Hi, Kári, when did you get into music?

There was a green upright piano in our living room that I started playing when I was about six. When I was seven I started piano lessons with a great teacher called Birna. Somehow music always came easy to me – I was soon able to read music and I also started playing by ear. First I studied classical piano and I was playing Bach, Liszt and Debussy. Then my dad gave me some jazz music books and I developed an interest in that. I like to think could have become a classical pianist but I always valued my freedom too much - being able to improvise and play whatever came into my mind. I also liked music theory – I sort of understood it by instinct even when I was just a little kid.

You started writing songs at a very young age?

Well, I was in a little band with some friends and I started writing the songs and lyrics. We were about ten years old. At school I wrote a musical based on an Icelandic folk tale about a magical cow, but I didn’t really find the singers to work with in school. I was also chosen to participate in songwriting camps with other kids and some professional musicians. I still have most of this material - there are some decent ideas.

Is songwriting important to you?

Probably the most important thing. I am always working on several songs, but sometimes songs just come to me and I can finish them in a very short time. I write in different genres, mostly pop and jazz, but I am always looking for melodies. They are my mainstay. Writing a good song and finding a fitting arrangement is very rewarding work - it can almost make you estatic when everything comes together. 

But you also play live?

I have two working bands. A pop band with four wonderful guys who are just a bit older than I am and a jazz band with musicians who are very respected veterans of the music scene. I love playing in both of them. I’ve also done small solo gigs.

The piano is always your instrument?

I am in a very loving relationship with the piano. I’ve always found it to be my friend. But I also have different keyboards and I dabble in playing guitar and bass. I like to write songs on the guitar. 

Your first album was called Palm Trees in the Snow?

Yes, that is a phrase from one of the album’s songs. I think most of my music is kind of warm, but it comes from this cold country. We just had the coldest winter in 25 years! Most of the songs from Palm Trees in the Snow were written when I was 17-19. This coincided with the Covid era, so some of them might have a bit of a lonely feel to them, even some teenage angst. When I started recording it I had really never been in a studio before - but there I was in the famed studio of Sigur Rós. Fortunately I met Albert Finnbogason who produced the album - we are still working together. 

And then there is the jazz album, Óróapúls?

Yes, that is an Icelandic word from geology, means seismic tremor. We have a lot of those in Iceland. This is a cycle of jazz songs that we recorded live, also in the Sigur Rós studio, with a very traditional lineup: bass, drums, saxophone, trumpet. 

What about music education?

Well I graduated from the Reykjavík College of Music in both classical and jazz piano. I’ve also attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. I got a scholarship to study there, but I haven’t finished. I might one day, but I am very busy. I don’t know if staying in school is a good idea when all this original music is coming into your head. 

Always music?

Yes, it is in my head and all around. Sometimes I can’t sleep because of musical ideas coming into my mind. But mostly that is a good feeling, I like working at night. 

Do you have any interests besides music?

I am a fairly strong chess player, I was even a school champion. I was heavily into chess for a while, studying theory and all. My parents were worried that I would abandon music for chess, but finally I stopped. But I am like that, I can get very absorbed by things - concentrating has never been a problem for me. I like movies and I love traveling.

What are your favourite places?

I have been going to Greece with my family since I was a baby. We go to a small island called Folegandros, which is almost like a second home. So I love Greece. I have also travelled quite a lot in France in the last years - Paris is delightful. And then the US - I have been going there for courses but also holidays. My dad says that I am terribly Americanized.

You have been doing quite well. You were named as one of the best new acts at the Iceland Airwaves festival and you were chosen as the most promising new act at the Icelandic Music Awards in March.

I can’t complain, but this is a lot of work. I have almost finished a new pop album. I will release some singles and then the album should be out next winter. I think it is quite a leap forward from the first one, so I am very excited about that. Promoting it will be quite an effort I hope to play a lot of live shows. I am fairly introverted in my day-to-day life, but all my shyness dissipates when I come on stage and start playing. The audience gives me energy.

When you received the Icelandic Music Award from president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, he mentioned that you are a good guy. Is that right? 

If he says so I am happy with that.