JÓNSI: GET UP AND GO

Originally published in AU magazine, March 2010

LET’S BE frank for just a moment. When you think of Sigur Rós, arguably one of the most cerebral bands of the 21^st century – a band whom the word ‘ethereal’ was seemingly devised solely to describe – you don’t necessarily expect them to be captivating conversationalists. Harsh? Well, try sticking ‘Sigur Rós Radio Interview Disaster’ into Google, witness the stultifyingly awkward ‘discussion’ that followed on NPR in 2007, bear in mind that this is a band who regularly sing in a made-up language, and then tell us that you’d like to be stuck in an elevator with them for an hour.