On the radar
rising star
bardi johannsson
words by Chloe Markowicz
If you don’t know who Bardi Johannsson is yet, you soon will. The singer, composer, clothes designer and producer is quietly gaining global recognition. His recipe for success? Sleeping less. “That’s the best way of getting things done. These days I get five or six hours,” he says.
Pale and tall with brown tinted glasses, Johannsson looks nothing like an Icelandic Beach Boy but You – his debut album with the band Bang Gang – was described as Arctic surfer music. French critics called it one of the best records of 2000 and a year later the video for single So Alone was nominated for an award at the Gérardmer Festival.
Since then, Bang Gang has become a one-man act and Johannsson’s music has taken a turn for the melancholy. His latest album, set for release this summer, has the working title Ghosts from the Past. Expect more of his signature beautifully haunting acoustic guitar and vocals.
“When I started the record I was hoping for a masterpiece,” he says. Then adds: “I think I’m not very far off.” He pauses a beat, then lets out a laugh.
Known as bit of an eccentric, Johannsson is not just, as Britain’s Observer Music Monthly put it, a “hard-partying, heavy-drinking, multi-instrumentalist Icelandic Jarvis Cocker”, but rather a highly versatile artist. Bang Gang is indie-pop, but Johannsson likes Beyoncé and death metal bands, and his discography includes a classical soundtrack for the 1922 film Häxan and Lady and Bird, a pop album with rising singer-songwriter Keren Ann. “I like to do other things on the side to not get stuck,” he says. “I like to do collaborations, you can explore and try things that you would normally not try.”
When we spoke with him last, Johannsson was back home in Reykjavík finishing his album. Would he ever live anywhere else – perhaps Paris? “I think Bergen in Norway is a really cute place,” he replies. “I tried to live in Paris but never moved all my stuff. You always want to be where your things are.”
This summer he’ll be in back France kicking off a new tour. He says the best gig he’s played so far was at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. “It’s a such a nice area. The surroundings are very beautiful and they take good care of you.” But what they did to make him feel so at home? Johannsson replies with his characteristic deadpan humour: “Something which you cannot print. It was nice.”
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