Band: Mugison Members: Örn Elías Guðmundsson Label: IPECAC/ Mugiboogie Location: Ottawa Civic Center – Ottawa, Ontario Date: : Sunday, May 11th, 2008 Interviewer: Michael Vickers

On a chilly, overcast evening I sat down on a weathered curb with Icelandic musician Örn Elías Guðmundsson, or Mugison, as he is better known. In 2004 this man from lands afar was the big winner at the Icelandic Music Awards. His album, Mugimama Is This Monkey Music?, received best album and his song Murr Murr was named best song amongst many other accolades he received during the evening. Today, he is opening for Queens of the Stone Age on a tour that had has led him across North America and was bound for a trail around Europe promoting his disc Mugiboogie. My friend Tim Peterson and I sat with this passionate and dedicated musician to discuss work ethic, art of every form and how to make 3,000 women moan like Jesus. No, your eyes are not deceiving you.

This was the front end of a tornado evening that ended in guzzling coronas with Josh Homme and breaking all Ontario smoking bylaws. My sincere thanks go to Jerrod Wilkins the tour manager, Melanie at Fat Wreck Chords, Bobby Gorman, the guys in Queens of the Stone Age and of course the man himself, Mugison.

Michael: I guess let’s just start with the tour itself, how’s everything going so far?

Mugison: It’s been amazing. I’m not sure how many shows we’ve done, probably ten or something and it has been fantastic. The Queens guys are so nice, there’s no real noise limits or restrictions on anything. Their crew’s been helping us a lot and everyone’s been really cool about everything. Most bands at that level have some sort of rules to follow but these guys are some cool cats.

Michael: Right on, whoever you tour with always makes a big difference. Where are you looking forward to going to, any places you really want to play?

Mugison: I’ve just been looking forward to the whole thing because I’d never been to Canada. Iceland’s got a nice link to Canada as so many people have moved on over, one third of the country moved over a hundred years ago. Gimli in Manitoba is pretty much an Icelandic village just in Canada. There’s been all these TV shows about the lost Icelandic people over here so I was really looking forward to coming here.

Michael: And how’ve you liked it so far?

Mugison: Great man, great. The crowds are really accepting, really open. We’re banging eight or nine new tunes in the ears of people that aren’t there to see us and they’ve been just amazing. In Saskatoon of all places too surprisingly, just amazing. There were some decent nutcases there man, always up for some fun.

Michael: I guess the next question really is, I mean, you work your ass off. For your first disc you made all the album sleeves yourself, I mean for 10,000 CDs you sat there with a sewing machine and hand made each booklet. That’s incredible. Do you think that’s part of Icelandic culture? Fishing’s important there obviously and lots of hard labour, but do you think the music industry has just kind of grown lazy now?

Mugison: So when I did that album, Lonely Mountain, I got signed to a small label in the UK owned by an artist Matthew Herbert, an electronic guy. They hired this fancy pants to do my artwork and I didn’t like it so I gave them a phone call and said you know, ‘I hate that artwork…I love that guy and I love his work but this just isn’t working for me’. They pretty much told me it was my problem and to fix it so I spent just over two months working around 16 hours a day on it all.

Tim: But that really brings character to it right? I mean, imagine being a fan owning one of those original sleeves.

Michael: Each one’s a little different, I mean you put a lot of yourself into your music obviously and I think you working that hard on the CD jacket sleeves is reflective of that.

Mugison: When I did that album I didn’t even have money for rent so I was staying at different friends’ places so I liked the idea of it being just me, my laptop and one microphone doing the whole thing. Each copy was made by me, taking the DIY thing to the max.

Michael: So many people would be fine with just letting someone else do the artwork and you know not care as long as it looks pretty. I was really impressed that you put that much into it.

Tim: For the laptop stuff, what kind of software do you use?

Mugison: I’ve done all my albums on laptops. The first was just a second hand PowerBook; this is 2002 so they only had one soundcard for laptops called VXPocket. It was just like a PCI card, two in and two out. That made wonders you know. It’s so good just to have a studio in a box. On the laptop and on the run.

Michael: Is it hard to be always on the move? I know you’ve a wife and children back home and how do you keep that balance? When you’re at home you have to be the husband and the dad but then on the road you’re out playing with Queens of the Stone Age around drugs, booze and all that. How do you divide yourself up?

Mugison: It’s easier than you’d think. I mean you go to your friends place for a party and you’re the not the same guy as when you’re back home with your mom. It’s just the same thing really, I have a wife and two kids as well as a studio in my home. I’m from a small town of 100 people way up in the mountains far away from everything in Iceland. I’m really fortunate with that village because they all pitched in and helped me with the art for the new album. We’ve done about 30,000 copies all hand made, the last three or four months there have been old ladies in their houses working hard at it.

Michael: See yeah, a whole community coming together for it. It’s wicked to see something that real.

Mugison: I mean that whole rock and roll thing; I toured once with a big band of guys in their seventies. So much of everything- ecstasy, all the drugs. Those old ones are tricky, the stories they tell man. I mean youth today, shit, the MTV generation is just pussies compared to the things they’d do.

Tim: Dave Grohl was saying that same thing; he was explaining how Bob Dylan parties like hell.

Mugison: Oh yeah for sure.

Michael: I guess getting back to Iceland; do you think everyone there has the same sort of mentality as you? I mean, with the music industry there, is everyone hard working like that?

Mugison: Well it really hit the peak with Bjork and Sigur Rós about ten years ago, I mean those are exceptional artists. They’re really great role models because they’re really independent and have a great attitude towards things; they refuse to obey labels.

Michael: Whenever I’m looking at bands like that out of Iceland it always seems to be the same sort of case as you. They could take one route and have all these people in high up offices make the decisions but they always choose to do it themselves.

Mugison: For the last two years the scene’s been pretty interesting because there’s a new generation. You’ve got these young kids about sixteen or seventeen that are breaking through and mixing the funniest things you know? I don’t even know what to call it. It’s like carnival-electronica-punk-skitzo stuff and I am pretty sure one of these bands is going to do something marvelous because they sound so sick. There is just so much potential.

Michael: I guess along with that what bands are you listening to right now?

Mugison: I really listen to a lot of music and try to buy as much as I can. I always want to amaze myself. I get really easily distracted so something’s got to really turn me on. It could be Arabic music or Jewish music but then it could be death metal from Norway. I just bought the new Black Keys album and that’s okay. I’m just constantly searching and you know it doesn’t happen often that I listen to a CD more than five times before getting onto the next one. There is just no messiah at the moment.

Michael: Yeah I really think everyone’s kind of lost. It’s the same in the visual art world right now. Everyone’s doing some cool new things but there’s no clear direction; there is nobody leading the pack. I guess it’s up to you in the music world then buddy.

Mugison: Yeah I’ll just make the music and see what happens.

Michael: I really like the photography up on your site and in the album artwork, who’s been taking all those wicked photos?

Mugsion: Thanks man, I’ve used a few different photographers. I love the one with mutated legs.

Michael: Yeah it’s all just really raw. I mean like that story about you making the album covers, it all just has this gritty and raw vibe to it.

Mugison: When I finished this new one Mugiboogie it was almost three years of work. I did two soundtracks, had two kids, lived in three homes and I changed from the laptop kind of electronica acoustic thing to you know, a Led Zeppelin band. There was just so much blood in the music and this really raw power and I’d had all these dreams and fantasies of mutations, you know, getting a double bass as a leg. They are just sort of mutated blues characters.

Michael: Just paired with all the heavy storm clouds and morbid, atmospheric vibe I thought they were really well done.

Mugison: That was a guy named Jonas Varr, he’s done some really good stuff. There were actually a couple different guys that have helped me with some of the photos. I picked them up online from different art schools and just got them to come out to my part of the country to get some stuff done.

Michael: Alright just two more here. I read the line ‘Jesus is a good name to moan’. Who do you want moaning your name? Come on, you knew I’d ask.

Mugison: The wife of course and everyone in the crowd.

Tim: I mean I’ve been in a crowd and screamed but haven’t ever moaned at a show.

Mugison: I love doing it at a big concert, getting everyone watching to moan. It’s weird, with that many people moaning, ‘Jesus’ it almost sounds like a waterfall. Yeah, it turns me on.

Michael: How could it not?

Mugison: Yeah really, three thousand girls moaning like a waterfall.

Michael: I can only hope that happens tonight. Lastly what lyric are you most proud of? What song or line in a chorus are you really glad to say you wrote and sticks out in your mind?

Mugison: From the new album I’d say it’s a song called ‘My Love I Love’. It’s for the family so if I go to the grave I’d have to pick that one. I’m really pleased with quite a few of them. ‘Deep Breathing’ is one track I was also really pleased with when I finished it. It’s weird with lyrics, some you have to come back to and work a lot on. There’s a song I did called ‘George Harrison’ which is of course a tribute track to the Beatle and it took me two months to get it right. I had to take out all the pretentious parts and funny bits you know? I nearly went insane because I couldn’t stop; I knew I had to finish it. So many hours a day were spent just replacing words and I took a three hour long bath when it was done because it was just so high on coffee and emotionally worked up.

Michael: It can sometimes just be too much and become something you have to leave for a while.

Tim: Yeah, I mean think of all the songs you write that you love at the time and the next day come back to and it’s just not good stuff.

Mugsion: Nine out of ten of them are those kinds of songs for me. You have to work on it but yeah, those are the statistics. Sometimes you’ll work for a week or so and think you’ve made the next ‘Let it be’ or something. Then you rest for a while and come back to it, realizing it’s shit. It’s like vomiting the day after drinking you know, you’re wondering why the hell you did what you did. You know, wondering what girl it was last night or something.

Michael: True, that was me and Jägermeister yesterday. I guess that’s about it though so thanks so much for everything.

Mugison: No, thanks to you guys. Cheers.