REICH EFFECT:Sigur Rós's Kjartan Sveinsson is as cool as an Icelandic fjord about his upcoming performance in Cork. All he wants from life is to be a housewife, he tells LAURENCE MACKIN
FEW PEOPLE GET TO work with their heroes, so the Steve Reich festival in Cork has got more than a few musicians hot under the collar. The five-day celebration of composer Reich's life and work, and its impact on modern music, begins this week, with the man himself giving a public interview on Wednesday night. Kjartan Sveinsson, though, is not in the least bit nervous when we speak. As well as being one quarter of Icelandic phenomenon Sigur Rós, Sveinsson is also an accomplished composer, and one of his pieces, Credo, features in a programme that also includes works by Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead, Eight Linesby Reich, and Step Teamand So To Speakby Nico Muhly. Given the esteem in which Reich is held, will it be terrifying if he decides to attend? "No, it's not intimidating at all – it's fun if he's there."
Fun is not a word that a lot of people would associate with Sigur Rós, or contemporary classical music (Sveinsson’s Credo is more in the mould of a classical composition than the epic rock of his Icelandic band’s music).
But the band, and Sveinsson, really don’t take themselves seriously. Sveinsson’s refusal to be intimidated by the presence of one of the pioneers of minimalist music stems from the fact that he seems to simply enjoy making music so much, and any critical acclaim is a bonus. Does Sveinsson find it strange putting down his rock-band hat and donning his composer garb?
“Heh heh, composers, it is a weird one. Now I’m used to the band thing aren’t I? Maybe it’s a bit strange, the composer stuff. It’s such a different world, but it’s all music.”
Credo was “written in 2006 and 2007 and it was [made up of] ideas I had for many years, even since I was a teenager and I wanted to get those ideas out of my system. There were really big problems finding a text. I didn’t think Icelandic was really working and English was a bit weird for it so we had to have it in Latin.”
So does Sveinsson speak the language of the learned? “Yeah of course, everyone in Iceland speaks Latin.” Not for the first time in this interview I am being mocked. “No, the text was quite embarrassing; I wrote down a list of words – Credo means I believe, like R Kelly sings about” – Sveinsson provides an impromptu performance of R Kelly’s nauseating pop smash from 1996 – “and then I kind of made the list of positive and negative aspects in life.”
Sveinsson drops his voice to a deep comedy bassoon – “It was very dramatic” – before returning to his normal tone without missing a beat. “Then I got my mother-in-law to translate it into Latin. She speaks, well who speaks Latin? She was able to translate it, so the piece is kind of chanting all those things. It’s not really well written in that sense, in that the grammar isn’t great. But Latin always sounds good for vocals I think; it’s the perfect language for choirs.”
The Cork performance will be only the third time Sveinsson has heard the song in its full glory. It was previously performed in “a really bad venue and the choir was too small” ahead of a show at the White Light festival in New York’s Lincoln Centre late last year (there is a recording of this performance on YouTube).
Many fans will be more than a little concerned about Sigur Rós’s prospects, given that the band’s members have been pursuing solo projects of late – are there plans to get back in the studio soon? “There are plans, yeah. There has been a little bit of studio time, that’s all happening. It’s very different [with Sigur Rós], it happens when everyone is together, nothing is prepared. Things happen much faster with the whole band.”
But given all these individual projects – Sigur Rós’s lead singer Jónsi has enjoyed huge success with his solo work – things must get a little creatively competitive in their corner of Iceland. “No, not at all,” laughs Sveinsson. I don’t believe him. “Well, when we are working on individual projects we don’t really talk about them with each other, but it might be kind of inspiring. For instance, if Jónsi does something really great, maybe I feel not so much competitiveness but it inspires me to do something really good as well.”
The parallels between Ireland and Iceland, in economic and geographic terms, are startling. So has the island experienced something of a blossoming of the arts in these times of distress? “That’s kind of what you hope for. I don’t feel it has kicked in yet. I’m still waiting for the really big wave . . . People are always whining about things here now. It’s quite negative but people are still spending money like never before.”
Ironically, while Sveinsson is in Cork at the performance of Credo, I’ll be in Reykjavik. Is there anything unmissable in the Icelandic capital? “No, no. Not really. I’m sure you’ll have a good time.” He sounds remarkably unconvinced of the charms of his native homeland. “Well, you know, there are enough people enthusiastic about it,” he says. “I stopped being a tourist board for Iceland a few years ago because we used to be so proud and special coming from Iceland back in the days, and all the journalists were pushing that a bit because they were trying to make a relationship between our music and the landscape, and yadda yadda . . . I’m proud of being Icelandic and also [given the country’s economic woes] really embarrassed . . . ”
On this trip to the sunny southwest, Sveinsson will have his family with him, and they are no strangers to these shores. His wife, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, is the violinist with Amiina, who have played here several times in recent years. Amiina regularly perform with Sigur Rós and sometimes, says Sveinsson, “I get to play bass maybe” with Amiina. “We’ve been together for 11 years and we always managed to have professional and family lives and not mix the two together.” In 2009, he was in Kilkenny minding their child while Amiina rocked out in St Canice’s Cathedral. “That’s what I always hoped for,” he says in a sudden rush of enthusiasm. “Amiina to make it really big so I could just be the housewife and she could go on all the tours.”
That’s one solo project that Sigur Rós fans will be hoping doesn’t come to pass.
The Reich Effect is at the Cork Opera House, July 27th-31st. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra perform works by Kjartan Sveinsson, Jonny Greenwood, Nico Muhly and Steve Reich on Friday, July 29th. corkoperahouse.ie