dj flugvél og geimskip dances with tortoises and guinea pigs in her new vid for "Hellirinn bíður"

The track features on dj flugvél og geimskip (aka Steinunn Eldflaug Harðardóttir)'s recent album Nótt á Hafsbotni. Stream the LP below, read a Q&A about animals and haunted houses with Harðardóttir after, and watch the brilliant new vid beneath that.

Hi Steinunn, could you tell us how you created "Hellirinn bíður" (the song)?

It was this aggressive because of necessity. I had gone to the countryside to be alone in an old house, but when I was leaving to go home I turned on the radio. It said: the worst weather of the year is approaching, take your things inside, don't be outside, don't drive, all should stay inside! It's gonna be stormy tonight and the next day or two!

So I had to stay there, and it is an old house, the wind blowed through the house and slammed doors. I had to put carpet around some of the doors to stop the noise and scary sounds, I knew the house is haunted so I did not need anything extra.

So - I was stuck there, alone in a haunted house in the worst weather - and I had to make the most aggressive music to keep myself busy so I would not notice anything spooky. I recorded the storm and put it in the beginning of the song, as you can hear ;)

What's it about? How does it fit into the album?

"Hellirinn bíður" is about going into a cave to explore secrets. There you meet old and ancient animals (like the turtles in the video) and it is like a party song to be played when you meet them and you could use it as a part of a ritual... you could dance to this music in the cave along with your new wise animal friends, and the song is about that, so the song is like a newer ending circle about itself... it is also about itself being played when you are in the song itself, like the Ouroboros, aka the snake that bites its own tail.

The main theme of the album is about looking for mysteries underwater or underground so it fits really well.

How did the video come about?

My friend Gulla Mía has her own very special aesthetics that I really like. She is an artist and does all kinds of things, videos, sculptures, clothes, paintings, and just whatever you can think of, and always has some mysterious, otherworldly and dreamlike atmosphere in what she does.

I asked her if she would like to do a video for a song from the new album. I always did the videos myself before this, but it is time to see what happens if someone else uses the music as a seed for their own work and ideas. I am really happy about this and we had a great time recording, and always when she sent me clips from the video I was like WOW! HOW DID YOU DO THAT? :D

It looks like there's almost a vaporwave-y type aesthetic in the vid with the all the shapes and skulls and colours - how does this relate to the music?

[Gulla:] All the imagery stems from the lyrics - the video drags the viewer from reality into the abyss of ancient Atlantis- aided by exotic animals. Steinunn has been exploring both the deep sea and far space - next step is ancient history and animals from afar

How did you get hold of the guinea pigs and tortoises? Did you hold auditions?

We put an advertisement in the paper, asking for illegal animals to act in a music video. We got a lot of animals and they were all at home at the same time so most of the time we should have been filming the video we were actually keeping the animals from fighting each other… we had 4 turtles, two guinea pigs, two cats, and a rabbit. We were supposed to get snake, but it did not show up at the right time, so the snake will be in the next video instead.

Auditions would have been fun! Then we could put the results of guinea pigs trying different roles online!

What's your favourite animal?

Snake, it is the coolest animal, full of wisdom, mysterious and ancient. It is also the symbol of symbols - it can represent almost everything…

Also I love the Mantis shrimp - It is really colourful and has 16 photoreceptor cells (cones). Man has only 3. So they must see a lot of things we could newer imagine! They can also make electricity and lightning underwater by moving their claws really fast .

Could you name a few local bands that are worth checking out?

Evil Madness, Kælan Mikla, Eva 808, Carpe Noctem, Godchilla, Pink Street Boys, Skelkur í bringu, Singapore Sling, Panos from Comodo, Páll Ivan frá Eyðum. Is this too many???

What do you have planned for 2016?

Have as much fun as possible, play lot of shows, making videos and new music. Also - get a snake to dance in a video.

Nótt á Hafsbotni is now on Mengi Records.

Watch the video for "Hellirinn bíður" below.