INTERVIEW: Mugison
- Posted on July 21, 2008 6:43 PM
- 0 comments
Interview by Katie Spain
I could chat to Mugison all day; his Icelandic accent turns every sentence into a song and he has a passion for music as infectious as the ebola virus. Don't get me wrong; there's nothing malicious about this musician, his craft is one honed by years of experience and a burning desire to try new things. As East London bustles around us, we sit back for a chat about his explosive new album 'Mugiboogie' and the force of a small township that helped pull it together. Mugison studied in London to become a record producer but with two albums behind him, it looks like life is going to get a hell of a lot more interesting. In the meantime, he's happy to chat about the ride so far, about Jesus and his sex life (and why he sounds like an elephant in bed). That's what we like to see... an honest artist.
1) What’s your first musical memory?
When I was a kid I was living in the West part of my country, Iceland; in the West fjords. It was a small town called Isafjordur and I was really lucky that my father had a huge record collection. He was a sailor at the time and back then sailors had a lot of money and he spent so much money on records. I’ve got so many pictures of me with headphones on when I was a baby. My parents say that when I was a baby they didn’t need a babysitter, they’d just put on the headphones and then in fifteen minutes they’d come and turn the vinyl for me.
I remember listening to some of those albums when I was three years old or something. There’s this one comic that I loved and I remember listening to a lot. I remember asking my parents to put that one on. It’s an Icelandic guy and he did lots of funny stuff, a bit like Monty Python kind of characters. He played every part and it was just ridiculously funny. Even if I listen to it today with my kids it makes me cry.
2) Did you always know you were going to follow the musical path?
I didn’t always know… I was heavily into sports when I was a kid. Swimming, football, riding bikes, everything. I was working in a factory when I was thirteen and I met this guy there. His name is Kjartan and he had a hairdo just like Robert Plant. I was really into Led Zeppelin at the time and Lenny Kravitz and I just thought he was the coolest guy I’d ever seen. He was never with anybody, he was always in some corner reading a book and smoking cigarettes. I just thought he was really, really cool so I knocked on his door without knowing him at all, he was just some guy in the factory. I knew where he lived and I asked if he could teach me how to become an artist. I knew he was a poet, that’s what the people in the village told me – he published one book. He took the challenge, he told me to come three times a week. In retrospect, maybe he was just having a laugh but I took it really, really seriously. He made me listen to art kind of music you know; Frank Zappa and a lot of Indie stuff. He made me read books and poetry and he taught me how to drink whisky. He made me smoke cigarettes, bananas, whatever… how to look at women.
3) Do you ever wonder where you’d be now if you’d never met him?
I’d probably still be kicking a football I guess and I would have got a proper education. But that all changed my life because I really got into all that stuff and we became good friends. Actually, he did the illustrations in the booklet of my CD and they’re amazing.
4) Tell me about where you’re from. Is it worth going for a visit?
Oh definitely! I’ve been really fortunate because my father was a sailor. We lived everywhere in Iceland. I’ve never lived longer than three years in one place and I’ve also lived in London and Africa. Now I live again in the west part with my family; two kids and a wife. It’s a small town called Sudavik and there’s only like 110 people there. In the winter it gets pretty tough, you know.. the weather conditions. But still there’s a kind of spirit that I really relate to. These tough folks, both men and women; they’re constantly walking against the traffic. Ten or twelve years ago they had a horrible avalanche, killing more than twenty people in the town. That’s a huge percentage for such a small town, but still they just moved the town a mile down the road where it was safe. They rebuilt it in a matter of a few months. They were so determined not to give up, they had to be the winner of the situation.
It’s just so encouraging for me as an artist because they feel so real you know. They’re really harsh critics too and they’re always pulling my leg. I’m kind of the town clown or something… there’s only one shop where we have the bank, doctor, everything within the space of this office. Everybody meets there for coffee in the morning.
5) Do you still have your first musical instrument?
Yeah, I have a guitar that my parents gave me when I was fourteen. It’s a crappy guitar, I never play it anymore. I don’t think it even has strings but I can’t throw it away.
6) What’s the best thing about your job?
It’s the amount of fun that you have. I’ve had plenty of jobs; I’ve been a sailor, a messenger boy, cleaning glasses at pubs. I’ve had some really nice jobs as well but there’s always been this one constant that if I do it for awhile I start to watch the clock you know. This is the only job that I have never considered time. It moves at such a fast pace that it’s sometimes scary.
I’m really fortunate, especially when I’m writing stuff. I have a small studio in the town, it’s like a small barn and it’s really nice because even though my two kids are really young, you don’t need keys so everybody’s free to walk, play and have fun. They can come in the studio whenever. I think that’s the best part, even though there’s a lot of good things like touring and press.
7) What’s the worst part of the job?
I think there are two elements to try to avoid. One is the amount of waiting you have to do like when you’re touring. You get into a town and you have to wait for someone to open a place and then you have to wait for everything to be ready. Then you realise you’ve been waiting a long time. But of course there’s a way around it; you need to have a book or an ipod. Sometime’s you forget and it’s a waste of time.
Also, there’s a few people in the business that are kind of like snakes. They’ll feed you wrong information and they’ll try to make things go apart. They are exactly like snakes or rats in a way… and it takes a few months or even a few years to adopt a filter. Of course you have to meet everyone with an open heart and give everyone ten chances because it’s a tough business but there’s unfortunately a few dodgy folk out there.
8) Your dad is a karaoke singer – what tune do you always choose first?
I try to do a random pick all the time and it usually doesn’t work! It worked one time for my father when we were touring Malaysia together. I picked a song just to play a joke on him; ‘One Moment In Time’ by Whitney Houston… that turned into his main song! He’s got a really bassy voice and it completely changes the song and makes it really macho.
9) ‘Jesus Is A Good Name’ is a corker of a song. Do you think Jesus ‘got a lot’ back in the day?
Yeah, some researchers say so. Yeah, it’s funny with Christianity and sex; It’s like it’s an forbidden fruit, the sex part and I think it’s just really funny. It’s such an everyday part of life. We all have to have sex; it’s like food for most people. But still, it’s like an off topic and it’s one thing that messes people up you know? It’s such a hidden thing and they’re shy about it.
I think he did alright though. In pictures he looks like a hippie.
10) You talk about women moaning “Jesus” of “God” at climax. What do you moan at that crucial moment?
I’m a bit of an elephant. *Coughs* erm.. that’s when you think you’re going to moan it sounds more like a mistake. Like a bad trumpet (at this point Mugison performs his climax sound).
11) Your past album was an extremely hands on process, especially where the packaging was concerned. What was the process like with your new album ‘Mugiboogie’?
We took it to the max this DIY thing; it’s on my own label and we handmade every album. We’ve done 32,000 as of now and we have to stop because it’s too much labor for everyone. I’m really lucky because the whole town got involved; the old ladies and the kids came over on the weekends and some evenings to pitch in. I think we’re working on a back-up plan in case it starts selling ridiculous amounts.
12) You’re touring now and your schedule is all over the place. Is there a particular gig you’ve got coming up that you’re most looking forward to?
I have a gig in Poland at the end of the tour. I’ve never been there. We’ve got a lot of Polish immigrants in Iceland, especially in my area. Lovely folk and it’ll be fun to go back home and tell them I’ve seen where they’re from.
13) Is there any chance you’ll head over to my homeland, Australia?
There’s always been talk about it… I feel like I’ve been on my way since 2002. There was an email awhile ago offering me a gig in Sydney in 2009. Some festival next to some pub. I’ll have to follow up on that.
14) In your well rounded musical opinion, what’s the best festival out there?
Well, the best festival I’ve ever been to (apart from my own festival) is Roskilde in Denmark. It’s one of those festivals where you have 60 – 90,000 people and there’s so many music enthusiasts. Often festivals turn into these beer drinking, drug taking kinds of things. I’ve never been to Glastonbury – I’m told that’s similar. I really like that stuff because people show up and they really listen.
Last time I was there, a few years ago, we bought the whole family. I was there with my three-month old son and we were able to have him there with huge headphones to protect his ears. It was really nice – there were no types of threatening situations.
15) What music out there makes your heart skip a beat?
I buy a lot of music – I’m always searching and finding things that turn me on. There have been a few constants though; like Gillian Welch, Tom Waits, Aphex Twins, some classic stuff like The Beatles, Screamin Jay and John Lee Hooker. It just makes me happy.
16) What’s the most memorable gig you’ve ever been to as an audience member?
I was going to a Tortoise gig and I didn’t know who was going to support him but it was Squarepusher and he just blew my mind. I left soon after he finished, just because I didn’t want to spoil the memory of sitting there being exposed to a different kind of music. I’m a big fan of electronic music… when I lived in London I went to lots of gigs with electronic artists and I was always disappointed because they didn’t have any showmanship to it. Squarepusher proved to me that he can make an intense show only using electronics but still he had the energy of, I don’t know.. Elvis Presley or something. He really made me scared and excited. That’s one of the reasons I tried to do a one-man show with the computer and stuff. That was definitely the biggest I’ve had from a gig.
Mugiboogie is out now.
Related links:
Mugison official site.
Mugison on Last.fm
Mugison on MySpace
Mugison on YouTube
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