In the weeks leading up to SPOT Festival we present a number of acts from different parts of the music world, who you can meet at the festival. This time it is Faroese act Konni Kass.
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1. Who are you? (how did you get together, when etc.)
I am Konni Kass and I come from the Faroe Islands. The band is called Konni Kass too. So it’s my name and the band’s name as well.
2. What is your musical expression / genre?
I just want to be real, when I play music. I want to do what I “feel” and what I am inspired by around me. So I would say that my musical expression is my musical universe. And my musical universe is sort of a free space for me. I’m actually pretty emotional in my music, and that’s why my music is very dynamic and organic and imperfect.
3. How long have you been a band/when did you start the project – and what
musical environment do you come from?
We’ve been a band since the spring of 2015. The Faroe Islands is a small place. I knew the drummer [Per Ingvaldur Højgaard Petersen] beforehand and I asked if he wanted to jam and we did some “vocal-and-drum-jam”. And then we met up with [Torleik Mortensen], who plays bass at a local jam session, and afterwards we went out for a beer and met [Knút Háberg Eysturstein], who’s also a solo artist and I asked him if he wanted to join us because I really liked his music. He plays keys and has this amazing sense of creating soundscapes. That’s how we started in 2015. And then we sort of just started playing together and really felt that we had something special, the four of us. When we jammed it just made sense.
4. What are your sources of inspiration?
We all listen to a lot of music. We love to go to concerts, and to jam. So for us together I would say the source of inspiration is the music we show each other. We have these LP-listening parties, too. I find a lot of inspiration in music. For lyrics I find inspiration in what I experience and what other people experience. So kind of small fractions of everyday life.
5. What are your main goals playing at SPOT this year?
We played at SPOT last year and it was kind of our big break. We signed an international management deal, and SPOT really opened the doors for us especially on the German market. So that’s why we are so excited to be back this year. And our goals for playing are, of course, to play a great concert and maybe get some new connections and expand our international partners maybe in the direction of the UK. And also to build on the German launch which was so great last year.
6. Who are you trying to reach – and why?
We really want to reach the people who like our music. That’s the most important part. I really feel that SPOT is a great place to do it, because SPOT Festival has a lot of great festival goers who love music.
7. Have you played abroad /if: where? Do you have any international deals?
We just finished our tour in Germany where we had a sold-out gig in Berlin, which was really cool. And that is because, after SPOT last year, we played at Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, which led to the Iceland Airwaves after that. So we did a lot of showcase festivals after SPOT.
Our booking partners are FKP Scorpio in Germany and 3rd Tsunami in Denmark and then we have FACTORY 92 doing our management. But everything is kind of built on our Faroese label TUTL, which is a great Faroese label. They are pulling the strings behind a lot of our international set-up.
8. What is your dream as a musician / musicians?
My dreams as a musician is to be able to keep on making music. The thing is: I’m gonna keep on making music anyways, but the dream is to keep on being able to do it with the support of people around me.
One thing that is important to me is to give the experience, that I get when I am moved or touched by music, on to someone else. I want share the strength in music that I feel with other people. And I believe that that is possible.
9. What is the most important thing you’ve learned so far?
The most important thing for me is to be real and honest to myself. Both on stage and in my songwriting. I think it is sometimes easier to just go along with everything around you, but it always works out best for me if I just stay true to myself as an artist. I like to let my emotions guide me.
10. Where are you in 5 years?
Well, in five years I’m hopefully playing concerts or maybe working on a new album. And I hope that we are still playing together, the four of us in the band, and are still as good friends as we are now, and just going on with our daily lives.