"We're the band that comes from nowhere but listens to the whole world
and then produces a record," says Sölvi Blondal, the songwriter/producer
behind Iceland's Quarashi (pronounced "kwa-ra´-she").
"We're not from America, we're not from Europe, we're from Reykjavik, a
small city in the North Atlantic. It's probably a good anthropology study: the
rappers from Iceland." But Quarashi is not
only geographically unique, the group's music is an eclectic blend of rap, punk,
and hard rock that displays an incredibly wide array of influences. "Our
goal is to mix hip-hop and industrial, but always with a live feel," says
Sölvi. "To make people think this is a live band, though most of it
is programmed and sequenced."
Quarashi is: Sölvi (sewl´-vee), age
26, the band's producer and drummer; Hössi (huh´-see) Olafsson, 23,
the lead voice, whether rapping or singing; Steini (stain´-ee) Fjelsted
(fyel´-stead), 25, rapper; and Omar Swarez, 26, also a rapper. Sölvi
and Omar met as children. Sölvi met Steini after being ordered by a judge
to perform community service at a Reykjavik skate park. Steini is a former Icelandic
skating champion as well as one of the country's leading graffiti artists. Quarashi,
a term meaning "supernatural" which Steini read in a book, was a nickname
given to Steini by a friend and soon became his tag name when he lived in Arizona,
appearing on walls and streets all over Reykjavik. When it came time to find
a name for their new band,Quarashi seemed the perfect
choice.
Quarashi was originally formed by Sölvi and
Hössi in 1996. After playing together in a local punk rock band called
2001 they both felt a need for greater experimentation and developed a preference
for studio production over band rehearsal-style songwriting. Sölvi produced
a demo track, Hössi laid down the rhymes, and the pair's first single,
"Switchstance," sold out all 500 copies in a week. Their full-length
debut CD was recorded in October of 1997 and sold over 6,000 copies, going on
to be certified as gold in Iceland. That same year Quarashi
opened for both the Fugees and the Prodigy and Sölvi was then tapped to
remix the Prodigy's song "Diesel Power". 1999 saw Quarashi's
follow-up CD, Xeneizes, sell another 6,000
copies and earn them their second consecutive gold record. At that point they
started work on Jinx and finally got a chance
to take their live show to America. At the New York City club Brownie's, Quarashi's
high voltage attack blew up a stage monitor and turned a peaceful record company
showcase into a near riot. That's when they knew they were ready for the big
time.
On Jinx the beats range from straight-up
hip-hop to murky industrial, sometimes provided by a drum machine, other times
by a live drummer. Turntable scratches give way to fat bass lines and screeching
guitars. Background vocals blend with the flows of two or three rappers at a
time. Horns, voices, and piano rolls are sampled and distorted. The state of
the art production is as impressive as anything coming from either side of the
Atlantic. "The original point of the band was mixing British break beats
and American hip-hop together," says Hössi. "It's as if Chemical
Brothers and the Prodigy rumbled with Cypress Hill and Public Enemy."
Quarashi chose "Stick Em Up," the first
single from Jinx, strictly on the basis
of its overwhelming sonic force. Overlapping guitar tracks duel with crashing
cymbals and a pounding bass line. The band's three rappers--Hössi, Steini,
and Omar Swarez--add rapid fire verses as well as the chorus. "As soon
as we played the song we realized how amazingly 'Stick Em Up' has a way of producing
power and getting people excited," says Sölvi. "Wake up in the
morning and put on 'Stick Em Up' and you're on your feet in no time." Another
important song on Jinx is "Tarfur,"
the first rap song ever written and recorded in Icelandic. "Tarfur"
starts out as a percussion-heavy funk track reminiscent of the Meters, but once
the rhyme kicks in you realize that this is something completely unique. "We
started off rapping in English because all our influences were from America,"
says Hössi. "There wasn't any model for rapping in Icelandic so we
had to figure it out ourselves." "Tarfur" takes the concept of
"the funky bilingual" and raises it to a whole new level.
One of the last songs on Jinx is "Dive
In," a techno ballad where Quarashi displays
even more stylistic versatility. To a mellow eth
"We realize that bringing hip-hop to the U.S. is like selling ice to people
from Greenland," says Sölvi, "but we don't limit ourselves to
any one style. We just want to play rock 'n' roll or rap and play it the way
we feel. Bjork and Sigur Ros and all these great Icelandic musicians are very
up-front about being Icelandic and have very strong Icelandic characteristics,
but that's not the case with us. I still think we share the same energy though."
And that energy displays itself in whatever style Quarashi
chooses: from crunchy metal guitar licks to hip-hop bass lines to the excitement
of three rappers trading verses, there's an undeniable power to their music.
One listen to Jinx will prove that to anyone,
no matter what country you're from.
