Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Sölvi: Then you know...
2001 quit and I just started playing around with my own stuff and
start taking that idea a bit further.
And...
I had developed a great interest in hip-hop and rap in the meantime.
Host: Yes.
And that was...
well I don't think I'm making anything up, but at that time I was the only one in
my group of friends who was listening to hip-hop and rap,
they were all punks and rockers.
They were all into that and with hardship i was listening to Eminem or Public Enemy.
Host: But where did you find these guys?
Sölvi: The guys in Quarashi?
Host: Yes.
Sölvi: I was just walking down-town one day and I heard rapping on a stage
during some "Ingólfstorgs" flip and it was Steini on the stage!
And I thought to myself "That must be a foreigner."
I just thought it was some foreign-flip-out but I thought it was really cool.
Then later on we started working together at a skate-park,
Steini just rolled right up to me on his skateboars like "What's up!"
And I was like "Yeah you're that guy who was rapping...
... would you like to come to my place after work and listen to a few songs?"
And he was all like "Yeah, sure" Steini's always so positive.
Then he just came over and I let him rap over something
and thought to myself "Hey this is pretty cool."
It hadn't really been done before here in Iceland." At least not significantly.
Host: And Hössi?
Sölvi: Well Hössi is of course an old school-buddy of mine from MR
Host: Yeah, he only sang before you two got together.
Sölvi: He was singing, we were both in 2001 together,
And...
and I thought it would be cool if Steini coould rap and "Hössi, you can sing..."
And he just showed up on his lunch break and sang on Quarashi's first record.
Then we just got the idea there in the garage:
"Hössi would you mind rapping this part of the song?"
Just cause it would be cool to have two voices rapping.
Of course, Hössi had never rapped before in his life.
Host: And he just nailed it the first time?
Sölvi: Yes, nailed it.
Well...nailed it, of course he became a lot better at it later... but you know he...
Host: Quick learner!
Sölvi: I mean, he just thought it was cool
and we were just like, yeah this is pretty cool.
Host: But the name?
Sölvi: Quarashi?
Yes there's a bit of a story behind it. The thing was we were all going to
have a name you know and the only guy who had a name was Steini and that was Quarashi.
It was supposed to be like "MC Quarashi".
Host: Right.
But then we didn't have a name for the group so right before I released Switchstance
we decided we'd use the name for the four of us, Quarashi, and that was pretty cool.
Host: And it stuck?
Sölvi: It was only meant to be that one record, just those four or five songs.
We were just going to release it and have fun, just a group of friends.
Host: But it developed into something a bit more than that and is still going strong.
Sölvi: Yeah, It became an instant hit.
Host: Exactly.
Let’s look at some things we've found here at the Rúv that is related to you.
Sölvi: Ok.
Host: Have you been rapping in English from the beginning?
Host: Is that...
Host: Is that... Why is that?
Sölvi: You know it's just because..
Host: Does it sound better?
Sölvi: No, no, it's just that the guys of course had their role models who were American.
and of course they just tried to be like those role models.
Like Hljómar back in the old days, who channelled the Beatles.
But Nota Bene we have made a few songs in icelandic.
We rejected that possibility.
Host: And Steini had of course spent some time in America?
Sölvi: He lived in Phoenix, Arizona for a year.
That amazing place.
Host: I wouldn't know.
But how is it when you're making a rap-lyric,
it's a constant stream of rhymes and phrases,
are they just sitting there with the dictionary and rhyme-dictionaries?
Sölvi: I don't really know, I haven't written any lyrics…
Host: You don't meddle in that?
Sölvi: Not much, I know what I think sounds good and I read all the lyrics,
but I have never written a rhyme myself.
Host: But what is a good rhyme like?
What characterizes a good rap-lyric?
Sölvi: There are so many different views on this,
my opinion is if it sounds good and there are catchy words in the right places
then I find it an amazing bonus if the meaning is deep
but I don't necessarily put that as a priority.
They often talk about the difference between punch-line lyrics,
which are catchy lyrics, and thenstory-lyrics...
people fight about this at every party.
Host: But this was a huge hit right away.
Sölvi: in 1996?
Host: Yeah.
Sölvi: Yeah the thing is we combined rock and hip-hop
and that's something we've done from day one.
It wasn't something I sat down and decided to do.
It was just because I was trying to make rap-music
with my rock-background and this is what happened.
Quarashi.
Host: Did you expect it to become this popular?
Sölvi: No, what we did was press 500 copies of Switchstance,
then they got sent over here so we drove to the airport to get them.
Put them in a friend’s car,
it was classic, I was calling people up like "can you do me a favour and drive me there."
Then we all got together the money to get them out of customs
and then I distributed some 50 copies of it,
2 copies to Austurstræti... to Steinar,
and like 5 copies to Japis.
then I took 450 copies and stuck them under my bed.
I figured they'd just stay there for the next few years,
and that is was going to use them as Christmas presents and stuff.
But then the phone rang the next day.
"Please bring in the rest, there's a huge demand for it."
I was just like "What? For this? Who could that be?"
Then the radio called "Everything is going crazy over here."
Host: What happened?
Sölvi: I don't know!
Host: The right music at the right time?
Sölvi: Yeah.. Of course.
I mean rap has been popular in Iceland since 1986... 1985,
people forget that sometimes,
they tend to think rap happened to Iceland in 1995 or something.
You know, Ási was selling DeLaSoul at Grammið in 1985, 96, 97.
So this whole thing has a long history
and it has been a force moving behind the scenes.
Then Quarashi arrives on the scene in 1996 as an icelandic group
and it was something people could relate to
like "yeah it's Steini or Sölvi or Hössi...
we know them, they're making this music. And that's great."
I mean, in the end I don't know why it happened,
I'm probably the worst person to ask.
I was just there!
Host: No, but you're the only one I can ask about it! �