Story has it that Legend began on a drunken night of brain-synced tomfoolery between two old friends in a studio which lead to the creation of the track ‘Devil in Me‘. After finding its way quickly up the Icelandic charts, these friends, Krummi Björgvinsson and Halldór A Björnsson called themselves Legend, and created an album of winterishly dark and stormy synth-pop.
Krummi’s been on the scene for years, Probably most known for his band Mínus, the first Icelandic hardcore band I heard as a youngin’, and one of the first hardcore bands ever signed outside of the Icelandic realm. He’s a busy man also known for his art, and his solo projects such as DÖPUR. Halldór has done film and play soundtracks, as well as jingles for commercials. He’s also an active producer and genius on the keys. The two have been friends for quite sometime. Previous to Legend, the two worked with Daníel Ágúst of GusGus on a country style project called Esja.
Some say there is a fine line that’s not to be crossed between Industrial pop-synth and heavy-industrial. It’s refreshing to hear a band that calls bullshit on that theory and proves you can have both. Their music reminds me of dark stormy Winter-ish days, yet there is a lighter side of pop floating in and out of the songs like moving clouds that threaten to reveal the sun every so often. In my opinion, they have expertly crafted music that takes the best of both worlds creating the perfect stormy soundtrack.
Fearless, their first album, follows that interwoven, layered formula. One gets the sense of dark, crisp, winter nights with darker songs, such as Sister, Fearless, and my favorite track with it’s deeper vocals, Violence:
And you have the lighter breath of fresh air moments, with the more pop-ish tracks such as Sudden Stop, Lust, and City which is one of the most pop tracks on the album:
The album ends with one of the lightest tracks on the album, Traveling blind, akin to the transition of winter into spring. While I love the album, you have to see these guys live. Krummi is a performer through and through, and puts on one hell of a gig. Always high energy, always a little crazy, always fun.
2015 is going to be an insane year for Legend and Co. Legend is working on their second release, DÖPUR and AMFJ are doing a split cassette, and Krummi’s new new project KÓBRAKAT is in the works. If that isn’t enough, Mínus is hoping to finish an album they’ve been working on for 3 years with a hopeful release sometime in 2015.
You can follow Legend on Facebook, and listen to them on Soundcloud. Krummi was nice enough to answer my 4 questions:
1. What is your favorite place to play at in Iceland? –I really don´t have a favorite place anymore because many venues have been closed down so they (bloodsucking yuppies) can build more hotels. These venues were so important for the music scene. It´s a shame but hopefully there will be new venues in the future, then maybe i will have a favorite place to play again.
2. If you combine all of your favorite colors (for you, add your band mates if you would), what do you get? –Black and Blue
3. What are 3 of your favorite little known bands of Icelandic origin? –Börn, Icarus and AMFJ
4. If you could be any creature playing your favorite song, what would the creature be? And what is the song. –I would be a recluse spider also known as Fiddle-backs playing Isolation by Iggy Pop.
Ragnaar's Icelandic Music Blog 