Sólstafir: Finding The Lady Of The Mountain
From their unassuming black metal roots, SÓLSTAFIR have blossomed into something far more interesting. The band wear their heart on their sleeves, and write music which is as wilfully eclectic as it is emotionally raw and sincerely honest. That is the rock ‘n’ roll spirit of individuality as far as SÓLSTAFIR are concerned, and for them to be anything other than themselves would be the our loss.
With their post-everything approach, the band are able to express both the exhaustion of sorrow and the vitality of joy, as well as life’s more ambiguous moods. While the Icelanders have taken to singing in their native-tongue, that has not stopped them from connecting with an international audience, and the band have become a fixture on the artistic fringe of heavy music worldwide. As SÓLSTAFIR arrive at their 25th anniversary, they release Endless Twilight Of Codependent Love. Distorted Sound caught up with guitarist and vocalist Aðalbjörn ‘Addi’ Tryggvason to hear about their distinctive seventh studio album.
“We’ve never been a band to celebrate anniversaries,” Addi tells us. “We’re always touring or working, and so we’ve never taken a break or a year off from SÓLSTAFIR. I’m starting a new job doing sound engineering for a new project, and I have a four-month old daughter and our drummer Hallgrímur [‘Grimsi’ Hallgrímsson] has a two-month old boy, so in the last six months we’ve made two kids and an album!” he laughs. “We just don’t have time for celebrations.”
That all too human concern with time, or the lack of it, found its way into the writing and recording process of Endless Twilight Of Codependent Love, as Addi recalls. “In December 2018 we decided to start writing, and we were going to have the album done within a year, but in the end it all got done close to the deadline, and so we pushed it back to February the next year. We had proper demos recorded, so by the time we recorded it the process itself was quite fast. The songs are much more structured as a result,” he muses.
The album was captured in the Sundlaugin Studio: a former swimming pool outside Reykjavík, converted into a recording studio by SIGUR RÓS. “We recorded there with the house engineer [Birgir Jón Birgirsson], and I kind of co-produced it with him. Nothing new for us,” Addi tells us flatly. “Maybe we turned the gain on the Orange amps from seven to nine? The weather was different at least. We weren’t in a rush but the drums were done in only two days, so we recorded the bass and guitars with no clock ticking. I would have loved to have a month more, but that’ just how it is. It’s never done, it’s just abandoned.”
On the subject of abandoned art, we turn to the cover of Endless Twilight Of Codependent Love: The Lady Of The Mountain, by Johann Baptist Zwecker. “Icelandic people know it as a black and white illustration, and I wasn’t really aware of the story of the painting but we knew the figure. Britain has Lady Britannia, and the French have their Marianne – these female figures of power; this is ours,” Addi explains. “We saw this for the first time last year. In fact no one alive had seen it before, because it was hidden and not on display in a museum in Wales, and it had been for over a hundred years. Then, I read an article saying that the original painting of The Lady Of The Mountain had been found, and here it is! Voila! In Wales of all places! We were like: ‘Holy shit! This is the most beautiful thing we’ve seen.’ We had to use it as our album cover.”
“We don’t really write lyrics connected to The Lady Of The Mountain, we’re not there yet in life!” jokes Addi as we discuss the lyrics and themes of Endless Twilight Of Codependent Love. “It’s basically about us. We’re not a very political band, but we’ve been raising awareness of mental health issues through our music,” he explains. “Individual members of the band have dealt with anxiety, depression and addiction in our own lives, and so we sing about those topics and talk about them at concerts, because that’s just us being ourselves – breaking the taboo.” That emotional authenticity is unmistakable, and Endless Twilight Of Codependent Love radiates a warm, benevolent energy on every track. “A lot of people never stand up for themselves,” observes Addi. “They always try to please others, they say yes when they mean no, and they tell themselves things will get better but, when the time comes, they don’t have the power and they give up. That’s co-dependency.”
While inner turmoil has proven to be an enduring source of inspiration for SÓLSTAFIR, musically speaking not much has changed. “The older we get the less interesting new artists we’re discovering,” Addi tells us with a sigh. “I still listen to THIN LIZZY and MOTÖRHEAD, and SLAYER at the gym. Driving around its FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM or PINK FLOYD,” he adds. “Our songs resemble many things, and there are lots of things that are subconsciously expressed. I could tell you that this-or-that track was inspired by an IRON MAIDEN riff, but you wouldn’t see it even if I told you!” he laughs. “In fact, there was a song on this album we were calling the MY DYING BRIDE song, but you would never guess which one it is!”
Addi wraps up our discussion talking about plans for the near future. “We’ll probably do some streaming stuff, but I’m not sure when. We’re still working on our live album, which was recorded last year. We did the tour with a string section and pianist. It’s not exactly METALLICA’s S&M but it’s a nice touch,” he tells us assuredly.
Endless Twilight of Codependent Love is out now via Season of Mist.
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