How’s Iceland’s scene shaping the music you guys make?
We arrived into the scene with our earliest material already finished and had not really been involved before that. The scene is very active, supportive and open to new acts, so it has been wonderful to be welcomed into it, but so far, the music we make has not been shaped by the local scene in particular.
Kári, why’d you switch from drums to vocals? Felt right, or was it tough?
I had written a lot of the material that ended up in our debut album, but as we were rehearsing the songs I realised I wanted to get away from the drums to fully represent the compositions and melodies through singing. It felt right from the start and was quite liberating.
How’d you all meet up to start Múr? Was it just hanging out and jamming?
Initially, it was just myself and the two guitarists, Hilmir and Jón, but we met in high school and realised we had similar musical interests and started meeting up to jam. We did not really intend to start a band at the start, we just liked hanging out and jamming, until that led to us meeting the rest of the guys in music school. It was not until I had started writing some of our early material that we started considering making this a proper band.
“Frelsari” digs into blind faith. Is that something personal for you, or just a topic you liked exploring?
When writing the lyrics, I felt those themes suited the atmosphere of the song and the feelings it evoked in me when listening to it, but I rarely go into the writing process intending to deliver some specific message and rather just go with what the song feels like. The word “Frelsari” means liberator or Messiah in Icelandic, but it had just been on my mind as a potential song title around the time the first riffs started taking shape, so the rest of the lyrics just evolved out from that initial theme/concept of liberation.
Your music sounds kinda cinematic. Is that something you push for, or does it happen naturally?
I think that is definitely something that just happens naturally when I write the music. I am a big fan of movie soundtracks, ambient and electronic music, so it makes sense that it bleeds into my writing.
“Heimsslit” has that doomsday feel. Was that the idea, or did it just come out that way?
As I was making the intro to the song, which I originally wrote as a short piano piece, it felt very foreboding to me, like it was leading up to or warning you that the world was going to end, so I thought the name “Heimsslit” (a word for the apocalypse in Icelandic that literally translates to the world being torn apart) would be a really good fit. That set the mood well for the rest of the writing process, so I think it became kind of deliberate once the concept had been established.
How do you describe your sound in a few words? No need to be fancy.
We have been described as a wall of sound and emotions and often use that ourselves, but people pick up on different things in our music depending on what they like. I would say our sound is vast and ominous.
Are your lyrics about real-life stuff, or more abstract ideas?
They mostly deal with emotions and concepts relating to facing our inner selves and our place in the wider world.
Is there a certain image that feels like it represents Múr as a whole?
I am not sure how to answer this, sorry!
Wacken was a huge deal. After all that, how do you stay grounded and not get caught up in the hype?
Absolutely, getting to play at the international finale for Wacken Metal Battle was a huge opportunity for us and super exciting! But we went into it with realistic expectations and with the intention to try to connect with people from the industry, which ended up being really great for us, eventually leading to us meeting our current manager, Erin from FlyingFox AB, who has been instrumental in getting our music out there. I guess we managed to stay grounded and not too caught up in the hype by just evaluating our situation day by day, educating ourselves on the industry and figuring out what we want to strive for.
With all your different musical backgrounds, how do you make sure you’re all on the same page when creating new stuff?
We all have very similar tastes when it comes to Múr, but so far the creative process has mostly been me writing the main structures of the songs, with the final arrangements being more of a collaborative process.
Do your lyrics still feel as personal now, or have they changed over time?
The themes stayed quite consistent for this first album, but we will see how this evolves in the future. So far, the new material seems like a natural evolution and growth of what we have done so far, but they will definitely stay personal, as it feels wrong to write them any other way.
Do the other projects you’re working on outside Múr affect the band’s music?
Not really, no. Múr has been my main musical and creative outlet since its inception and it feels like it gets to pave its own path.
What’s next for Múr? Anything new you want to explore sound-wise or creatively?
Our focus right now is on our second album and new music videos. In the future we would like to explore all sorts of collaborative work with other artists, across genres and mediums.
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