I am Ólafur Arnalds, Icelandic recording artist and film composer. Ask me anything!

REDDIT CAKE DAY ON MY OLAFUR ARNALDS-BASED USERNAME ON THE SAME DAY AS OLAFUR'S AMA?

The cosmos have spoken. We were meant to be.

amazing!

Hello! it's time now, and wow so many great questions already. I will be here answering for the next hour or so.

OK guys. This has been great, but my brain is tired now. THANK YOU ALL for your questions and sorry I wasn't able to answer all!

Me tired and happy

It's been an hour. But seeing that i'm still kind of overloaded with great questions I'll stay for a bit longer! You guys are amazing, this is like the best interview i've ever done.

I don't know if you've answered this before, but I've always wondered what made you go from punk to neoclassical?

And which current punk musicians do you think should also make the switch? (I personally think Greg Graffin would excel in the field of neoclassical, but I'd like to hear your thoughts).

May I answer this with a GIF?

(of course, this is reddit)

OK but bacon and eggs go so well together. Have you ever tried to mix the hardcore drumming with the music you make right now?

I have: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFBYS_kpeYA

and i'm actually a vegetarian. I dont know why i said that.

I quite frequently don't know what i am saying.

How do you feel about people who pirate your music?

I'm fine with it really. I completely realise that I wouldn't be where I am today without free sharing of my music. What's funny though is when people pirate the music that I already have available for free on my website! (such as Living Room Songs ).

HOWEVER, while i am personally fine with it I think it's important to respect the fact that other artists may not be fine with it. At least i try to respect that myself.

I first pirated your music when I heard about it, but I've bought every album since. Your music is definitely in my top 5 favorites.

Which album do you consider your best, if you can choose seeing as they're all fairly distinct. If not, which is your personal favorite?

Thanks!

EXACTLY! And thank you for buying them eventually.

My personal favorites are For Now I am Winter and Living Room Songs.

what is your favourite book?

I don't read a lot of novels. Actually the only novels i have read since I was like 11 are the Harry Potter books. (and i read all of them. twice).
But I love reading about science. Favorites are Oliver Sacks (Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) and David Deutch (The Fabric of Reality -- but that one is a bit difficult for me, i admit)

have you tried Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything? Excellent book about the history of a lot of different sciences and branches of knowledge.

That one is on my list! Will get it for the upcoming tour...

What made you decide to go into classical-esque music over continuing to play in hardcore bands?

I answered this with a joke in another question. But more seriously: I have always loved many types of music, so it's not like i just woke up one day deciding I wanted to stop doing this and start doing that. I was writing classical music when I was touring with hardcore bands, but eventually my classical project 'took off' and I started concentrating more and more on that. I still listen to hardcore and punk, even though not as much as before.

What's your approach on composing a track? Do you come up with a melody and arrange the rest around it? Does harmony / chord progression come first? Do you have a more theoretical approach or do you compose your music sitting on the piano and seeing what you come up with? etc. :] Also, if I met you at a gig and gave you a demo of my music, would you listen to it or are you too busy for that anyway?

I almost always start with improvising on the piano until I come up with a theme or a chord sequence that I really like. Then I will (usually) program it into the computer as i like to work visually. Then i just pile things on top and experiment. Maybe that original piano theme ends up being in the strings and i write a new piano melody. Or whatever…

One of my 'tricks' is to create an ambience first, for example a loop of 2 piano notes, and play it in the background the whole time while i am composing. This loop kind of becomes the 'home base' and everything I write is forced to sound well with that loop. It can never leave 'home'. Usually I will not use those loops in the final song, but they make the song restrained in a way that i really like. Like it belongs to some one place. But sometimes I keep them in, such as in "A Stutter" and "Þú ert Sólin".

As for demos: I always try my best to listen, and usually I will listen to at least some bits. But sometimes I don't have the time :(

When are you and Nils Frahm going to marry?

We have a date set for July 23rd

I had a beautiful moment watching you record your album via live-stream, all the way from the opposite side of the world in New Zealand and want to thank you for making that opportunity available. It was a truly incredible experience to watch that creative process unfold all the way across the globe.

I also have some of your work on vinyl and was wondering what your view on vinyl is these days? It seems to have made a quite noticeable resurgence but do you find it an important medium to release music on or just a platform that people request so you might as well make it?

As an aside, what's in the water in Iceland that makes everyone so ridiculously musical and talented?

I love vinyl and listen a lot to it myself. I don't think it sounds BETTER than digital (unless we are talking about mp3s. barf) but it has a certain character that me and many others seem to seek out.

I think it's important to release on EVERY medium, cater to everyone's format needs.

Is there a way I can see that live-stream now?

I think they are archived on my Ustream channel.

Do you also find your inspiration on books and films you've seen? If so, could you name some of them? :) Thank you.

More films, yes. I'm never sure whether it's the film itself though or whether the soundtrack of the film is secretly inspiring me.

Examples: Nói Albínói, The Fountain, Waltz with Bashir, Pan's Labyrinh...

The film that got me into soundtrack music (which eventually got me into composing my own classical music) was The Green Mile.

The Fountain - Clint Mansell :) What do you think about his work?

I love Clint and his work. Everytime i'm in LA he takes me out and gets me embarrassingly drunk. You should all go see his US shows this week!

Where is your favourite place on Earth?

My family's summer house, situated by lake Álftavatn in Iceland. I go out the water on a Kayak and listen to the silence.

Big fan of your music from Canada, since I heard Eulogy for Evolution years ago. Thank you!

• How does your creative process differ when you record a full-length album compared to a project like Living Room Songs? Do you approach the latter with a fundamentally more improvisational attitude, or do you just try to get out music that's been kicking around your head for a while?

• What's your favorite place in Iceland? I've visited once for 4 days, but I am planning on going back again soon, and I could use some suggestions!

• Are you planning any more Kiasmos releases?

1) Oh yes, they differ immensely. Especially as the whole idea of Living Room Songs was to finish the songs as quickly as possible (i created and released one per day for a week). While with a full length, like my last one, i like to spend crazy amounts of time making sure every single second is perfect.

2) My personal favorite place is my family's summer house. But for travellers i can really recommend hiking. The Laugavegur Trail is amazing! I did that with Nils Frahm last year.

3) We actually have a full length ready... Just don't want to release it at the same time i'm releasing my new solo album!

What inspires your music? why do you choose to make somber music?

i love it but in your interviews you don't seem like a somber person, thank you for the AMA!

James

I'm not a somber person... that's right. I don't really know, there is just something in this kind of music that really gets to me. I connect with it on a deeper level than i do with other music.

Have you ever been tempted to go back to metal/hardcore?

I kind of want to try using hardcore 'sound' to compose a classical inspired piece. But there is a great risk of that becoming incredibly silly and cheesy...

What is your favourite song that you've composed?

This changes every week but it often seems that the songs that i like the most are the least popular songs. Not sure if that's because i've heard them so often or whether they are too 'obscure'?? But currently my favourite is probably "A Stutter" from For Now I am Winter

I often work on small scale video projects with student organizations, churches, non-profits, etc. All of the videos stay within the scale of just a few hundred people ever seeing them, and are rarely published to the internet. Doing such small scale work has its problems though - namely music copyrights. I absolutely love using good techno, classical, film-score type songs yet feel continuously hampered by the legality of having to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to use music on relatively personal projects. Considering your music is so useful for these types of projects, what's your opinion on music copyrights, seeing others use your songs on youtube videos, and even just the idea of "fair use" of music for these small scale not-for-profit type video endeavors?

My open policy on this (and my label and publisher are with me!) is to allow all non-commercial uses as long as they are not derogatory, racist or whatever. We still request that you come to us for a formal license, just to keep things straight. Contact information for that is on my website: www.olafurarnalds.com/contact

why don't you like cats?

I'll get downvoted to hell for this... I do love them and my ex room mate had one which i really cared about. But i still think they are arrogant assholes.

Hey Olafur~ Do you ever feel strange, being enveloped in audience silence whenever you perform? It isn't often a band's audience is almost completely audibly silent, and I understand that your genre of music permits silence to sort of, compliment the sound of what you play, but even then is it strange? Do you find it hard to gauge whether your audience enjoys your music in this way?

Well.. as long as they are not silent BETWEEN the songs or at the end of the show, i think complete silence is usually a sign of a show going very well. People are paying full attention and their whole world at that moment is this music. That's wonderful.

[deleted]

I had really wonderful teachers there and even though I wasnt strictly studying music I was studying art with some great teachers who helped me become creative in whatever I take on.

Favorite Icelandic album of last year was Stafnbúi by Steindór Andersen and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson

How do you juggle film scoring and your own releases? Do you prefer one or the other?

I love both, but they are rather different methods of writing. In films you have a blueprint set out in front of you and everything you do has to fit into that. You are limited in many ways but I also like that. Brian Eno says: "Freedom inhibits creativity".

What do you love the most in your life?

My family. I have wonderful parents who have supported me in this whole thing more than I can even describe (they sometimes fly across the world for the sole purpose of seeing me play special shows that are important to me). I also have 4 wonderful siblings who are also some of my best friends.

First off, hi! Long time fan. Saw you at several of your shows in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and was happy to meet you. :)

So, as I am an aspiring composer studying in school right now, what did you do to get your name "out there" and gain your first bit of a fanbase? I'm trying to figure out an effective way to use the internet as a way to get my own name out there but I'm curious what kind of things worked for you and what didn't.

Also, out of curiosity, how much did you study music formally and what kind of response do you receive from critics?

Thanks for doing an AMA, though I think I could've probably just posted this on your Facebook or Twitter and gotten the same kind of response. :) It is nice you stay connected with your fans.

Actually before my first ever tour, in 2006, (i booked some shows in small towns myself through contacts I had made on myspace) I would use Myspace's search engine to find people aged 18-30yrs in the towns that I was about to play and simply sent them messages saying "hey i'm coming to your town to play a show, if you like this kind of music it would be nice to see you - and please say hello if you do!". I did this for like 3 hours a day for a few weeks. I had no label, no PR team, no financial backing at all... We were really late to the first show so when I finally arrive to the venue the doors were already supposed to be open. And I finally arrive to find 200 people waiting outside! That was my first show, ever...

Of course if you do this on Facebook now you will be blocked within seconds. But maybe it's the attitude that matters? I grew up in a DYI punk scene and kept that attitude of if you want things done, do them yourself.

First of all, thank you so much for making The Awesomest music!

Okay, pick one: Never tour with the Erased Tapes collective (for lack of a better description, sorry, had some wine) again or never play in your home country again?

Oh, and see you in May. Amsterdam can't wait for another show! :D

ILLEGAL QUESTION

Hi Olafur, firstly let me just say I'm an absolutely huge fan.

As an indie-filmmaker I'm always trying to keep my creative chops sharpened and try to make little shorts that I eventually post online. They tend to be rather personal in nature and don't live outside the realm of your Youtubes and Vimeos, and certainly have no real commercial or monetary value (not yet at least).

What are you opinions of fans using your music for these types of things? I know in the past fan-made videos have become official and you've touched on this subject in films like Presspauseplay, but with Youtube being such a stickler about copyright control with their auto-content flags how do you, as an artist yourself, feel about other artists creating works inspired from your originals? Do you see it as a loving tribute, or as a bunch of no-good cheapskates stealing your hard earned music? I'd love to get permission in every case but most artists are busy folks and not as quick to respond on Twitter as you are ; )

Also, any chance you'll be coming to Canada anytime soon to perform? I see the lucky ducks in New York get you soon…

I definitely see all of it as a loving tribute! I absolutely love when people make art inspired by the music and I have tried to encourage that. The beauty about YouTubes ContentID system is that the artist can choose what is done with the material that is detected to be his music. So I was able to select a setting on there which allows all, or at least most, of those videos to stay up there. I occasionally go through them and see if there is anything interesting.

ps I recognise your username from Twitter :)

You've been my go-to migraine music for a while now, most sounds can really bother me, but your music relaxes me. So, thank you for that! Two things. One, all of your videos tend to be wildly creative and beautiful- do you help come up with the video ideas and are you involved in their production? I'm also curious, is there a time where you might hope to widen your touring in the US?

I try to be involved with the videos yes but I don't want to take any credit away from the wonderful directors I have been so lucky to work with.

US tours: THIS YEAR! Lots! really!

Your first album, "Eulogy for Evolution" is one of my absolute favorites. What was your thought process in trying to document the span of life, from birth to death? Did you have any musical or literary influences that really spoke to you with that project?

Well, i was like 17, so to be honest i had no idea what i was doing. But i drew this line on a paper which was supposed to represent the album, and then i just did it. There are some obvious things in there such as that last song cutting abrubtly into the church organ, etc. I'd probably do things a bit more subtle these days... But i'm still proud of this album!

At that time I was listening a lot to Thomas Newman and Godspeed! you Black Emperor

Any chance of the soundtrack to Broadchurch being released as a recording? Love that music.

We are working on that! I hope to be able to give you info in the very next few days

Now that you're experimenting with electronic synthesizers from a predominantly classical background, do you have a certain preference of synthesizer? I know you use the Rowland Juno synthesizer as of recent, but is there a specific reason you haven't moved onto a more commercial synthesizer like, say, minimoog voyager?

I wouldn't say Juno is any less commercial than Moog...?? But juno is an absolute favorite of mine, especially the Juno 60. I've also been using Yamaha CS15 a lot lately and love it.

Your favourite movie soundtrack/score and why?

Clint Mansell's score for The Fountain. It's complex and intricate but still so simple and powerful. I love the themes and concepts and how they fit with the different timelines in the movie. And that end theme... just wow...

i swear the section around the 2 minute mark of "reclaim" sounds very hans zimmer-ish. reminds me of christopher nolan's batman movies. was zimmer one of your inspirations on the new album?

He was! But not in this song, i think. He definitely inspired "Sudden Throw" and "A Stutter". There is a voice in the violins there which is a direct tribute to Inception.

Is there a song you've ever regret making?

Wow, good question... Yes and no. There are songs that i look back upon thinking i could have done so much better, or that i shouldn't have kept it on the album, etc. But i realise 99% of that comes from my own insecurities...

Hi, Oli! I've seen you with the RNCM Orchestra in Manchester, with the Britten Sinfonia in London, and just your string quartet (in London too). My questions are:

1) Do you prefer playing with a full orchestra, or just with your string quartet? What's the pros and cons of each?

2) You explained that Ljósið was originally written for a bath tub commercial. How do you feel about fans prescribing a deeper meaning towards it? Do you believe that once a piece of art is finished, the meaning is no longer in the hands of the artist?

3) Am I correct with my impression that early in your career, you didn't really appreciate the label 'glacial' or using the Icelandic landscape to describe your music in reviews?

4) I don't know if you remember, but I was the one who alerted you about the Malaysian anti-piracy ad that used your music. What became of it?

1) While i LOVE the feeling of being backed up by a huge orchestra and playing the 'perfect' show in a way, it always sacrifices some of the intimacy that you get from the smaller scale shows... So i actually have to say that I probably prefer the string quartet or trio shows. But i love both and will keep doing both

2) That anectode shouldn't be taken too seriously. While it is true, when writing for something as vain as a commercial you are still putting your heart into writing the best and most beautiful music you can at that moment. I'm not one to tell fans what they should feel when they listen to my music.

3) I still don't like that. I can understand the appeal of it for foreigners but for us Icelanders it's just kind of cheesy and has a bit of a bad stigma to it.

4) ah! Well my publisher looked into it but they couldn't actually find the commercial, so i think it just ended there. But it did end up in headlines of icelandic newspapers! Yay for you! haha

Hi Olafur! Do you know of any female composers that compose music in your genre?

Sophie Hutchins is one very nice Australian pianist/composer. Hildur Guðnadóttir is an amazing Icelandic cellist and composer.

But this genre definitely needs more females. Composition/songwriting in general tends to be a very male dominated art, and I would like to see that change!

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?

YAY! I have been waiting for this!

Did you fear it was a risk to include the songs with vocals on For Now I Am Winter? (I am so happy it is finally available in the US!)

I want to thank you for years of amazing music and your gorgeous live show in Chicago back in January 2011.

I was really dying of nervousness, yes! I realise it was a big and bold step for someone who has always been instrumental and even claimed that he doesn't see the need to add vocals. But i just felt like i had to try something new!

I'll be back to Chicago soon btw! Already on my calendar, announcing soon.

Any news from releasing the score from Broadchurch?

I think i am allowed to say that it's happening! And it's happening soon!

Who or what got you into writing modern classical music? Who is your biggest inspiration now a days? I'm just curious because you are the guy that got me into my career path of recording engineering and the love for classical music. You are easily one of my biggest inspirations. Thanks for everything Oli!

I got into modern classical music through soundtracks (Particularly the Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and A Beautiful Mind -- although these days I prefer more minimal soundtracks) and decided I should try to do this myself.

Very honoured and happy to hear I may have influenced your decision to become a recording engineer. That was also my job before i was able to make a living from my music.

How do you pronounce "Þú ert sólin"?

hmmmm... kind of like: Thu ert (hard R like spanish) soulin

What apps do you use for the iPad? (Generally, but specifically live, when sampling etc.) What approach do you take to your work flow? I start with a blank canvas, writing as I record, do you strictly write > record > mix? Do you prefer salted or sweet popcorn?

I use a custom template for TouchOSC and control a bunch of stuff in Ableton Live with it. Mostly loopers and FX. see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnxSLwLFfNY

What type of music do you generally listen to, other than your own?

A lot of electronica, indie and pop. But also hip hop, techno and of course classical music.

I'm currently loving the new album from The Knife

olafur, have you ever considered to make more "difficult" or "challenging" music? i think i have read before in an interview, that you learn a lot about musical theory, so i wondered if you were trying things like 12 tone music f.e.? or do you think that you have developed already a lot since your first album?

I have tried it, But there is something strange to me about making music that only a limited number of 'educated' listeners can really understand and enjoy...

Who are your favourite icelandic artists?

Bloodgroup, Kimono, Sin Fang, Samaris, Ásgeir Trausti, Ólöf Arnalds (yes she is my cousin), Daníel Bjarnason.... uhh if i finish answering this question i don't think i'll answer any others...

I love Ásgeir Trausti, beautiful voice! No mention of Sigur Rós, Björk and For A Minor Reflection... does this mean you don't like them, or you just don't name them because they already made it outside Iceland?

i love them too! But try to introduce people to new names :)

1. Do the song titles on "Eulogy for Evolution" have any specific meanings? It's a brilliant album, by the way.
2. Do you have any plans for touring on other countries outside Europe and the U.S? South America, for example.

Thanks for your music!

1. The song titles on EfE are direct references to pictures in the booklet that tell the story that I wanted to say with the album. The numbers are actually time codes, so 3055 is actually 30minutes55seconds. There is a picture inside the booklet with that number and that picture is supposed to be a snapshot from that moment on the album. Sounds confusing, i know. It only really makes sense if you have the physical album...

2. We are hoping to do some South American gigs this year, yes!

Good afternoon :) I have a few questions of mine.

• How do you pick the musicians that go with you on tour? Are they friends, music collaborators, contractors, ...?
• Any chance of a detour north of NYC in direction of Montreal someday?

Best of luck and all my wishes for your career :)

They are usually friends or acquaintances from the Icelandic music scene. I had pretty much the same string quartet for 3 years until last year, those are some of my best friends.

We used to jokingly call them The Gossip Girls.... "Ólafur Arnalds and the Gossip Girls"

Firstly, I just want to say that I love your stuff. The new album is fantastic.

Secondly, I recently graduated with a degree in Contemporary Composition and my life dream is to score a a film, and I consider you to be one of, if not the best "Contemporary" composer out there. What did/do you find to be the best way to get noticed for film scoring and composing?

I'm not sure if 'my way' is the best way, but how i got into it was just through releasing records and touring. My music tends to be rather 'cinematic' so i guess it was just a question of time before I was contacted by a director. But here is the thing: No matter how tiny or 'irrelevant' my first film projects were, I still poured my heart into them and did the very best I could. Don't take on a project unless you like it enough to be able to do that!

Favourite album?

Also, will any of your music be in the second Hunger Games film or is it too early to know/say?

at the moment... Max Richter's recomposed Four Seasons. Really great work!

I haven't been in touch with anyone about the next Hunger Games film, so i'd say probably not. But for the first time it was super last minute, so you never know!

Hey boss! why you decided to put an "out of time" delay in the song "only the winds" ? just wanna know if is a choice or error (sorry for ugly english)

When you spend 9 months recording and producing an album, very few things are left up to 'error' ;)

The term "out of time" is totally relative...

What software do you prefer for composition in the studio and what do you use for live shows?

I use Pro Tools in the studio (well sometimes i just record on tape, but it all ends up in PT eventually) and Ableton Live on shows.

Hey Oli, thanks for doing this.

I noticed that your latest album had different release dates in many countries. What is the reasoning behind this? And do you personally think it's a good idea to prevent some people from legally getting your album while it's already released elsewhere?

Of course every artist and label prefers to have a universal release date, and we tried. But sometimes logistics just don't work out that way. In the case of the new album the USA team wanted one more month to work on their campaign, understandably, cause they had some great ideas!

It will of course affect some of the illegal downloads, but it is our belief that the gain from the extra time to promote it was higher. Also, we tried to bring in extra iniciatives for the US people to wait (bonus tracks, special editions, etc)