Asgeir crosses boundaries
Asgeir is Iceland’s biggest export since Bjork. No, really. The 22-yearold singer-songwriter (born Asgeir Trausti Einarsson) from the tiny town of Laugarbakki (population: 40) scored the biggest-selling debut ever in his native country in 2012 with the album “Dyrd í dauðathogn,” which features lyrics written by his 74-year-old father. Now, he has released it again in English, under the name “In the Silence,” and its yearning folk and electronic songs are winning over fans around the world. Asgeir plays several Bay Area dates this week, including a show with Hozier. We spoke with him by phone from Iceland. Q: Your album spent nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 in Iceland. How do you feel about coming over here and starting over? A: Well, after we did the record in 2012 in Iceland, we went to focus on Europe and started out there again. Then we did Australia and Asia. So we’ve been beginning again and again. We’ve been at the starting point a few times now. I couldn’t expect anything more. Q: Even though you went through the trouble of making an English version, a lot of people prefer the original Icelandic version, don’t they?
I was surprised that people all over the world, my biggest fans, talk about the Icelandic version being their favorite. It shows that it doesn’t matter as much as I thought. But I’m glad we did the English version. We definitely connected to more people. It’s kind of put us in the position: What do we want to do with the next album? Q: You might have to pull a Sigur Ros and make up your own language. A: Yeah. I actually do that when I’m writing. Q: After living with them for so long, do the songs still mean the same to you? A: You know, I wouldn’t say so. We’ve played around 400 concerts since we released the album the first time. I’m not bored of the songs, and I’m not bored of the lyrics — I can still connect to them — but it gets boring to play the same stuff in the same way every night, so we had to change the songs in the live set many times, just how we play them. It’s been a long time since I listened to the album myself.