GusGus

Iceland is hot, we already know this. The iceberg field which raised artists like Múm or Sigur Ros also gave birth to GusGus, an organic source of productions with one dominant feature: the art of imagination. Daníel Ágúst, Veiran and President Bongo have compiled the latest Pulse Podcast; a refreshing Pandora's box of house bites and wet sounds. Julia Lozano speaks to President Bongo, a man who remains a master to learn from, despite his dislike for talking about music. 

How would you describe GusGus? I'm not such a big fan so i wouldn't be able to answer this question.

You have been releasing since 1995. That means fifteen years of GusGus. As wide and eclectic as your productions are, are there any recuring theme’s running through your productions? Again, impossible to answer. You're looking for somebody that actually has someting to say about music. We prefer to say it WITH the music. So, i guess a quick listening of all the gusgus albums so far in one go would create a different answer for everybody in for the game.

Do you think having been in the industry for this amount of time gives you a particularly different out look on the scene? I think that somebody who's been around for a long time and has not been shot already definitely has to have something to offer. Or maybe has nothing to offer and that's why nobody wants to shoot them? But when you survive, you experience, and when you experience and live you learn how to stay away from the music business as much as possible.

When you're in the studio, how do you normally get down to work? Do you have certain methodologies? The only way for us to work is to go away from it all for some period of time. Away from families, day routines etc. Then we work and there is no particular method. Oh, we like to start with getting a good solid bassdrum running. Normally it goes very fast when we begin. [Laughs] We have another album ready now as we had time in a summerhouse earlier this year.
 

"We focus on doing what jumpstarts our hearts and when that happens we usually have an album worth fighting for."

It was interesting to read peoples opinions of the last album, the words 'progression' and ‘suprising’ came up quite a lot. What were your thoughts on this type of reaction? We have never thought of what people say. Especially not critics. This is what you learn with being in the business for 15 years. We focus on doing what jumpstarts our hearts and when that happens we usually have an album worth fighting for.

How do you feel about these types of comments? Is there ever a sense of animosity that people wouldn’t expect you to progress? Ninety nine percent of people never want anything to change. We would really like to be part of the one percent that do want new things. And sometimes we actually do.

Gus Gus started as a media collective and its contributing team members have changed many times since then. How do you think this is reflected in the output? Biggi Veira and myself have always been here so the musical foundation has been there in some form. We work with people and people are different and then the output varies accordingly, i guess. But again, as i said, it's not my strongest side to talk about music.

How important is the visual part of things for you: lighting, projections, video clips… and what kind of art are you into at this level? We stopped really doing visuals after the Attention album and that touring period. There was a little bit on Forever but 24/7 had focus on lights. Now, again we are turning to visuals. It's great fun to leave it and then come back again. Personally i also started taking photographs again, and it's very inspiring at the moment. The visual part is always very important, be it lights and/or visuals for obvious reasons, i would say.

For you personally, has there been a shift from the visual side of things, to audio, or are you still across visual aspect as much as before? When we do something we try to do it as best as we can. But it's always about money as well, even though you can film today pretty cheap. The presention has to be good, and not all venues that we want to play have the budgets or space for this. But alot of them do, and then you really feel the love.

Are the videos purely inspired by the music, or do the two go hand in hand? If we take the ATS video, the idea comes from Heimir Sverrisson and Jon Atli Helgason. They are our very close friends. The externel eye is always so spot on. I, for example, didn't know that i was doing the main role until the shooting itself. Probably would have said no if i would have. So i guess it goes hand in hand. Healthy marriage.

Do you think that either the visual or audio side of things ages better? Personally i think that our stuff ages pretty well. The films we have done are, for me, equally as strong as the music and technology will never have any effect on that, it's not possible. We still have eyes and ears.

Can you tell us a bit about your live performance?  We always try to do our best and make people dance. That's it basically. Being there is the only way to live it. We still have analogue performances with no computers involved. We do, however, have a 'club-setup' whith ableton live. It's to adjust to smaller compact venues and in/out shows. Both are great!

Have there been any particular performances/gigs/festivals of yours that have stood out or particularly inspired you? Yes, we had a great performance at the Poolbar in Austria just a few days ago!

Talking about labelling styles: Minimal-tech, deep-house, minimal house…Never ending list nowadays. What’s your opinion about it? Mini who?

The scene is currently mutating into a more opened sound space, deeper sounds, even funky and disco are everywhere. Do you feel you adapt to these changes, or is the music you make irrelevant of what’s going on outside musically? Well, our inpiration does not come from recently released music.

Could you name someone that is exciting you at the moment in musical terms? I am loving The Field and Caribou at the moment...

What’s the plan for GusGus in a near future, what do we have to look forward to? Yet another album is scheduled for a March release on Kompakt. We go deeper and deeper into the abyss with this one, a bestseller for sure. [Laughs] 

Thanks a lot for your time. It’s been a great pleasure. The pleasure is all mine

Download the podcast from here

Julia Lozano