As a kid living in Iceland, discovering new music was limited. MySpace or Youtube weren't around yet so most of the new music I heard was when I borrowed my older sister's iPod. She loved indie bands, while I played Avril Lavigne and Limp Bizkit on repeat.
One day, on a walk to the shop while listening to the iPod on shuffle, Last Nite by The Strokes came on. It was a jolt of excitement, energy and pure emotion going through my little body.
Later that week, I bought The Strokes's Is This It album on CD and played it on repeat in my travel CD player until it got scratched so badly that you could only hear parts of the songs until it jumped to the next one.
I listened to it every day on my walk to school, in the snow and in the sun. It gave me energy, made me wanna express myself loudly and it made me curious about the world outside of my own.
I remember jumping on my bed and screaming the lyrics to Modern Age when I was home alone. It made me crave more of that type of music. I went on to discover Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Le Tigre, White Stripes and Franz Ferdinand.
The Strokes’s album sparked my interest in music and I wanted to express it by playing myself. Whilst mixing our debut album, I understood that a lot of the references I was giving to the mixes were from that album.
It filtered through the songwriting unbeknownst to me. Now I make music that excites me, gives me energy and I feel like a part of this creative world I wished to be a part of since I heard Last Nite.
