Fish Eye Lens

Life for Ólafur Arnalds has never been busier. And for the 27-year old with eight records and a tour calendar that reads like a world map, that's saying something. On the eve of his third visit to Australian shores in less than six months, Arnalds is on the phone from his native Iceland, where, after this round of interviews, he's off to the cinema. This will be no popcorn-munching matinee though. “I'm going to a test screening for a film I'm writing the music for,” he enlightens, “so this will be the first time I'll see the unfinished score on the big screen. I'll see what we have to change and most likely start over again.”

It's an Icelandic drama called Life In A Fishbowl and, while it might be a while before it screens at your local multiplex, another of Arnalds' most recent projects has garnered acclaim both in Australia and abroad. Broadchurch was arguably the best TV series of 2013, a BBC mystery set in the titular, fictitious British coastal town. Bleak, yet hauntingly beautiful, the eight-part series has already been commissioned for a second season, and the inevitable American remake. David Tennant is breathtaking as the lead detective on screen, but it's Arnalds' score that drew viewers back for more. “Chris Chibnall, the writer, told me he had been listening to my albums while he was writing the series,” Arnalds explains. “One day he simply emailed me through my website and asked if I would be interested in working on the project. Of course, before the show came out I had no idea who he was, or what the show was, or whether it would be any good.”

Despite the fact that his latest album, the serene For Now I Am Winter, is already in the bag, the timing of Broadchurch wasn't ideal. “I'd finished mixing and mastering Now I Am Winter, but it was not the best timing because it was right in the middle of our promotional tour for the album. So I was juggling my work on Broadchurch [while still] doing ten interviews a day!”

Given the nature of scoring for the small screen, the Broadchurch workload was intense. “[When working for television] you can't just do whatever you want because the music always has to fit within the frame of the show; it always has to serve a purpose to elevate the show to a new or higher level.

“And there are a lot of logistical issues that end up taking up most of your time. The fact that songs have to be a very precise length – 'this scene is one minute and 27 seconds and three frames, and the highpoint of the song has to be exactly at this point and it has to end exactly on this point' – means there are a lot of these logistical issues.”

The ability, then, for Arnalds to produce such an ambitious score is testament to his brilliance. The humble composer would prefer deflect the praise elsewhere, though. “In the end, the executive producers always have the final word,” he shares on the collaborative process. “Luckily we never had any problems with that... They wanted to give me freedom and [encouraged me] not to be afraid to experiment. If they started to meddle and comment on everything, then I would've probably been more reserved about what I did, when what they really wanted was for me to go the opposite of the safe way and do something bold and different.

“Because there's so much music in Broadchurch, it was really great that we didn't have to go back and forth a billion times before deciding what we wanted.” It was enough to get Arnalds the gig for Season Two, with work starting later this year; as for the American version, it's still too early to let that cat out of the bag.

In the meantime, he's got Life In A Fishbowl to work on and a few shows to look forward to. Last year Arnalds came to Australia twice, during September and then returning in October for Melbourne Festival. And now he's coming back. Aside from the Frequent Flyer miles, surely there had to be good reason for all these visits? “We simply had some really cool show offers,” he explains. “We didn't play Perth last time either, so a lot of people were sending me messages that we should play in Perth as well. I love Australia, and this time we will have three days off in between the two shows and after the Melbourne show we have another three days [off] before we go to Japan.

“This time I'm bringing the vocalist who sang a few tracks on the album, Arnor Dan, and I'll be performing with an Australian string quartet. Last time I came over I brought my own musicians, but this time I'm using some friends of a friend; hopefully if it all goes well then I'll have people in Australia who I will be able to work with instead of always flying a bunch of people over from Iceland. It's not very economical.”