There’s a pretty good chance you’ve never heard of Mugison and an even bigger one you will in the months to come. The Icelandic musician, born Örn Elías Guðmundsson, released Mugiboogie last year to near-unanimous critical acclaim and has been building up an impressive reputation for his live show and the album, which blends blues and soul with whatever the fuck else sounds good. It’s jarring and bloody and gorgeous and like nothing you’ve ever heard before and, as more people become converts, it’ll soon become clear what those who haven’t yet heard Mugiboogie are missing.

In the middle of his U.S. tour, Guðmundsson took the time to conduct an e-mail interview with BYT. Though you probably could have guessed that from reading the title of the entry.

1) Your real name is Örn Elías Guðmundsson. Besides it not fitting on the marquee at Madison Square Garden, why did you decide to go with Mugison and how did the name come about?
I was a sound engineer for my father when he was touring Malaysia - he´s a Karaoke singer - his nickname is Mugi and there he would introduce me as his son. So people started calling me Mugison. I loved the idea of a stage name being born in Malaysia drunk with my father. 

2) It’s interesting in that listening to your old, more electronic-based work, even as far back as Little Trip, there’s definitely some sonic similarities to many of the songs on your most recent album. How far back does your fondness for blues go and how did it become what seems like the primary influence for Mugiboogie?
My first album I bought was a Jimi Hendrix album  - Are You Experienced. I loved it so much and still do, from there it was obvious I had to dig into blues, it just always talked to me, it´s such a powerful expression… anger, sex, brutal love, death…. it just seemed more real.

3) What’s it like for overseas musicians to tour the U.S. now that our economy is in shambles and it looks like we’re moving back towards trading sheep for commodities?
It´s tough money-wise, but it´s fun for us. My country is in worse conditions - money-wise. 

4) You used to perform by yourself, with just a laptop for accompaniment. How recently did you start playing with a full band and how was that transition? Did you play in a lot of bands in your youth or was this something you’d never tried before?
I was in bands as teenager, the thing with the bands I was in is that they never liked the music I was making. So eventually I just figured I´d just do everything on my own. For this Mugiboogie album I wanted to play in the best band there ever was, and called up my favorite musicians, they came over and rest is history. 

5) Now that you do have a more traditional rock lineup, do you still incorporate material from the earlier albums or do you mostly stick to songs off Mugiboogie?
My gigs are very random, I mix everything together. 

6) Are the arrangements for the newer songs pretty strict or do you guys tend to embellish or rework them to differentiate them from the studio versions?
Rework is a key word here. It´s never the same, it´s not something I map out in advance .. I have a very bad musical memory.. 

7) It’s pretty incredible that “I’m Alright,” a growly, kitchen-sink thrasher and “My Love I Love,” a tender acoustic ballad about your family, could be by the same artist, let alone four songs away from each other on the same record. When during the recording of Mugiboogie did it become apparent that the album was going to be stylistically all over the place or was that more or less the intention from the get-go?
Yes I wanted it to sound like a best-of album but only with songs nobody had ever heard. I love how twisted best-of albums  sound. Yesterday I played I´m Alright only on the acoustic guitar and it sounded very similar to My love I love. It´s the same love - very similar song but yeah - on the album it´s got more brutal sound to it. 

8) “Two Thumb Sucking Son Of A Boyo” sounds like a metal band trying to write a song after a three-day acid bender. Are normally into that kind of music or was this something completely new for you?
The song is just a feeling I get when I´m drinking with the boys and pretend not to hear the phone when my wife is calling or texting me, that´s the feeling i had when I played and recorded the song, it´s being an asshole.. drunk asshole.

9) The sonic progression you’ve made after just three albums is staggering. Any idea where you’d go from here
Yes im working on an album that will make the whole world dance and love each other, hope it´ll work.

Mugison is on tour in the U.S. for the next couple of days. The dates are thus:
9/30 - Albequerque, NM @ Launchpad
10/1 - Tucson, AZ @ Plush
10/2 - Las Vegas, NV @ Beauty Bar
10/3 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
10/4 - Los Angeles, CA @ City Hall (LA Weekly Festival)

But we all live in D.C. and he already played here so go tell a friend or cousin or something to go a show so he doesn’t have to file Chapter 11 or whatever the Icelandic equivalent is. Such a nice fellow.

 Send to a Friend