"For a damsel in distress I'm almost happy, and I guess I can, live without, the action man!"

[the_future_modernes]

Hafdis Huld- Action Man

And a completely hilarious cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies"
Single Ladies (put a ring on it) - Covered by Hafdis Huld @ Songs from a room

2007 interviewWho is Hafdis Huld?

Hafdis Huld, sometime member of Gus Gus and Icelandic indie film actress, quietly released her debut album Dirty Paper Cup in 2006.

http://www.musicomh.com/ caught up with her at Brighton's Great Escape to hear how Dolly Parton is amongst her influences, that she can do an upper-crust English accent to hilarious effect and that her British band are being taken blueberry-picking in Iceland...

There are as many British guitar bands as there are pebbles on the beach at Brighton's Great Escape Festival. So it would be easy to miss Hafdis Huld, hunched outside a café, squeezing her tiny frame into a chair and under a hat.
Yet the acclaimed Icelandic pop-folk chanteuse's music stands out like a marooned Viking ship. Full of sharp wit, assured melodies and enough charm to melt a glacier, it is music as beguilingly unique as Hafdis' native Iceland. And, no, she sounds nothing like Björk.
Somebody needs to vid this song yesterday!
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2009From Iceland to England Hafis Huld Interview part 1

In October of 2006, Hafdis Huld released her debut solo album, Dirty Paper Cup and as she spoke to Riveting Riffs Magazine, the mixing for her new album, which has a working title Synchronized Swimmers, was being completed.

“Right after Christmas I went into the studio which was in a converted old barn, in Scarborough (England), in the freezing cold, and it was the middle of the winter. There were lots of good musicians and we stayed there for a week, as we recorded sixteen songs. It worked very well for us. We set up in different corners for the live takes and it sounded lovely,” says Huld talking about the recording session for the new album.

Concerning the album Synchronized Swimmers, Huld says, “I think that it has a happier sound than my first album, and I don’t know why, because it wasn’t on purpose, but it is a good thing. The first album was acoustic guitars, banjos and a few little instruments, but now I have a full band with me. We did a song (on the new album) called, “Vampires,” which is a love song. I know that it isn’t a typical name for a love song, but there is no typical thing for love is there? We live in this neighborhood that is full of old people and we have this theory that they think that me and my boyfriend are vampires, because we stay up long into the night recording music. When they are going home for the day, we are going out. I think that I have seen some curtains move, as they spy on us to see if we are really evil vampires, but we are really not.MORE

Icecream is Nice and Monsters are not: Part Two

Hafdis Huld describes her formative musical training as being as, “unrock ‘n’ roll as you could imagine,” as she sang in a children’s choir and a church choir. She was also heavily influenced by the Icelandic folk music to which she listened and she credits those musical environments for teaching her about singing in harmony. She also says that the Icelandic folk stories taught her to keep her imagination alive.

“(When I write) I always start with the lyrics, because I think that it is important to know what story I am going to tell and then I find the music, the melody that supports the story that I am telling. Words are very important to me,” she explains.

Huld will often collaborate with others when it comes to writing her songs, including band member Alisdair Wright (guitar, banjo, ukulele). I do like co-writing with different people, but I don’t want to co-write my lyrics, because I am very specific what I want to sing about. It is my story, but I am very excited to have people with exciting musical ideas to come and co-write the music with me,” she says.

When I ask the singer / songwriter about her song “Ice Cream Is Nice,” she laughs and then in a voice mixed with both mystery and mischief quotes a line from her song, “Ohhhhh and monsters are not.” I wrote it when I was about sixteen. It is one of those stories that I have kept with me and then when I made the album a few years later, I still wanted to include it, because even though some things about it seem quite naïve and basic, there’s still an underlying story. (Her voice becomes more pronounced and she repeats the lines) “Ice Cream Is Nice and monsters are not,” and if you don’t want to read anything more into it fine, but if you actually listen between the lines that’s very interesting as well.”MORE

Interview: Hafdis Huld: Bearded Magazine

Snatching a few minutes backstage at the Borderline after soundchecking for the night’s gig, Hafdis has the confidence of a seasoned performer. After spending much of her teens singing with Icelandic techno collective GusGus, she took time out to find her own style, collaborating with the likes of FC Kahuna, Tricky and conceptual hip-hoppers Deltron 3030, as well as starring in several Icelandic films. Collaborating with Tricky on his Knowle West Boy album was a lot of fun, with Mr Thaws belying his fearsome reputation: “I thought he was lovely… we got on very well. He didn’t seem like a scary guy at all. He’s quite a colourful character but I see that as a plus – it’s more interesting. And he says I sound like Jesus – that has to be good!” It’s a pretty varied CV, she admits: “I tried out quite a lot of things. When I joined GusGus I was 15 years old. I travelled the world, we released albums and I learned a lot from it. I left the band before my 20th birthday and I soon realised that if I was to put a band together it probably wouldn’t sound like that.” Hafdis continues: “After GusGus, so many people said ‘we thought we’d get a dance album from you’… I still enjoy dance music. But if I’m doing something as Hafdis, then Hafdis is in charge. There’s going to be banjo, acoustic guitars, harmonies… ‘cos after taking time off I realised that’s what I really enjoyed. I wanted more space for words, more people playing instruments.”http://www.beardedmagazine.com/features/article/interview-hafdis-huld">MORE

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