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| Gus Gus |
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| biography / portrait |
| Once upon a time (1995) in the north there were two young boys that wanted to make a short film. These two, Sigurður Kjartansson (former male-model) and Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson (pilot) were well connected in the Reykjavik at the time and had no problems in gathering the "créme de la créme" of the Icelandic artscene being it music, acting, singing, dancing or financing together. Within a couple of months they had all funds to make "Pleasure" happen. When they had gathered the actors/singers/photographers of good quality available in Reykjavík, names such as Daniel Ágúst Haraldsson, Magnús Jónsson, Emilíana Torrini, Hafdís Huld Hákonardóttir, Heiðrún Anna, Ragnheiður Axel (who wrote the unbeliveable technotrack " Message from Disney " with Veiran on the first self-titled album "gusgus" from 1995), Baldur Stefánsson (financial genius), Stephan Stephensen photographer aka President Bongo and some other local actors such as Birna Hafstein and Kjartan Guðjónsson they went ahead with scheduled shooting in the month of May 1995. Of course money ran out by the end of that month so there was "nothing" else to do than to make the film score and throw in some pop tunes while at it. Actors were songwriters, songwriters were actors and Daníel Ágúst and Magnús Jónsson enjoying national success with their bands Nýdönsk and Silfurtónar were popstars that were actors and songwriters. But things were missing to make something super unique. Sigurður then called in techno guru Birgir Þórarinsson aka Biggi Veira and his dj collegue Magnús Guðmundsson aka Herr Legowitz, Buckmaster de la Cruz, Hunk of a Man from the techno group T-world. T-world had had some local success in the emerging techno scene in Reykjavik with tracks like Anthem (first 12" release on Underwater records 1993) and Purple. Both these tracks were later put on Gusgus albums, Purple on Polydistortion and Anthem on Gusgus vs T-world. As summer went along the film score progressed in various workspaces. The so called "blue room" is probably the most famous of these places situated just behind the now hip'n cool Klink&Bank Workshops in Reykjavik but the finishing touch was done in a 10 nights working session at Studio Sýrland. The filmscore had become an album. Distortion topped off with xtra distortion gave birth to the self-titled gusgus released late fall 1995. The cd was manufactured in 1000 copies with hand made velvet covers in 3 different solid colors: white, turkish and orange and was brought the attention of 4ad, who sent over their spy Lewis Jameson, with an offer of a 5 record deal. With that said people had to decide if the wanted to be part of this adventure or not. Emílíana Torrini went solo, Ragnheiður Axel went to New York to study theater and Heiðrún Anna went to Liverpool's Paul McCartney Academy, popping up 11 years later as a vocalist for Great Stuff's techno crew - Coburn. GusGus ended up 9 members with 2 xtraterrestial members on the side. Songwriter Páll Garðarsson and genious soundman Páll Borg within close range. With a clever name from a German film classic by Werner Fassbinder, Fear eats the Soul and a handful of crazy individuals the band signed on to 4ad and the first international studio album Polydistortion came out 1996. In slightly different clothes than it's prototype the self-titled "gusgus", Polydistortion became to be an instant classic with megahits like "Believe" (with famous cowbell sample from Jungle Jazz by Kool and the Gang) and "Polyesterday" (which had to be totally reworked because of a sample clearance refusal from Steve Wonder) and the soulfoul "Barry" - not to mention the rework of Slowblow's "Is Jesus Your Pal". Polydistortion was an egg, the music was original, the artwork by V23 was groundbraking, the remixes (Carl Craig, 16B, Mark Bell to name a few) were amazing and the "live on stage" experience was a totally new approach to performing electronic music on stage supported by very unique visuals mixed live and manually followed the distortion paths of the music. The music videos were huge and above all original. "Polymovie", the Polyesterday music video, was shot on super8 mm film and finally transferred to S16 format for cinema. The sound was dolby stereo and "Polyesterday" was rearranged to the movie. The music video to Believe was reshot on S16 camera from the Hi8 video original and visuals were made to each and every track in the live show. "Barry" (video done with GiGiGalaxy's wild remix) was even shot with two different endings. One for the daytime and a more provocating ending for the nightcrawlers. Serious production with beautiful results. Gusgus were to stay. The next album "This is Normal" was released 1999 featuring songs like "Ladyshave" and "VIP". With a very promising videopackage (Starlovers and Ladyshave) and a MAW remix of "VIP" the hopes were set up real high. The press did their part but it didn't come back via recordsales, touring nor publishing. Things had to change. The expenses were exceeding the income and GusGus was facing bankruptcy. An SSL mixer had been bought and an entire floor had been rented to house the mixing desk (later to become the Thule Studios, now office space for rent) and the Gusgus activities. Gusgus even had an intern. Things were going in the wrong directions. It didn't stop the band from touring all over the world with "This is Normal" but it did in the year of 2000. 7 members leave with Hafdis Huld the first one to take her bag followed by Daníel Ágúst, Magnús Jónsson, Baldur Stefánsson, Magnús Guðmundsson, Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson and lastly Sigurður Kjartansson. In the forming of the millenium makeover hurricane GusGus put out the album that was an offspring of a brainstorm on how to get more production money to finish "This is Normal". "Gusgus vs t-world" released 2000 consisted of dat tapes recordings from t-world's golden age, 1993-1994. Tracks that had never been put out, except for "Anthem" and "Purple". The instrumental album got smashing reviews and was followed by a minitour around France with the French reggae band Mr. Gang and a South African hip-hop band. The tour ended in Strasbourg with a monumental improvised participation of T-Mike, the lead singer/songwriter for Mr. Gang, their trombone player and Appleseed the South Sfrican lead rapper. The instrumentation of that tour was created out of nothing with only one original track from the actual album "Gusgus vs T-world" in the setlist. These tracks still remain unreleased. A new member, Urdur Hákonardottir aka Earth was asked to join in and become the leadsinger of gusgus after an absolutely mindblowing vocal excercises at the Thomsen Club downtown Reykjavik City year 2000. The work on "Attention" was mostly done with a view of Reykjavík's Mount Esja and was a time of joy. The hit single "David" was born in Borgartún (a squad scheduled for demolition) and the Mad Professor sample:"Attention" became the title and titlesong for the much anticipated comeback album of GusGus, "Attention". The year was 2000 when Earth and President Bongo started working together on regular basis soon after the Club Thomsen experience and were quickly joined by Biggi Veira and occasionally Buckmaster de la Cruz creating tracks which became "Attention", released on Underwater in september 2002. The album was well accepted apart from old conservative GusGus fans that didn't seem to accpept the direction the band had chosen. Old markets closed down while new ones embraced "Attention". Never run after a bus, there will always be another one. The videos got simpler, upfront and personal as well as the visuals for the "live on stage" show and the album design itself had different approach. Attention is the first album since Polydistortion to have an extremely strong concept. A red dot, white and red striped warning tapes for humans. Attention! Every city already had prepared the promo campaign with endless construction work. The red dot first found on the steamroom door of Vesturbæjarlaug, the West Town Swimmingpool, and a black circled tattoo on President Bongo's shoulder is, says Paul Mcmenamin (the art director for Attention) the semen for the artwork, music videos and visuals of the techno-soul album "Attention". Musically "Attention" aires the technoroots of producers Biggi Veira, Buckmaser de la Cruz and President Bongo. No compromising but within discussions of which bassdrum to use, Roland 909, Roland 808, Linndrum or Drumulator? Which bass sound to use, the Arp 2600, Yamaha CS-30, Oberheim Matrix 6 or Doepfer, the modular synth mainly responsable, along with Roland juno 2, Arp 2600 and Earth, to create the unique sound GusGus has to their name. Jimi Tenor has his input on "Attention" with masterpiece composition "Call of the Wild" totally reworked as a remix for Jimi. Warp, which never released it, approved granting it on Attention to the extreme joy of bandmembers. Producer Garreth Jones also came to Reykjavik and worked on "Desire", written by Daníel Ágúst, but apart from that the album was entirely written, produced and mixed by Gusgus. Hard album to make but easy to love. Remixes were done by Darren Emerson, Captain Comatose, Aaron-Carl, Medecine 8, Paul Jackson and many more shaking the dancefloors across the globe, more in Germany though, than anywhere else. (source: www.gusgus.com) |
