Hear Them Roar

23 July 2013 | 5:30 am | Cyclone Wehner

"We look at it as, we’re doing this now and we’re touring – [but] it’s hard to find time to do the other thing, which is writing. But just with time we’ve found a way to write more on the road."

Australia is becoming a home away from home for Iceland's mythic indie-folk outfit Of Monsters & Men. They'll hit our shores for the third time this winter, headlining their second Splendour In The Grass. Already the band, last here for Laneway, have been selling out side-shows. “It is crazy, absolutely,” extols Ragnar 'Raggi' Pórhallsson, who sings lead vocals with OM&M's founder Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, both also playing acoustic guitar.

The group, touring across North America, are in Seattle – the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix, grunge, and the alt-rock Sub Pop Records that has neo-folkies Fleet Foxes on its roster. “It is a great city – I really like it,” says Pórhallsson. Seattle's college radio station KEXP did much to expose OM&M internationally when it uploaded a live 'living room' performance of the stirring Little Talks (in fact, a song about “loneliness and insanity”).

OM&M's formation was the initiative of Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, the band's sole chick. Though she had developed a solo vehicle, Songbird, Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir sought other musicians for gigs. She'd connect with Pórhallsson, the pair enjoying harmonising together, guitarist Brynjar Leifsson and drummer/percussionist Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson. On winning Iceland's Músíktilraunir band competition in 2010, and recognising their viability as a collective, they brought in bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson and keyboardist/accordionist Árni Gudjónsson. The following year OM&M debuted with the charmingly eccentric – and notably self-produced – My Head Is An Animal (its title is a lyric from the introductory Dirty Paws) on Iceland's indie Record Records. With US radio, and blogdom, picking up on Little Talks, OM&M signed to Universal. Today in both Australia and the US OM&M, not Björk, is the highest-ever charting Icelandic act. Here, Little Talks is now multi-platinum – and it placed at No. 2 in triple j's 2012 Hottest 100. After over 20 weeks in the charts, My Head... went to No. 1 in February – and, again, is platinum. OM&M have lately released an anthemic fourth single, King And Lionheart.

The lives of the OM&M members have changed overwhelmingly in three years. They've barely seen their Reykjavík base. Not that Pórhallsson is complaining. “I think we're doing good,” he says of the adjustment. “We kind of have to just deal with it, but it's more fun than it is hard – so it's very easy to deal with, I would say.” Noah And The Whale's Charlie Fink felt compelled to write the nostalgic Heart Of Nowhere on realising that he'd lost contact with old friends while travelling. “You miss out on a lotta things,” Pórhallsson concedes. “I haven't been home for almost a-year-and-half – just little stops here and there – but I try to keep in touch with family and friends over Facebook and Skype and stuff, so that makes it a bit easier.” Bands had a tougher time pre-Internet, he adds. Nevertheless, it was because of that upheaval that Gudjónsson discreetly parted OM&M in 2012. “I think he just found that it wasn't really his deal. He didn't really enjoy the environment – and the whole travelling around... he really likes being his own boss, in a way. He just really wanted to go back to school and get his Masters in Musical Arrangements or whatever it's called in English. But he just wanted to focus on that. We supported him in that – and we're all still very good friends.” Presumably, then, Gudjónsson will help OM&M with arrangements in the future. “Yeah, I'm counting on him!,” Pórhallsson agrees.

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A bigger problem? OM&M's popularity on the live circuit has meant that they've put off beginning their second album. Pórhallsson admits it's a challenge. “It is kinda [hard] because this is all so new to us,” he says. “We look at it as, we're doing this now and we're touring – [but] it's hard to find time to do the other thing, which is writing. But just with time we've found a way to write more on the road. We have some good ideas, as we're making new songs. When we get home from touring, I think that's where the real stuff will happen. Right now we're just throwing ideas around and stuff like that.” Pórhallsson is unsure about the direction of their next album. “I just wanna try to make good songs. I think where it will go, how it'll sound, depends on what the five of us do together when we get home. We definitely will do something that will sound different.” OM&M harbour an ambition to contribute music to soundtracks – something like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Has anything come up? “Nothing at the moment,” Pórhallsson says coyly, “but there are some maybe in the works.”

Audiences haven't tired of Little Talks, which has attracted over 60 million YouTube views. OM&M are keeping it fresh for themselves. “Just last night we did an alternative version of Little Talks, so we're trying to change it up and do different things.” At any rate, there's always the electro remix of Little Talks by fellow Splendour drawcards Passion Pit that Pórhallsson considers “cool” – even if OM&M can be relied upon to avoid EDM.

OM&M have had the most success in Australia and the US, the UK slow to embrace them – although they were booked for Glastonbury this year. “I never understand how these things work – but the markets are a very complicated thing,” Pórhallsson says. “How music comes on the radio and how it all works is a very complicated business... But we're very happy with just being successful in these places.” While OM&M's breakthrough has coincided with a folk-pop resurgence, led by Mumford & Sons, they've actually been likened to Grammy-approved baroque rockers Arcade Fire. (In the past Pórhallsson has played down OM&M's folkiness, instead deeming them “a very big rock band”.) “People always have to compare you to something,” Pórhallsson says, unfazed. He reckons the main reason the bands are bracketed together is because both have a multitude of musos on stage, OM&M sometimes accompanied by a trumpeter. “That's enough for people to compare us,” he quips. Pórhallsson laughs, too, at the suggestion that journos often compare acts to demonstrate their musical knowledge. “I would be a horrible journalist because I don't know any names – I'm horrible with names!” This accounts for why media types drop references so obscure that the bands themselves have never heard of them. “But it's good,” Pórhallsson counters. “I can maybe discover new music by reading my own interviews then!”

However, Pórhallsson readily lists his current favourite acts. He's listening to Half Moon Run, the Canadian band supporting OM&M in North America. And he digs at least one vintage Australian group. “One of my all-time favourite bands growing up was Silverchair – though it was mainly [2002's fourth album] Diorama,” Pórhallsson reminiscences. “That's been one of my favourites for many years.” It's an ironic choice given that he's in Seattle and, early on, Silverchair, then impressionable teens, were accused of being Nirvana wannabes. “I hate grunge,” Pórhallsson confesses, “but I really like Diorama by Silverchair, because it's not that grunge.” Why the antipathy to the Seattle sound – doesn't every '90s indie kid love it? “It's just something about the melodies – they don't catch my attention,” Pórhallsson responds. “I don't know why!” Not even Nirvana's? “Well, of course, there are a lot of songs that are classics and [that] I like, but nothing that I can really get into.” OM&M are truly unique.