Kjartan Holm (FOR A MINOR REFLECTION)

Tell us something about For a minor Reflection?

For a Minor Reflection is a four-piece from Reykjavík, Iceland. We're all 22 years old and we've been playing as a band for about 4-5 years now. Originally it was just me and Jói, our former drummer, playing heavy metal in Jói's garage. We had long hair and only listened to heavy metal. We weren't really good, but that didn't matter. Later on Elvar, the bass monster, joined in and we somehow turned into a indie-ish rock band. By then we had cut our hair and gotten new hairdos. And finally after meeting Guffi (piano and guitar) at a college party which ended in a strip poker party at my house, I asked him if he wasn't interested in joining our little band. The purpose of inviting him was to make him play piano and sing in our up-and-coming blues band. That didn't go as planned, maybe because we didn't have any sound system or piano, so he just ended up on the guitar and we started playing instrumental music. Now we have much more variety in our set-up. We're adding a lot of computer-made sounds and samples along with a saxophone, strings and a piano.

A brief history of how did you start to play music or record?

In the spring of 2010 Jói quit the band to pursue his career as a writer and Andri filled in his place like a king. We recorded two albums with Jói in 2006 and again in 2010. The debut album was a one-take-album, which means we didn't do any overdubs or post-editing. It was basically just a plug-and-play method. The sophomore album was recorded in a bit more professional way.

Can you describe your music?

Describe our music? "Energetic alt. rock with hints of electronic and pop elements." Simple isn't it?

What do you think about the comparisons with Mogwai, EITS, Sigur Ros…?

I like all these bands. Especially Mogwai and Sigur Rós. I used to love Explosions in the Sky when I was younger and that clearly shows in our older material. But I don't care. People can compare us to whoever they want. It doesn't matter to me.

Why don't you have singer?

We're experimenting with vocals for our upcoming EP album. The reason why we haven't had vocals so far was originally because we didn't have any sound system. Sounds lame, I know, but it's true. But after a while we just liked it to be instrumental - we thought it sounded good like that. We're not that eager to have vocals, but we're giving it a shot.



We saw you on this years Sziget festival. How was it for you?

Oh baby! The Sziget festival was amazing. I've been to many huge festivals but this one is something else! We had so much fun and we were so pleased with our gig, the attendance, the amount of CD's we sold, and just talking to the people who showed up was insane. So yeah, we really like Sziget festival!

Song/album that changed your life?

There are three albums that have affected me the most. They are "High Violet" by The National, "You Fail Me" by Converge and "( )" by Sigur Rós. They're all really different to each other but so amazing.

Since you mention "high Violet" as a must have album, I assume you watched THE NATIONAL on Sziget main stage. What do you think of them
live?

They completely blew me away! I had heard some ups and downs about their
live performances so I was a bit worried to see how the show would be. But
it turned out to be amazing! It's one of the best shows I've ever seen, ever!

Are there any song that you would like to cover and any artist that
you would like to play with?

I would like to cover "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. It's the best song that's ever been written. It would also be interesting to play with bands like Battles, Shellac and No Age.

Which do you prefer, cd, vinyl or mp3?

I prefer vinyl the most. But I almost only listen to mp3's. I listen to CD's when I'm driving and vinyls when I'm in the mood.

What do you listen when you're at home, on tour, right now…?

We all have so different taste of music. But for some reason, despite that, we always listen to "girly" music on tour. Artists like Ke$ha, Beyoncé, Rihanna and stuff like that. I can't really explain why but it's just like that... But when we're just listening with our headphones we of course listen to something we like individually. Right now I'm listening to the new Title Fight album, "Shed", it's really nice.

Tell me something I would never guess about you?

I'm right-handed and left-footed, Elvar is a die hard supporter of Liverpool, Guffi speaks spanish and Andri is abnormally good in something called StarCraft. Tell us something about Plegde Music project?

PledgeMusic is a really cool invention. It basically just makes it possible for us to be in direct contact with our fans. In collaboration with the fans we can raise enough money to pay for the studio, where we are going to record our upcoming EP album, and in return the fans will get access to exclusive content on our website, limited items and etc. Also they will be the first to get our EP album later this year. And by funding the new EP you will be involved in our project to donate part of the income to Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), a valuable cause that we support.

Take care!

terapija // 17/09/2011

PS: We have some FOR A MINOR REFLECTION cd's for the fastest who send us their names and adress on our e-mail nagradnjacha@terapija.net