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Katla promo2021 025 KuggurLauraDiamondInterview with

Gu∂mundur Óli Pálmason aka Gummi (drums) from Katla.

Dark Doom-infused Metal with deep, melancholic emotions: When you hear KATLA.’s music you can imagine the impressive and incomparable landscapes of Iceland. Darkness, endless widths, waterfalls, glaciers - it is this special character of Iceland which reflects the music of KATLA.. Their islandic lyrics bring out those emotions even more and make it an extraordinary work of art. The duo, consisting of Einar Thorberg Gu∂mundsson (also known from the bands FORTÍÐ and POTENTIAM) and former SÓLSTAFIR drummer Gu∂mundur „Gummi” Óli Pálmason, released their second album ‘Allt þetta helvítis myrkur’ (‘All this damn darkness’) in November 2020. I had the chance to talk to Gummi via Skype about the Icelandic darkness, the influence of the volcano named Katla, the genesis and lyrics of ‘Allt þetta helvítis myrkur’ and which band changed his life.

Reflections of Darkness [RoD]: Hi Gummi, good to see you! How are you and where are you at the moment?
Gummi: I am fine, thank you! At the moment I’m in Reykjavík, in the only big city of Iceland. But I don’t live here, I live at the countryside.

RoD: The title of your album, which was released in November 2020, is called ‘Allt þetta helvítis myrkur’, which means ‘All this damn darkness’. What do you want to express with that title?
Gummi: Actually, I wanted it to be translated as „all this fucking darkness”, but our record label didn’t want to use the word „fucking”. I think it describes it better than „damn”, because the title is saying that you are fed up with all this darkness. It is not a praise to the darkness, like other Black Metal songs which are saying „oh, we like it dark”. In our country we say that we are really fed up with this shit!

RoD: Which kind of darkness does it refer to? Your inner darkness, or, as you just mentioned, the darkness in your homeland Iceland?
Gummi: It’s a good question, because it’s actually both. There are few types of darkness which are referenced in the lyrics. The lack of sunlight of course, and then there is also an inner darkness. There is a song on the album called ‘Hvítamyrkur’. It’s one word because in Iceland we do the same as you do in German, we combine two words into one. ‘Hvítamyrkur’ means „white darkness”. I wrote those lyrics after experiencing this on a glacier where you have so much white around you that you don’t see anything. It’s actually a kind of darker than „dark darkness”.

RoD: In 2016 you released a song called ‘Dómadalur’ which is the name of a valley in Iceland. How much does the islandic landscape influence your music?
Gummi: Many of our songs are referring to the islandic landscapes. That was really one of the reasons why we formed KATLA.. In early 2015 I started to work as a tour guide. I drive people around in those off-road vehicles and I go to these amazing places every time. At this time, I wasn’t doing music but I got so inspired by that I talked to Einar an I said that I need to get all this influences out. So yes, the music is directly influenced by the landscapes and nature. I remember back in the 90s some of those Black Metal guys who live in a big city, Oslo for example - which is a fucking big city for me here - and they said „oh we are so influenced by the nature and woods” and so on, and I thought „come on, you live in a fucking city”. Both Einar and me are very inspired by nature, it is literally my profession to be out in the nature.

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RoD: How do you both divide out the work on an album? Does one of you write the lyrics and the other one adds the music? Or are you working together? Who gives what kind of influence in it?
Gummi: It’s mostly Einar who does the music and mostly me who writes the lyrics, but we both do a little bit of both. For me this was a new way of collaboration - Einar had done this before but I hadn’t: We don’t rehearse but we send each other stuff via the internet and then we meet later and we record it. For me that was new because I was used to work together with a band and jam together and the music was born that way. But Einar and me had busy schedules and for a long time we didn’t live in the same place, so it was a very convenient way to work together.

RoD: Can you tell us something about the lyrics of the album? Despite of the darkness, what does the songs refer to?  
Gummi: The darkness is the red thread in all the lyrics. It’s about how to cope with it. It is something you have to go through and you have to learn how to cope with it and to live with it. I wouldn’t say it’s a totally miserable Doom album which says everything is miserable and we’re all are going to die. On the contrary we say everything is miserable - but… I think there always is this light at the end of the tunnel for us. No matter how bad things get. In our music and lyrics there always is this tiny little bit of light.

RoD: But for me ‘Allt þetta helvítis myrkur’ sounds harder, darker and rougher than your first album ‘Móðurástin’ (a mother’s love). Was that your purpose, or did it evolve from a certain mood?
Gummi: A bit of both, I would say. We definitely talked about it after our first album. We said that we wanted to do heavier and darker stuff but it wasn’t a decision that we forced out. It was something we talked about but then it came naturally. I always believe, and I think I can speak for Einar as well, you cannot force out music. It just comes naturally. So, this is what came out. It has dark stuff that we needed to deal with. Maybe our next album will be very happy pop music, who knows… (laughs).

RoD: Did the pandemic influence the work on the album?
Gummi: No, not at all, because we had finished mostly everything before the pandemic. Einar was working at the mixing and mastering when corona hit and shut everything down. So, it did not affect the process of writing in any way. We were already miserable before that (laughs).

RoD: Did you miss going on tour and present the new music live on stage?
Gummi: We both have a very long musical background and I have done a lot of touring throughout the years, maybe more than Einar. But when we started KATLA. we were never going to play live. The idea was that it would be a studio band only. But then we decided to play some festivals. And the we were booked for some gigs and corona hit. To be absolutely honest with you I felt relieved to hear that we don’t have to play those festivals. Don’t get me wrong, I love going on stage and play live, but it’s all the other things. Travelling, dirty backstage rooms and all of that, I don’t miss it. We are probably one of those few bands who said that we were relieved actually.

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RoD: But do we have a chance to see you live on stage again one day? Are there any plans?
Gummi: I don’t know if we ever will play live again, to be honest. I mean, never say never. But I know how painful it is going to all these airports and all these backstage rooms and so on. It’s hard to say but with those conditions how they are right now - it’s so unpredictable that we just cannot commit to that. Especially because we are not a full line-up band, we are just two people. So, the other guys with us on stage are friends who help us out but we can’t call them and tell them to learn all the new songs and then maybe everything gets cancelled.

RoD: So, on stage you are supported by friends, and you earlier mentioned that you wanted to keep the work on the album very familiar, with family and friends. Can you tell us more about it?
Gummi: On this album it was only me and Einar who did all the music and lyrics. Einar’s sister does backing vocals on the song ‘Húsavíkur - Jón’ and my fiancée did all the handwriting on the cover. I did the visual art and two videos; Einar did the mixing and mastering. So, it was literally the two of us and people who are very, very close to us who did the album. My fiancée and Einar’s wife are both visual artists. They have both done merchandise designs for us. We try to keep everything very close because we think, this is our art. If anyone else gets involved, how much of it is still our own vision? We are not saying that we do it better but we do it on our way and we want it to be one hundred percent our vision and not somebody else’s. For example, our first album ended up in something different than our first vision was because we had an outside producer and an outside engineer. They had their own ideas which were not necessarily the ideas of us. I don’t say that it’s worse, it’s just not our vision. Some people think that we are control freaks or perfectionists by doing everything by ourselves, but that’s not the case. It’s just more fun for us to do it this way, you know. It’s like you make a pizza yourself right from the start. You make the dough and you put toppings on it (loughs). And our record label, Prophecy Productions, gives us one hundred percent artistic freedom.

RoD: Besides KATLA. you both are involved in other artistic projects. Einar released almost at the same time as ‘Allt þetta helvítis myrkur’ his new album with FORTÍÐ, ‘World Serpent’. You are photographer and very involved in your artistic work under the name Kuggur. How do you combine your projects and do the influence each other?
Gummi: It’s a good question, because it might be a bit confusing. I also do my own music (editor’s note: dark ambient music) under the same name as my photography, Kuggur. But when Einar writes music, he knows, if it is for KATLA. or FORTÍÐ, because it’s a specific style when he writes for KATLA. and a different specific style when he writes for FORTÍÐ. You can easily hear, it’s a different style of music, so I think, it’s easy for him. For me it’s a little bit more immersive. One of the reasons why I formed KATLA. was that I also wanted to get my visual art out. It always was part of the plan that I would do the visual art for KATLA.. I think both things are interlinked really. It’s just the question for Einar when he writes music if he feels it’s KATLA. or FORTÍÐ.

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RoD: How and when did you and Einar meet, and how did it come that you founded KATLA. together?
Gummi: We have known each other since we were teenagers. I was in a band called SÓLSTAFIR, Einar played in a different band. In 1996 he and a friend of his needed a drummer for their band and I did the drums for them. The band developed and was then called POTENTIAM. I played drums for them on the first album and again on the last recording. Einar and me have always known each other through the years and we always had some musical cooperation. In 2006 we recorded an album together, just me and him, that was never released. But we used four of those songs on the last KATLA. album: ‘Hvitamyrkur’, ‘Allt þetta helvítis myrkur’, and in the ‘Blótar gömlu goðin’ ep (it comes with the special edition) it’s the songs ‘Eins þann sáu’ and ‘Og það gneistar’. So, these songs are older than KATLA.! In 2015 I no longer joined SÓLSTAFIR, which is a different story, most people have heard about it or can google it, it’s boring. After all that I contacted Einar and a couple of other friends to start a band. Originally, we wanted to have more people in it but because of conflicting schedules it ended up with just me and Einar and it worked out very well just being the two of us. We had worked together before, I needed a new output for my music, and to make a long story short - that’s why we founded KATLA.

RoD: KATLA. is named after the volcano Katla. In what way does the volcano inspire you? What do you combine with a volcano?
Gummi: It’s a very good question because here in Iceland we have very special volcanos and very different aspects which people normally not combine with volcanos. Most of our big volcanos are covered in glaciers. So, for me a volcano is not just fire and the power of the lava, there is also the other aspect: It’s the coldness, the glacier, the ice. It’s a destructive power but at the same time it’s also power that has given this planet life because without volcanos we would probably not have an atmosphere to breathe. There are a lot of dualities. It’s not only one thing or the other. And it was important for us to name the band after a volcano. I proposed two names to Einar, Katla and Hekla. Both are volcanos and also very common female names in Iceland. I found that interesting because Metal bands tend to be very male-oriented. I wanted to put a kind of a female side on it. A female name but still metal and dark, a kind of destructive. And so, we named the band KATLA.

RoD: There is a swedish band named Katla too, what do you know about them?
Gummi: We didn’t know that at the time we talked about the names Katla and Hekla. I had no idea; I just knew there is no Icelandic band called KATLA.. So, I thought why would there be a foreign band with the name of an Icelandic volcano? And by the way, people have told me that their name is from an Astrid Lindgren story. But it’s not a Swedish name, it’s an islandic name. And now there is also a Danish band called KATLA! They came after us. I heard it because a friend of ours was at the Wacken metal battle in Denmark where they participated. But I don’t think people confuse us all because the music is very different.

RoD: In what way did music influence your life - was it part in your family? Did you grow up with music?
Gummi: Yes, one of my first memories as a child was my mother playing the piano. Mostly on rainy days. I think she played every day, but on rainy days I stayed inside. So, I remember those sad rainy songs. I started learning the piano when I was a kid, I don’t exactly remember how old I was. Then I switched to drums. Music was a big part in my family, yes. I’m not sure about Einar, I actually never asked him about this. There must be some music in his family because his sister is also a brilliant singer. I am not sure where it comes from in his case.

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RoD: Which bands or artists influenced you in your teenager times?
Gummi: I must have been seven or eight years old when I heard IRON MAIDEN for the first time. But when I heard METALLICA for the first time it really changed my life! I remember being a METALLICA fan when ‘And Justice For All’ came out. I was about 11 years old. That was the gate for me to get into heavier stuff. My brother, who is three years older than me, was into SLAYER and stuff like that. But for me METALLICA was the gateway to heavier music. Furtherly it was the same with Einar. I didn’t know him at that time but I know that both of us got into metal because of METALLICA.

RoD: Did you see them live? Or what was the most important concert for you that you have joined so far?
Gummi: I started to go to concerts when I was about thirteen - but keep in mind that was Iceland in 1991. So, there were no international bands coming to Iceland at all. I didn’t see the Metal bands I liked until the early years of 2000. But the most impressive show I have ever seen was RAMMSTEIN. I saw them several times live and I am a huge RAMMSTEIN fan. In my opinion they are the best live band ever. But it’s not just the show, it’s the music as well!

RoD: And what about KATLA. gigs - which of your own shows is the one you will never forget?
Gummi: That is very easy to remember because we have done only four shows with KATLA.. The best one by far was the prophecy fest in Germany in a cave. Playing in a cave with our record label and with a lot of friends - it was a great atmosphere, it’s my favourite KATLA. show!

RoD: What are your next plans - are you writing new music with KATLA.?
Gummi: At the moment Einar is building a house at the countryside, I have moved to the countryside half a year ago so I was very busy. I had a few exhibitions for my visual art and I am preparing three more now. Einar is probably writing music because that’s what he does, he’s like a machine (loughs). KATLA. is paused a bit because we are both very busy. But I think when he finished his house, we start with KATLA. again!

RoD: So, we are already looking forward to a lot of awesome music and wish you good luck for all your projects. Thank you very much for the interview!

https://katlaiceland.bandcamp.com / https://kuggur.com
All pictures by Kuggur & Laura Diamond

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