Iceland Airwaves 2024 Showcases a Festival That’s Still on Fire 25 Years Later, and a Nation Set on Building Its Music Industry From the Inside Out

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At Airwaves, Einarsson, who is working on new music and some alternative versions of Lobster Coda to release in 2025, performed some songs from the new album during his Airwaves set at Iðnó, including “Be This Way,” with special guest Of Monsters and Men‘s Nanna, who also appears on the recorded version.

A day before her appearance with Kaktus, Nanna also revisited Of Monsters and Men’s 2011 debut My Head is an Animal. During the three-day festival, the Charlatans’ Tim Burgess brought his Listening Party to the festival featuring a live talk with Of Monsters and Men’s Nanna and Brynjar Leifsson. Burgess presented another Listening Party a day later at Sundlaugin studio in Álafoss, Mosfellsbær. Owned by Sigur Rós’ Kjartan Sveinsson, the studio is where the band recorded many of their albums, including the one in focus for the Listening Party, ( ) (the Bracket Album) from 2002.

Purveyors of indie, electro, and ambient pop, the genre is having a tremendous moment in Iceland, which was evident at the 2024 Airwaves. For actress, pop singer, and songwriter Elín Hall, this year has been a year of transition. Earlier in 2024, Hall released her second album heyrist í mér (can you hear me), which she co-produced with musician Reynir Snær Magnússon and the Vaccines’ Árni Hjörvar Arnason. She also premiered her film Ljósbrot (When the Light Breaks) at Cannes, which earned her a Silver Hugo for Best Female Performance at the 2024 Chicago International Film Festival.

Now, her third, forthcoming album, has evolved into something she is still trying to wrap her arms around: singing in English. “Because I’m so driven by storytelling and words are so powerful to me and such a huge part of what moves me, I wanted it to feel more international,” revealed Hall. “English is kind of the international language. I speak English fine, but it felt like starting over, like crafting my voice in a new language. I don’t have emotional memories in English, and at first, I was very nervous that I couldn’t write something authentic in another language but [realized] that sometimes it can help to have an outsider perspective on a language.”

Hall debuted some of her new songs during her Airwaves set at the Art Museum, including “Wolf Boy.” She also moved into the sobering ballad “Manndráp af gáleysi” (“Reckless Homicide”). “It’s hard to translate,” said Hall during her set of the heyrist í mér track. “It’s about killing someone, manslaughter. It’s about being a terrible lover.” Hall went back to English with “Anna,” a song she said she first played at Airwaves in 2019, and one that traverses mental health and an “addiction to sadness,” before sharing “America,” a new song she penned about Iceland.

“I wrote this song about being an artist from a very small country,” said Hall. “I kind of hate it sometimes but don’t want to leave.”

Sunna Margrét also captivated the crowd at Airwaves with her experimental pop and songs from her 2024 debut album Finger on Tongue. At first, Margrét had no plans to make new music after traveling the world during her teens with the electro-pop band Bloodgroup—and playing Airwaves for the first time in 2009.

Soon after moving from Iceland to Lausanne, Switzerland to study fine arts at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne, Margrét became engaged in different valves of arts and music and began experimenting with new soundscapes and aesthetics. “I was always experimenting with making sound sculptures,” said the artist who still calls Switzerland home. “The basis of some of the songs on my debut [‘Finger on Tongue’] comes from some of the sound sculptures I was making at school.”

While working on her master’s during the pandemic, Margrét’s grandmother passed away. Since she couldn’t travel to Iceland for a funeral, Margrét decided to write something in memory of her grandmother who was also a swimmer, which led to her 2023 EP Five Songs for Swimmers. Margrét also wrote her thesis around the concept album and presented it with an installation and performance.

A year later, Finger on Tongue is a continuation of Margrét’s musical research. Still inspired by Iceland, she said she has also discovered muses in the music and arts of Switzerland, collaborating with her husband painter Stéphane Kropf (who was also part of the Swiss punk scene in Geneva), and other musicians, double entendre works of classic artists like Marcel Duchamp, and some of her other musical investigations.

“I’m very root-grown in the Icelandic music scene, but my roots are being influenced by things happening here and in Switzerland,” said Margrét, who shared a selection of her songs at Airwaves, playing Finger on Tongue tracks “Chocolate” and “Come With Me,” her 2018 single “Amma,” and “Fern” the title track of her most recent EP.

Inside the still-operating Fríkirkjan church, founded in 1899, Lúpína also delivered a mesmerizing set around her 2024 album Margyltta (Jellyfish). Backed by two illuminated jellyfish figures fluttering behind herm the Norwegian-Icelandic artist said that performing at Airwaves for the first time was “the coolest thing I can do as a musician,” and she even started writing a new song while prepping for her set.

A day earlier, the Scandi-pop artist, her ears adorned with dangling jellyfish earrings, was sitting upstairs at Vinnustofa Kjarval in downtown Reykjavík and already glowing while discussing the inspiration behind her second album.

“I kind of saw it like, I am the jellyfish,” she said of the new album, a follow-up to her 2023 debut 2023’s ringluð (confused). “And then the listener can see through me. That was the idea that glued it all together.” She added, “I wanted it to be a photograph of me, of my emotions. This album captured this period of my life.”

Unlike some artists in Iceland who have crossed over, singing in English, Lúpína wants to continue writing in Icelandic. “Maybe there is a language barrier that is stumping me,” she said, “but I also think singing in Icelandic makes me stand out in the market,

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Indie rockers and genre-benders Sycamore Tree first played Airwaves in 2000, separately, and continued returning ever since, and after forming in 2016. Made up of Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, an actress known for her role as a former Eurovision contestant on the Icelandic TV series Sjáumst með Silvíu Nótt (The Silvia Night Show) and Gunni Hilmarsson, a fashion designer, who founded brands Freebird and co-founded of the Nordic Fashion Association, both played Airwaves a year after it started but didn’t know one another at the time.

Erlendsdóttir remembers playing Airwaves for the first time in 2000 when she was in the hip-hop group Kritikal Mazz. Hilmarsson also played that same year, while he was in another band he described as “some kind of instrumental fusion,” but the two didn’t meet until 2014 before forming Sycamore Tree in 2016.

The duo released their second album Colors in 2022, a follow-up to their 2021 EP Western Sessions and 2017 debut Shelter. Never swaying around one genre in particular, digging in pop and rock, Americana, and more during their union, the duo said their third album has more of a “’90s vibe.” “We’re very careful about not getting stuck in a genre,” said Erlendsdóttir. “This [new] album is like a new beginning. It’s anthem songs, victory songs, to conquer those hard feelings.”

Recorded in Malmö, Sweden, the new album is nearly done and the duo played 80 percent of it during their Airwaves set. “We just work very organically together,” said Hilmarsson. “Each album has a vibe, a theme, a feel. We always envision a universe for each album where we want to write songs and lyrics within [a particular] soundscape. This gives us artistic freedom to experiment with different moods and layers.” He adds, “At the end of the day, we just do what we want.”

This year, Airwaves featured more than 35 Icelandic artists, along with plenty of international acts, including the Dutch indie rockers Personal Trainer, New York post-punk band cumgirl8, Florida-based alt-pop duo Magdalena Bay, and more from the UK with Bar Italia and Welsh electronic duo Overmono. The Vaccines filled their 17-song set on Friday, November 8 with songs from their latest album Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations as well as some older songs from their 2011 debut What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?—“Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra),” “Post-Breakup Sex,” and “Wetsuit”—before closing the night with a special guest. Einar Örn surprised local fans—and son Einarsson who could be seen running to the front of the stage to see his father perform—and joined the band for a cover of his pre-Sugarcubes punk band Purrkur Pillnikk’s 1981 song “Ekki enn” (“Not Yet”).

Also representing the UK, the Lambrini Girls, who released their debut EP You’re Welcome in 2023, kept the audience at Art Museum on their toes—and crouched down or on their knees—while vocalist and guitarist Phoebe Lunny led a sermon on “Big D–k Energy.” Along with bassist Lilly Macieira, she later incited a mosh and continued moving into the crowd during the duo’s set of mostly protest songs prompted by misogyny, racism, inequality, and other injustices, including “Boys in the Band,” which addresses sexual assault and abuse within the live music scene.

Along with a full nightly lineup, this year, Airwaves also had a full schedule of panels during the first two days, including one featuring Faroe Music Expo, a new affiliate member of the pan-Nordic platform, NOMEX, which promotes the distribution of Nordic music outside its member countries. Music from the Faroe Islands was also highlighted at the fest during a special showcase at Iðnó, featuring artists Dania O. Tausen, Silvurdrongur, and Marius Ziska.

On the darker end of the spectrum, the gothy Vampira and prog rockers Múr were some of the heavier bands in the 2024 lineup. Sat inside a corner cove of Iðnó in between shows, Mínus frontman Krummi Björgvinsson, known mostly as Krummi, paused from his Airwaves soundcheck to talk about the band’s history as pioneers of the hardcore scene in Iceland, dating back to the beginning of the festival with the release of their 1999 debut Hey Johnny! When they formed, the band was still in their late teens and played their first Airwaves in 2000.

“Not to toot my own horn or anything, but we were kind of the flag bearers of that scene,” said Krummi, who admits that he’s played Airwaves too many times to remember with Mínusa and other bands, including alt-electronic duo Legend (32) and country-rock project Esja.

“There was a great punk scene [in Iceland] in the ‘80s and a death metal scene earlier in the ‘90s but then everything kind of fizzled out,” he added. “There were some black metal bands going on, some new metal bands that I was in before. Then, when we [Mínus] started, and it just seemed to flourish.”

As a solo singer and songwriter, Krummi has also released a series of more rootsy and Americana-leaning singles since 2019 with “Stories to Tell,” “Frozen Teardrops” (2020), “Naglar og Salt” (2021), and “Brothers in Arms” from 2022—the year he also played his first solo show at Airwaves—and is finishing his debut solo album for release in 2025.

“There is a hidden competition between all of us, but it’s in a healthy, good manner,” said Krummi of the inner workings within the music scene in Iceland, marked by myriad crossovers and artist collaborations. “It’s pretty fun to collaborate with somebody that you’re actually competing with. We’re all friends here. Everybody knows each other, whether you’re a musician, painter, or performance artist.”

Healthy competition and collaborations account for everything within the country which has just under 400,000 inhabitants and a music scene that remains one of the most vibrant in Europe.

“People appreciate music and visual arts,” said Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, minister of culture and business affairs in Iceland, during a special visit to view Chromo Sapiens, a permanent exhibit by New York-based Icelandic artist Shoplifter (Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir) at the Höfuðstöðin cultural house. “We have a fantastic music scene and fantastic musicians,” added Alfreðsdóttir, “and I’m extremely proud of what we’ve done.”

Within the small country, music, alone, accounts for 3.5 percent of the GDP in Iceland. “This is a growing, strong industry that we want to embrace and support,” said Alfreðsdóttir. “It’s the arts that make us known around the world.”

Continuing to expand the growth of the music within Iceland as well as its export, Iceland Music has been at the forefront working to support, promote, and build the industry from within through educational, marketing, and other hands-on services for artists throughout the country.

As coordinator of the Iceland Music export program, musician, composer, and songwriter, Leifur Björnsson, also manages the Record in Iceland program, which offers artists—local and visiting—a 25 percent discount when recording within the country.

Based on a similar model used within the film industry in Iceland, which helped develop bigger, Hollywood-caliber productions within the country, Record in Iceland is open to local and international artists. Since its inception, the program has been used for film, video game, and other orchestral scores and productions, and by artists including Björk, Ólöf Arnalds, Ben Frost, and American singer and songwriter John Grant, who recorded his 2013 album Pale Green Ghosts in Iceland.

“Artists have been benefiting massively from this,” said Björnsson, who also played Airwaves this year with Klemens Hannigan, who released his solo debut Low Light in 2024. “The music community here is a very beautiful thing,” he adds. “Everyone is just one degree of separation away. You can make phone calls to pretty much anybody, and things happen super fast. If you have an idea, you can make it happen on the same day.”

Musicians in Iceland still face other challenges, according to Björnsson, everything from marketing and publicity to touring, which can be more expensive for artists than those in mainland Europe. “It’s like a double-edged sword with the lack of music industry infrastructure here, but the Record in Iceland is a step in the right direction,” he said. “We’ll be able to have more home-grown talent and keep the knowledge and experience here within the community and within the island. I think we’re in a pretty good position since people are interested in Iceland, and its music.”

At its core, Iceland Music is structured to support artists within the country. “It’s interesting to explore, how can we best serve the artists when it comes to supporting the scene but also helping them bring their music out into the world,” said Iceland Music director María Rut Reynisdóttir, who previously served as the managing director of the Icelandic Music Awards and program director of Iceland Airwaves.

“Taking care of the local scene is the foundation of everything.”

Along with its recording program, Iceland Music also manages the National Music Fund, which helps support artists around recording, releasing music, local touring, and more.

In 2025, Icelandair, the partner airline for Iceland Airwaves, will offer non-stop flights from Reykjavík to Nashville from May through October, to connect artists in the country to another Music City. “There are many similarities between the scenes [in Reykjavík and Nashville],” said Reynisdóttir. “I can see some similarities in a sense of community, so it’s exciting to have this new music hub over there.”

Everything still comes back to Iceland, and nurturing the music industry from within. “Our focus is here, on how we can support music festivals like Iceland Airwaves and help them thrive and support the venues, young managers, and everyone working with our musicians,” said Reynisdóttir. “It’s the core. It’s the basis. It’s the foundation. If you have those things then you’re well on that at home.”

The 2025 edition of Iceland Airwaves will take place November 6-8 in downtown Reykjavík.

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Main Photo: Julie Van Den Bergh / Courtesy of Iceland Airwaves