SOURCE – Congratulations on your new record Narkissos, I feel that this is perhaps your best record ever, how do you feel about this statement?
Eldur (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards) – Thank you. Normally in my mind, the latest work is my best work. I am currently working on a new Katla album and an Eldur debut album. Those 2 albums are my best ever, even though they are not even finished.
They are just fresh and exciting and I still have the opportunity to change whatever and add whatever I want to them. Narkissos is already an old album to me that I have let go of, but having said that, I am still satisfied with the results.
SOURCE – You guys sing in Icelandic, so I’m not going to ask you to dissect the whole album, but generally speaking, what sorts of things are you singing about on this album?
Eldur (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards) – Malignant narcissism is the main topic here. Narkissos in English is the Greek god Narcissus, but this album is not going into Greek mythology. The lyrics are of a personal nature. It is the most personal Fortíð album to date.
SOURCE – Based on the complexity of the compositions, would you say that Narkissos is an easy listening album?
Eldur (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards) – It’s impossible for me to generalize. Everything is complicated until you know it and then it becomes easy. I know this album like the back of my hand so of course it’s easy for me.
I never have any sense of what my music feels like to other people.
SOURCE – How is it to go into the music business as an independent band from Iceland?
Eldur (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards) – Well, I’ve been making this kind of music since ’94 and started my first real band Thule in ’95. There are different periods since that time where I can say that no one cared about Iceland whatsoever and there are other periods where all the shit from Iceland seems to become noticed, whether it’s any good or not. You know, trends and waves and all that. I think we are still in somewhat of a trending situation at the moment, but this has never affected what I do, because I’ve seen it all come and go and I just keep doing my thing no matter what’s happening around me.
The music business in general is shit. I’ve always seen it like being a porn actor. You get fucked all the time, and you don’t make that much money (unless you are the selected few) but you get cool free stuff and the best parties.
And now I’m kind of bored of the parties even, so there’s not a lot of sense to it left. I do music out of some deep inner necessity. I think I would quickly wither and die without my music, but the business part is a necessary evil because running a band costs money.
SOURCE – How important do you think are singles and EPs in this era in comparison to full length releases?
Eldur (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards) – It’s an interesting question because, in other music genres, it seems like singles are all you need to be doing. But there’s something different about the metal scene. People want full-length albums.
I think it’s because people into metal are passionate music lovers who actually listen intensely instead of the basic music consumer who is just looking for a quick fix and has no attention span for much more than 4-5 minutes.
I don’t know, I could be wrong since I haven’t actually researched this but it’s just a gut feeling from what I’ve seen.
SOURCE – In a time where streaming and digital consumption of music is more the norm than owning physical releases, do you believe that great artwork is still crucially important for albums?
Eldur (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards) – Yes, I am oldschool that way. I still listen to CDs and vinyl. I still haven’t opened up a Spotify account, although I’m slowly succumbing to this and will eventually have one. I have lived in so many places, and moved so many times, even between countries.
Having a massive CD collection plus CD sale stock and dragging it all over the place has been a huge pain in my ass for me, so lately I’ve stuck with online music because I know where I currently live is also just temporary. But yes, an album is an art form where the whole picture consists of music, lyrics, and visuals i.e. paintings/photos, what have you.
SOURCE – If a fan comes to visit Kópavogur – Iceland, what would they see and do?
Eldur (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards) – Haha, look, let me clear something up here… Yes, Fortíð was formed while I lived in Kópavogur. I lived there for one year and then I moved on. I haven’t lived there before or after that one year. There’s absolutely nothing interesting about Kópavogur and there’s nothing to see there. If you want to see the real Iceland, you have to leave the capital area. But even that has soured a lot lately because we are drowning in fucking tourists everywhere. My wife and I go to places to be alone, so we don’t advertise the few ones that we have left to ourselves.
SOURCE – What’s next for Fortíð?
Eldur (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards) – We’re currently looking into expanding the lineup and playing live. I don’t think there will be a whole lot of new songwriting going on until this is stablished. I was playing live with my other band Katla before Covid came and all our shows were canceled.
I was quite OK with that at the time and just went into my comfort zone and I’ve been there since, but now I’m beginning to feel a bit bored.
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