Unlikely success for Of Monsters And Men
OF Monsters And Men’s first single came with the insistent chorus of “Don’t listen to a word I say.” But people did anyway, and the ghostly
Little Talks was a Top 20 hit for the indie- folk band that never imagined it would break out of Iceland in any big way.
“It was a total surprise to us,” says singer- guitarist Ragnar “Raggi” Þorhallsson. “We were just playing and writing music because we liked it. It’s kind of what people do in Iceland and you never expect to get out of that scene there.”
Only a handful of Icelandic artistes have broken through internationally, most notably The Sugarcubes, its frontwoman Bjork, and ambient pioneers Sigur Ros.
Of Monsters And Men made its entrance on the more acoustic end of the spectrum. The band formed in 2010 as a solo project for Nanna Bryndis Hilmars- dottir, a singer with a lovely siren voice and an enchanting look.
“She was just doing her singer- songwriter kind of thing, just playing clubs, and she got me on the team before we played a gig at Iceland Airwaves, a music festival in Iceland. At first I was just shy and didn’t really know what I was doing,” Þorhallsson says.
“Then we started rehearsing and started writing together, and it clicked pretty soon. She’s a very free and open songwriter. Doesn’t really think too much about things. She just goes for it when you hit the record button.”
His low, raspy voice was joined with hers frequently on the 2011 debut album, My Head Is An
Animal, which hit No. 6 on the album charts and brought them to the United States for appearances at such festivals as Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and a musical guest spot on Saturday Night Live.
When the touring cycle ended, Of Monsters settled in to work on the follow- up in late 2013 as if none of that success happened.
“We wanted to put that aside and kind of focus on how we did the first one, which was just us writing together and having a good time and doing something we love to do,” he says.
“I think we accomplished that. I think this album is different: a lot of maturity we didn’t have before.”
Beneath The Skin, which debuted at No. 3 in June, arrived as a more personal record filled with darker, even violent imagery.
“We set out to be more open with our lyrics and not be as afraid to express feelings, because we write them together, me and Nanna, and it can be hard opening up on such a personal level with someone else,” Þorhallsson says.
“But we took strides in that, definitely. We were more comfortable with each other on this one, and better friends. The music is kind of darker, more heavy, I would say.”
When an album produces a single like Little Talks, there’s always pressure to produce another one. The band tried to put that aside as well.
“When we wrote Little Talks, there was no feeling that it was going to be a single,” he says. “We thought it was a good song, and we were happy with it. And we kind of just did the same thing on this album.
“You never can know what catches on, and what goes on the radio. A crazy world, that is. We just wanted to write good songs.” – Pittsburgh Post- Gazette/ Tribune News Service