Oyama

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They’re big fans of snoozing, cats and the outdoors, but Icelandic five piece Oyama are far noisier than their real-life inspirations let on.

The shoegazers have obviously been touched by the wall-of-noise ethic of many early ’90s acts, namely My Bloody Valentine. Like The History Of Apple Pie earlier this year, Oyama inject a gleaming light into the white noise, creating melodic, earnest fuzz-pop with links to the likes of Yuck. Though they’ve hitched their wagon to the hazy aura and kitted out their instruments with shoegaze ephemera (i.e. a buttload of pedals), they bring a distinct Scandinavianity to the fray, with sweeping passages of gigantic sound and, somehow, pastoral refrains of flighty weightlessness. It’s smoky, flame-licked noise from where winter reigns supreme.

Their debut EP I Wanna is out now via their Bandcamp page. It’s been lavished with praise so far, with many commenting on their knack for strident melody underneath quicksand-esque noise-rock. They’re an invasive force, and Oyama have been getting many-a-crowd worked into a tizzy with their effervescent live performances, drowning the audience in an ocean of effects and summertime shoegaze.

We’ve been lucky enough to bag some time with them ahead of their upcoming Ja Ja Ja performance, where they weigh up the pros and cons of isolation, ponder Kevin Shields’ cats and talk about their full-length LP.

Could you give us a quick rundown of who’s who in the band?

Úlfur: We have Kári on guitar, Rúnar on drums, Úlfur on guitar and vocals, Bergur on bass and Júlía on synths and vocals.

Júlía: We are all primarily from Reykjavík, with ties to various other places.

Can you describe your sound in three words?

Úlfur: Sleepy noisy melodies.

Júlía: Hazy, rough, consuming.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

Úlfur: Political cartoons.

Júlía: My relentless talents and desire to sleep.

Which artists would you say have been the most influential?

Úlfur: The bands that have been most influential for the stuff I do with Oyama are the bands I listened to the most when I was a teenager and was falling in love with music. Like Pixies, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., PJ Harvey and stuff like that.

What’s it like being a musician in Iceland?

Úlfur: Cold.

Júlía: A bit easier than it is in a lot of other places. besides some obvious obstacles like the cold and the North Atlantic Ocean.

Does it ever feel isolated or remote? Has that had an effect on you?

Úlfur: It doesn’t feel isolated to me. There is so much music going on in Reykjavík and a lot of talented musicians to draw inspiration from. I feel that it pushes me to be more active, being a part of such a small community that generates so much good music.

Júlía: I agree with what Úlfur said, except I do feel that it’s above average isolated and remote. It’s a lot more difficult and expensive for us to tour (or to leave at all), but at the same time being part of such a small, supportive community is definitely motivating. There’s a lot of talent to go around here and it seems to just ferment and breed more talent, which is great. It’s very different from being a musician in, say, New York City, where very few people care that you’re playing a show, but it’s no problem to jump on a bus and go play in a hundred other cool places.

Iceland Airwaves was pretty successful for you – how was the aftermath? What’s been happening since?

Úlfur: Airwaves was nice. We got nice reviews and nice people started talking to us.

Are you planning/hoping to return this year?

Úlfur: Yes, totally. We’ve already been confirmed for this year’s festival actually.

What do you think makes the festival special?

Úlfur: How all the homegrown talent gets to shine and make an impression on the world outside of Iceland.

Júlía: It seems to make everyone really happy. Even people who have never attended the festival and don’t plan to get happy during Airwaves season.

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What’s a live show from Oyama like?

Úlfur: Like a cat trying to take a nap, but being disturbed by humans trying to pet it.

Júlía: I stand kind of still and try to concentrate while the boys move around a lot, it’s kind of like a rap battle with no rapping.
Do you have any pre-gig rituals you’d like to share?

Úlfur: I like to think about what Kevin Shields’ cats are doing at that moment, and if they know that they are Kevin Shields’ cats.

Júlía: If we remember to do it someone will say something cute or dumb and then we all lift one of our legs in the air. I wish I were joking but that would be a pretty bad joke. During our first mini-tour (Oslo and London) I gave all the boys one love-heart (as in the candy) before we went on stage. because I love them.

What’s been your favourite gig so far?

Úlfur: I think mine was our gig at the Aldrei Fór Ég Suður festival. It’s a music festival held every Easter in this beautiful and remote town called Ísafjörður (in the westfjords of Iceland) and it was really amazing.

Júlía: A week ago our friends Mammút organized a really fun show with us, Samaris and Ojba Rasta at Faktorý in Reykjavík. They made us super delicious dinner and the drinks were very plentiful. All the bands sounded amazing live and there were like, multiple girls playing (including my cousin AKA Mammút’s bassist) which always makes me feel a little less weird. I want to play with all of them again, like, every month.

Have you played the UK before? What was it like/what are you expecting?

Úlfur: We played in London last February. We played the Club NME night at Koko which was quite overwhelming, it was our first time playing in front of such a big crowd and I was really nervous. We also played in smaller bar type venues which was more what we were expecting rather then the hugeness of playing at Koko.

Júlía: I almost passed out on stage at Koko because I was so exhausted from travelling since the morning on no sleep. It was surreal. But then the smaller shows were pretty nice/ordinary, felt the same as any place. We encountered some sweet humans.

Any surprises in store for Ja Ja Ja?

Úlfur: Mmm, new song maybe…

Júlía: If someone knocks over stuff I will look very surprised.

What’s the reaction to I Wanna been like?

Úlfur: Really good! So happy to see people react so positively towards it.

Júlía: People want more and luckily we can provide that.

How did you write and record the EP?

Úlfur: We did everything ourselves. I brought in song ideas to band practices and everyone found their space within them and that’s how we write most of our songs. When we had finished writing these 6 songs, we decided it would be best to record them right away. Kári was studying sound engineering so he had access to all kinds of nice equipment and did great job recording and mixing the EP. But the EP is really just a rough draft of what’s to come.

What was your favourite part of the process?

Úlfur: Hearing the songs come to life after having spent a long time envisioning them.

Júlía: When everything was done and it all sounded surprisingly nice and I was able to take a deep breath and feel proud. I also had a great time making the cover art.

What was the most important lesson you learnt from making your debut?

Úlfur: Giving ourselves more time. Next time I want to spend more time on all the small details we didn’t bother with on the EP.

Any other material in the works?

Úlfur: Yes! We are really busy these days writing material for our debut LP.

Júlía: It’s exciting stuff.

And finally, what have you got planned for the rest of the year? Any festivals or releases coming up?

Úlfur: We haven’t planned the whole year, but we’re playing The Great Escape in May and Iceland Airwaves in October. We just really want to try and write as much new material as we can.

Júlía: being able to start recording before the end of the year would be dreamy.

Oyama will play the Ja Ja Ja Nordic music showcase at The Lexington on 25 April. Tickets for the show are £5 in advance and available via this link and to find out more about the event, head to the Ja Ja Ja Facebook event page.