Agent Fresco
Arnór Dan Arnarson über das neue Album "Destrier"

First of all, congrats on putting together another breathtaking record! The reactions so far by both press and fans suggest that you matched the expectations. But does „Destrier“ also fulfill your own personal requirements?

Thank you kindly! Yeah, the feedback has been overwhelming! I’m certain that we explored some new territories as musicians and definitely progressed as a band. Personally I went far in trying to push myself emotionally and captivate that experience creatively, but I would be lying if I said that it was all peaches and happy times. We all, of course, need to go through challenging times, face failures and deal with doubts to evolve as human beings, but these were dark days that I made darker by isolating myself and now in hindsight I realise that I maybe went a tad too overboard. Control got lost in the writing and recording progress and it took me some time to regain it, but all in all, I believe that we’ve created something personal and special. The record feels honest and we gave it our absolute everything.

„Destrier“ is, again, a very emotional record. Do you think emotionality overcomes musicality, in the end? With other words: Does an album necessarily need to be emotional in order to be a „good record“?

My relationship with music has always been intimate, it’s always been more like a friend rather than mere entertainment and I would often keep music to myself, even attend concerts alone back when I was a teenager in Denmark, so it feels natural that I would demand my own music to be extremely personal and emotional as well. When I started doing that, songs became more real and rich, giving me a greater purpose as a musician and an incredible tool to explore and express thoughts and emotions. But I have to say that I definitely don’t think that an album has to be intentionally written with strong emotions in mind in order to be a good record, not at all, it all comes down to the connection made between the listener and the music. A chord progression can be beyond beautiful for some and pretty plain for others, just as much as a painting can provoke some and seem pointless to others. It’s all objective and that’s the beauty of it.

You stated in a recent interview that the lyrics and the theme of the album have been strongly shaped by rather negative personal experiences. Is this just a lyrical matter – or did you guys also „adjust“ the songs and the music so they fit the mood you are writing about?

I think we definitely managed to intertwine the lyrical and musical themes of „Destrier“ earlier in the writing process than we for instance did with A Long Time Listening. Back then, I had this concept in mind, inspired by the loss of my father, where I ended up puzzling the order of the album after Tóti had finished writing the instrumental tracks. I wanted to let the lyrics to each song represent an experience of mine during a certain point of time during the day and then go and arrange the songs in a chronological order, going from early morning to late night and then finally making sure that the last song would without any cut or disturbance connect to the first song, making sure that the cycle would never break. Basically linking the repeated nature of a day to a repeated cycle of grief.

This time around, knowing what we had already accomplished with A Long Time Listening, we started talking early in the process about how we could do things differently with the new album. To begin with, we wanted to create something that would witness a birth and a death, being an obvious opposite of A Long Time Listening and its cycle. Our mindsets were different though. Take our opening track „Let Them See Us“ as an example, Tóti had his interpretation locked on birth and mine was heavily focused on devastation and destruction. Sounds dramatic, but this is what made me really excited about making the album. Two opposites working on songs separately, in hopes of creating beauty. Yes, the beating that I experienced in Reykjavik was my lyrical catalyst and making the album was a messy and turbulent experience indeed, but there is always hope and there is always beauty and creating constant contrasts was something that we consciously wanted to do. What I honestly hoped for, with this album of ours, was for the listener to be able to experience the record at both ends of the scale.

So, the record – as I have learned – covers the battle between negative and positive emotions. Therefore, the listener follows a character on his „Destrier“ throughout his endeavors. Why exactly did you chose this particular image? I personally feel that’s a bit abstract.

I fell in love with the word Destrier before I started working on the new album. It just has, again, elements of contrasts to it, it starts with this elegant and majestic ring to it, a beautiful creature while representing something muscular, a horse only bred for war and the word itself looks extremely close to „destroyer“. When I knew what I wanted to focus on emotionally for the album it was just one of those „This is meant to be“ moments, so the title of the album was set pretty early on. Destrier is only meant to be a symbolic creature representing this period of my life. The relationship with the Destrier throughout the album is how I am trying to confront, control and let go of all destructive thoughts, regret and anxiety through a journey that is more of a conversation really.

The entire record and the first two songs in particular feature a distinctive „Islandic sound“ which we know from other artists such as ÓLAFUR ARNALDS, SIGUR RÓS or SÓLSTAFIR, to name just a few – thoughtful, melancholic and „epic“ in a special way. Do you think there actually is a „Islandic sound“? If so – what are the main forces and influences that shape it?

I get this a lot and I still to this day have no idea what to say. Maybe it’s just the way I am as a person? Thoughtful, melancholic and fucking epic! Sounds like an appealing profile description for a dating site? Jokes aside, I don’t know man. Iceland is a beautiful country and I love living here, but I don’t think that it has anything to do with our sound or music.

Also, the mix, the sound and the production of the record is just brilliant. Who did you work with? And what makes a „good sounding record“ in your opinion?

We worked very closely with Styrmir Hauksson throughout the recording of this record. He mixed and engineered „Destrier“ and Tóti, who co-engineered the record, also made pretty damn good demos for all songs before we even entered the studio, so we knew where we were heading and we had a healthy and lively discussion about all mixes that took us quite awhile to go through, cause we’re picky sons of bitches! But yeah, Styrmir ended up doing a terrific job! Glenn Schick mastered the album and his final touches really gave it that extra boost that you’re always hoping for but can’t expect with a master. Wow, I have no idea how to answer your last question. I’ll tell you one thing that I was thinking about this morning actually, there’s a heavy amount of music nowadays that rely heavily, not on the band or artist, but on production and engineers to create a sound, to autotune, to max out filters, fixing this and that and then you’re losing out the main thing that makes music so interesting, the humanity. Not everything has to be 100% perfect. I sometimes teach music in an elementary school and I hear kids sing so well, I record, play back their recording and they feel like shit. Why? Because their ears actually believe that every artist that they listen to are 100% pitch perfect all of the time. I guess it’s this way with more than just music. The crazy demands and standards that you can find in physical appearance for instance comes to mind. It’s just not healthy, cause we need to fail, we need to break notes and we need to embrace every piece of „ugliness“ and cherish it. It’s what makes us human.

With „Destrier“ you are currently topping the Islandic charts. What does this mean to you? And are Islandic people maybe more traditional about buying CDs and vinyls (just as well as digital albums) compared to other nationalities?

I actually don’t know what CD and vinyl sales are in other countries, but this was a pleasant surprise for us, being #1 for two weeks straight was something that we had not expected at all! I literally threw my hat in the air when I found out because of pure excitement!

You are considered one of the outstanding live bands of today. What have been the most remarkable and memorable live moments in your career? And have there been times when you were disappointed by your own performance?

I don’t allow myself to be disappointed with my own performance more than ten minutes after the show, then it’s all in the past and you better just improve yourself if the mistake was a result of poor performance shape. I still to this day celebrate and enjoy a physical performance more than trying to be absolutely pitch perfect on stage, so I guess that I much more focus on the connection with my own music, the band and then the audience rather than a spotless, still performance on stage. It’s also what makes it so thrilling. Same songs and same set can be experienced so differently in another room with other people. I love performing and I love expressing myself physically during our shows, maybe that’s why, I guess everyone can easily spot it if a musician is not enjoying his work or not into it and I think it’s pretty damn obvious that we’re having quite a blast on stage.

Some of the best times that I have had during a show when I was younger were probably while experiencing THE BLOOD BROTHERS, SIGUR RÓS, ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS and THE MARS VOLTA live. THE BLOOD BROTHERS were just mental and the energy was ridiculous, same goes with The Mars Volta, I saw them right before they released their first album „Deloused in the Comatarium“, so there was only this one EP out and as an At The Drive In fan, I was still coping with their breakup, but holy shit that show blew me completely away. SIGUR RÓS and ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS made me cry, so that’s basically why I mention them, absolutely magical performances. Oh and I just recently went and saw D’ANGELO with ÓLAFUR ARNALDS in London! A moment I thought never would happen. There was just so much sex and passion in the air. Oh baby. Live music man, it’s the best.

Five years have gone by since you’ve released your debut record „A Long Time Listening“. Did the writing sessions actually take that long? And will there be new material from AGENT FRESCO before 2020?

The demo for Dark Water was for instance created back in 2011, but it wasn’t until mid 2013 that we actually had all songs instrumentally ready to be recorded for the album. We work separately by laying down instrumental versions of the songs that I then work on and write melodies and lyrics to, so all in all, this album was written between 2011 and 2014, but the pace of everything would go from fast to zombie like. I’d like to think that my work represents a period of my life, so in a way, this album and the making of it just really resonates an honest tale of a turbulent and dark period of time that was tainted with issues and difficult delays. It’s nice though to be able to look back, or you know, even listen to „Destrier“ and be able to hear the worries in my voice for instance and already feel a distance from it. I’m emotionally alienating myself from that person, which is a step in the right direction. New material before 2020? Fuck yes, but right now we’re very excited and want to keep our focus on promoting this album and performing to as many people as possible.

Galerie mit 25 Bildern: Agent Fresco - Malina Tour 2017