Interview

Mimas / Dad Rocks!

Mimas is a Danish band, based in Aarhus. “Mimas is a furry kitten: Restless, picking fights and still lazy and patient at times. Icelandic musician Snævar Njáll Albertsson is the mastermind behind ‘Dad Rocks!’. The guitar here is mostly acoustic and is

by lizzoutline 19 September 2014

Snaevar Albertsson is a father, a rocker and a lover. He's Icelandic, and leads not only the indie group Mimas, but also his own project, Dad Rocks!, formed following the birth of his daughter in 2009. Both acts are very serious about their music, but also imbued with a keen sense of just having fun, experimenting and making music because they love to do so. Snaevar plays with both Mimas AND Dad Rocks! at Norwich Arts Centre in October, so I caught up with him to find out what he's been up to with not just one, but two musical acts on the go.

How did you come to start making music yourself?

A long time ago - I guess I was about 14 years old - my uncle was staying at our place, and had brought his acoustic guitar along. Back then all I listened to was Metallica, and he knew how to play a lot of their songs, so the first riff I ever learned how to play on the guitar was ‘Unforgiven’. After that I found some Metallica tab books at the local library and spent a couple of years learning how to play the first 5 records. Luckily my dad insisted on introducing me to other artists such as The Pixies, Radiohead, Lou Reed and Sigur Rós. That was back in the late nineties.

Who or what are your musical influences? I read that you enjoy Why? And Pavement, who happen to be in my own Top 10 bands of all time. Do you think the other music you listen to comes out in your own songs?

Those two bands are definitely a source of inspiration. With Dad Rocks! we’re also inspired by the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Bill Callahan, Broken Social Scene and Owen but also older songwriters like Neil Young, Bob Dylan and The Band. Mimas grew up on post rock, like Do Make Say Think, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion, but we’re all into bands like Fang Island, American Football, Deftones, Silver Jews -basically a lot of different stuff.

What’s your songwriting process?

It’s different with each project. With Mimas we write all of the music together before I add vocals and lyrics to them. The upcoming album was actually all written and recorded before I started working on the vocals. I had about a week to write and record vocals for 10 songs, which was a new thing for me, and a lot of fun. With Dad Rocks! - It’s mostly my ideas, and much is planned and arranged before we go into the studio, but the individual members are becoming a bigger part of the arranging too. For me, it’s all about fooling around with the guitar and piano, and not forcing anything out. Songs become less honest if I set a goal of writing one song a day, for example. The songs become strangers to me after a while, because they were forced into existence.

What are the main differences between Mimas and Dad Rocks! performance-wise ? And what do you get out of each?

There’s a huge difference, even though the bands share two members. Mimas is one of those bands where it works when and if a mistake occurs during a song. It’s just about taking advantage of that mistake. The energy level and dynamics within the band is rather extreme, and I’m always pretty beat after a Mimas show. Dad Rocks! is probably a bit more elegant in its’ expression, and almost symphonic, whereas we embrace chaos with Mimas. They’re two totally different bands, and I’m sure no one is going to feel like they’ve seen much resemblance after a joint Dad Rocks!/Mimas show.

You’re now recording your third album. Does it have an overriding theme to it?

We’ve just concluded the work on the album, and I’d say it’s a rather mature album, although there are loads of naughty words in there. It feels like the album has actually taken the time it needed to make it, if that makes sense. It’s a band looking back at what it’s been through, but there are also angry songs on there too. Some songs are reminiscent of the 90’s emo, others are bordering to hardcore and some dig into our post rock past. Most of all, I think it’s a fun record to listen to. The lyrics are once again pretty fucked up, and mention everything from Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ to breaking even on record releases.

You haven’t done much as a band with Mimas in the last few years; is there any particular reason for that?

Yes, but more than one. A band member went through some difficult times, and not everyone was into the idea of intensifying the workload and input that was going into the band. So we decided to take it easy, and see if we could find the right balance between us to keep going, and a pace where everyone could be happy. Some bands would’ve broken up for these reasons, but this band is all about the friendship between us.

Dad Rocks! started in 2010 after you became a father in 2009. What was it about this life changing experience that made you want to create a different kind of music?

Again, because of different reasons I’d say. I didn’t feel that channelizing my experiences of fatherhood through Mimas was a suitable outlet for those emotions, so I knew I wanted to create something else, and to me it was important to do. This was at the same time when everyone needed to step back a bit from Mimas, so it was a natural thing for me to continue creating music with this new project and a different angle.

You asked your fans to remix your album and then released the result for free. Were there any remixers that particular stood out for you? Was it hard to choose the best ones for the compilation?

With Mount Modern, yes we did exactly that. I think there’s a lot of great remixes on that release, but it wasn’t the aim to release some high end remix edition of the album. It was all about including our listeners in a creative process and opening up to different interpretations of ours songs. It wasn’t as much about a qualitative aesthetic evaluation of the contributions, but more about a democratic inclusion of the listener as a creator. So basically I didn’t think too much about what level and what skills or tools the individual contributors had as a condition of remixing the songs. Some of them were doing it for the first time, and others had done a lot of remixes in the past, so yes there’s of course variations of talent, but it’s also about inspiring others to create, and hopefully to continue to create in the future too.

You’ve got lots of collaborators for your second album, a female choir, full brass band etc. How did you go about finding the right musicians for this job?

That’s true. We have about 50 different people performing on the album. Many of these had already performed on the first album, and others became a part of the live band before we recorded the new one. Our cornet player is also active in a brass band, and when I proposed the idea of having them playing on the record they were just really into it. I got in touch with a lovely woman who is leading a young girls’ choir in our city. They had a listen to the songs and the arrangements and were just really up for it. None of these people are professionals, but are doing it for the fun of it, so I think they were just really motivated to go into a studio and try things out.

The video for your song Peers looks rather familiar ;). Are you worried about being sued by Bob Dylan?

Hah! Not really I think. It’s an ode to the fella. Especially an ode to how he too took songs, melodies and lyrics that was already out there and transformed them into his own style and music. This video is supposed to be an example of this practise, and it tries to underline the antagonisms between how musicians build upon traditional music – using that music to form their own - and how modern, digital art tries to build upon existing artefacts, but is stifled in the process because of the architecture of copyright laws. So if I actually get sued, that would be beautifully ironic.

You’ll have a busy night, playing with Mimas and also as Dad Rocks! At Norwich Arts Centre. As you get older is it harder to tour? Do you still enjoy it?

Truly. I’ll be a broken man by the end of the tour.

Mimas and Dad Rocks! Play at Norwich Arts Centre on 23rd October. Tickets from ueaticketbookings.co.uk, NAC box office or online https://norwichartscentre.co.uk/events/mimas-dad-rocks-special-guests, plus in person from Soundclash Records.