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Reykjavík_Grapevine_issue_16_2015_master_WEB_ALL
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22<br />
BISTRO & BAR<br />
A Rush of Blood<br />
To Your Genitals<br />
GREAT<br />
FOODGOOD<br />
NICE<br />
DRINKS<br />
ATMO<br />
uno is the perfect place to start<br />
a good day or end a great evening<br />
From out of nowhere, here’s Vaginaboys!<br />
WORDS BY DAVÍÐ ROACH<br />
PHOTO BY BRYNJAR SNËR<br />
HAPPY HOUR<br />
EVERY DAY<br />
17-19<br />
free Wifi<br />
KITCHEN IS OPEN<br />
Weekends 11.30–24<br />
Other days 11.30–23<br />
UNO at Ingólfstorg | Tel. 561 1313 | www.uno.is<br />
It was just spring that Vaginaboys burst onto the scene from out<br />
of nowhere. All of the sudden, their breakout hit “Elskan af því<br />
bara” (“Baby Just Because”) started spreading across Icelandic social<br />
media circles at an alarming rate. No one had a clue who they<br />
were, but everyone fell in love all the same, their unique brand<br />
of ice-cold, sexy 808 auto-tuned R’n’B resonating in hip-hop and<br />
indie circles alike. The ‘boys made their stage show opening up for<br />
Sin Fang in May, and they’ve barely let up since, releasing a steady<br />
trickle of new material through their Soundcloud, performing<br />
shows all over town, all the while successfully managing to keep<br />
their true identities under wraps. I met up with one of Vaginaboys’<br />
members (heh) for a chat about manhood, dealing with newfound<br />
popularity and masked performances.<br />
“Vaginaboys Producer”<br />
speaks!<br />
You don’t want to reveal your<br />
name. What should I call you, for<br />
the purposes of this interview?<br />
Just call me Vaginaboys Producer.<br />
You’re not the singer?<br />
Yes I am—I sing and produce, then I get<br />
other people to perform, mix and master<br />
the music with me.<br />
I was under the impression that<br />
there were only two of you. How<br />
many Vaginaboys are there?<br />
The core group consists of four people.<br />
The power of random<br />
YouTube browsing<br />
“Elskan af því bara” blew up all<br />
of the sudden this spring, but the<br />
tune had been laying dormant<br />
on YouTube for almost a year by<br />
then. Why do you think it suddenly<br />
caught people’s ears?<br />
I only uploaded the song to YouTube for<br />
storage. It wasn’t supposed to go anywhere—I<br />
didn’t post it to Facebook or tell<br />
anyone about it. For some reason, it started<br />
making the rounds all of the sudden.<br />
Sin Fang picked up on it, and then Emmsjé<br />
Gauti, and Gísli Pálmi were hitting us<br />
up… and the song just kept spreading,<br />
rousing people’s interests. At one point,<br />
we heard there was a Facebook group<br />
dedicated to uncovering our identities.<br />
As our play-count kept stacking up, we<br />
eventually started to put lot more energy<br />
into the project.<br />
So your popularity is likely the<br />
result someone’s random You-<br />
Tube browsing?<br />
I guess so.<br />
When you hit the scene, some<br />
speculated that you were some<br />
kind of supergroup, hence the<br />
masks and hidden identities. Are<br />
you some kind of supergroup?<br />
Why the anonymity?<br />
I am not allowed to comment on that.<br />
Furthermore, we believe that the mysterious<br />
is sexier than the obvious.<br />
Vaginaboys, vaginagirls<br />
You perform in white masks,<br />
that sort of look like those old<br />
opera masks. Is there a reason<br />
you chose that particular type of<br />
mask?<br />
It was really a last-minute decision before<br />
our first gig. We had bought some white<br />
masks to wear to the show, but when<br />
we put them on we discovered that we<br />
couldn’t really breathe. So we cut off the<br />
bottom half. After the Sin Fang show, we<br />
were sweaty and gross. The tiny nose slits<br />
didn’t really facilitate breathing either, so<br />
we expanded them.<br />
Why the name, Vaginaboys?<br />
Because it’s an obvious contradiction.<br />
I noticed the term was being used in a<br />
derogatory manner in hnakki circles<br />
[“hnakkar” are Iceland’s version of<br />
“brahs”] and found that to be really sad.<br />
Why should having a vagina be a negative<br />
thing? Don't we all come out of a vagina?<br />
In that sense, all of us humans are vaginaboys<br />
and vaginagirls. I thought it was<br />
paradoxical—if people start thinking our<br />
band is cool, maybe being thought of as a<br />
vaginaboy will become a positive thing.<br />
Real men<br />
Do you consider yourselves part<br />
of the current wave of nu-R&B,<br />
where male artists like Frank<br />
Ocean and The Weeknd actively<br />
work to subvert traditional ideas<br />
of masculinity?<br />
I like to think so. It’s just a manifestation<br />
of the ongoing anti-machismo movement<br />
that seeks to deconstruct typical ideas of<br />
“manliness.” You don’t have to be macho<br />
to be a “real” man—men think about love<br />
just as much as women do. I like to express<br />
myself in music through this filter.<br />
Who are some of your biggest<br />
influences?<br />
The Strokes and Spooky Black come to<br />
mind, as does the sincere aura espoused<br />
by artists like dj. flugvél og geimskip and<br />
Agent Fresco. To name a few.<br />
Are you working on an LP?<br />
We’re releasing our first official single<br />
on Spotify, iTunes and such places very<br />
soon—however, we’ve stockpiled so<br />
much material that it’s hard to choose<br />
what to master and release. We have to<br />
find the right time to work on it, and pick<br />
the best of what we have to put out there.<br />
What can we expect from you at<br />
Airwaves?<br />
Our show will be bigger and grander than<br />
anything we’ve done before. We hired a<br />
stylist. We’ll have nine people on stage.<br />
We’re going all in for this one. Prepare<br />
for heart-warming sensual vibes, goosebumps<br />
and a rush of blood flowing to<br />
your genital area.<br />
Any final thoughts?<br />
See us at Airwaves, listen to our tunes<br />
on Soundcloud. Also, you should check<br />
out an Airwaves party/art show that’ll<br />
go down at Járnbraut 1, at Grandi, on<br />
November 4 and 5. We’ll be premiering a<br />
brand new music video there.