or even Santana; its bending, howling echoes tugging at your chest. But if that wasn’t enough, the track pulls another surprise before the end; a gentle piano melody consumed by dreamy synth that builds in a crescendo, like something out of the Christopher Nolan film Interstellar.
In terms of work done in the studio, the last track on the album, Not Long for This World, was a considerable technical challenge. Pointing at me, their manager, Ólafur Elíasson, described how the track took ten months to complete, as it is a composite of two hundred and eighty tracks! The final mix pushing their computing power to the max and costing Ólafur $2000.
In the last few years, I have come across very few bands whose sound has been truly distinct or trying to break new ground, and Karma Brigade is one of them. To use their own words, they are striving for ’symphonic depth’, with layered choral harmonies and a rich mix of instruments. To quote Oswald Spengler, concerning how Western music sonically fills space: “When one of those ineffable yearning violin melodies wanders through the spaces expanded around it by the orchestration of…Mozart or Beethoven, we know ourselves in the presence of an art [that is] worthy…” In other words, a worthy sound is a big sound, and that is something Karma Brigade most certainly have.
If you are visiting Iceland and this band is playing live, I recommend going to see them. If you are Icelandic and you love music, you have to listen to Karma Brigade and States of Mind. A sound like theirs only comes around once in a blue moon.
The band will be playing next at Hús Máls og Menningar, on Saturday the 16th of July. I will definitely be there!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimYAkdMMv3L0smAtpiPmxw