At some point in time, I found myself hanging out the laundry and thinking about what I should write next on this very paper. I knew it had to be music since the almost-post-covid effect had released artists from their home concert cages. At first, I wanted to write about the Icelandic black metal scene, hence the title of this article. Then, a clear manifestation of what had to be done appeared between my hands, straight out of the washing machine. On the t-shirt I was holding, a bro-type of skeleton was surfing his way over a shore covered in beer cans. It was the cover art for Radical Waves, the debut album of the Icelandic stoner rock band Volcanova. Stoner rock is characterized by acid and psychedelic sounds and regardless of its name, it is not a subgenre of rock, but of metal. Heavily inspired by Black Sabbath’s slow tempo and doom tonalities, stoner rock does not take its name from pebble collectors.

Anyhow, my dilemma was thus resolved. I immediately decided to reach out to Volcanova who agreed on having an interview for the student paper. In this article, you will get to know Volcanova through the words of Þorsteinn Árnason (Steini), the band’s bass player and vocalist.

Who is behind Volcanova?

We are all just three guys coming from different parts of the country, Samúel (guitars and vocals) is from Mosfellsbær, Dagur (drums and vocals) is from Dalvík and myself (bass and vocals) from the furthermost East town in Iceland, Neskaupstaður. I started playing the guitar when I was around 12 and switched to the bass around the age of 15 and then I started playing with my first band. We played some cheesy cover songs and I was in all kinds of bands doing that for the next few years and I always say that it was the best school for me, learning all those pop cover songs. Then later on I got more and more into playing metal. After living in my hometown for about 25 years it was time for me to move on. I moved to Akureyri in 2013 and I got my BA in Psychology from the University of Akureyri in 2016 and then I moved to Reykjavík in 2017 mostly just to play some music and have some good times. I then ended up in Volcanova along with forming a new band called Rock Paper Sisters.

When and how was the band formed?

Samúel originally formed the band in 2014 with his friend Ögmundur Kárason on the drums. They added a bass player (Hörður Lúðvíksson) later on and when they split up in 2017 me and Dagur joined the band. At the time Samúel and I didn´t know each other but I'd heard good things about Volcanova and Samúel knew that I was moving to Reykjavík so I didn't have to think twice when he asked me if I wanted to join the band. Especially when I knew that he already asked Dagur to join the band on the drums because I already knew Dagur from my time in Akureyri and our previous bands (Churchhouse Creepers and ONI).

Any funny stories about the band name?

Well, the definition of Volcanova is basically a new volcano, and there's a goofy story of where the name came from. Samúel was in geology class with his former drummer and they came up with the name there where they were learning about our glorious rock.

What are your main musical influences?

When Samúel started the band, he was a lot into Mastodon and some stoner bands and of course all of the 70s rock bands, especially Black Sabbath, so influences came a lot from there and still do. We all have a very varied taste of music and different backgrounds in music as well, and we draw influences from many different genres other than stoner or desert rock. For example, Dagur is listening to some 70s funk and Neil Young, while Samúel is listening to Mastodon, Kraftwerk and Spice Girls. I am mostly listening to Jack White or Bjartmar Guðlaugsson.

How has the whole Covid situation impacted the band?

In the first year of Covid, we'd already had a few gigs planned abroad, in Scotland and England to be exact. We had some nice festival appearances planned here in Iceland as well. We were supposed to play in Eistnaflug in my hometown and Secret Solstice. We were lucky enough to get to play a few good gigs around the summer of 2020 along with releasing our first album in the August same year. We had to postpone the release concert three or four times but finally got to do it in October last year for a sold-out gig in Gaukurinn. That evening was something else and we were so surprised to see the attendance, a lot of people that we've never seen before at our shows singing along with our songs, truly amazing feeling! We used the time well and practiced and wrote more music, which ended up on our new album. As for this year, we would be on our first tour around Europe right now with our friends in The Vintage Caravan but it was unfortunately postponed to September/October, so it was kind of good in a way that now we have a few more dates added in Spain and Portugal. That's pretty cool. Postponed shows and loss of income but more time to focus on the band when it comes to practicing and songwriting.

After your first album, "Radical Waves" you recently released the new album "Cosmic Bullshit". How did that go?

We always had a few songs that were almost just as old as the ones on Radical Waves, so we got the idea of doing an EP since we just wanted to release those songs so the next album would only have new and fresh songs. When we mentioned it to our label, they liked the idea and they even wanted to have 6 tracks on the album, not 2 to3 like we were going to do in the first place. We had the material and we were hyped to go for it.

The recording process was easy, fun, comfortable and went pretty smooth. A big shout out to our producer Helgi Durhuus who also produced Radical Waves. We did it in a month or so (3 to4 long weekends) compared to when we recorded Radical Waves, we were dropping in and out of the studio for 9 months or something like that.

We did a release party at Lucky Records the day after the release where we played a few songs and just had some good times with everyone who showed up and it was super fun. But we´re going to have a proper release show at Gaukurinn on March 26th with some two fantastic bands, Dopamine Machine and O´Bannion. We´ve had some great reviews in the foreign press for the album, including Metal Hammer which is one of the biggest metal magazines in the world so we couldn't really ask for more.

What's next for Volcanova?

Besides the release concert, we also have a few gigs planned in the next few weeks and hopefully we´ll get to play some festivals in the summer. Then we have the tour around Europe with The Vintage Caravan planned during the autumn where we will play around 20 concerts in 6 to7 countries so we're pretty excited about that. This will be our first big European tour and hopefully not the last. We´ve already started working on some songs for our next LP but we can't say for sure when we´ll pop into the studio. Otherwise, we´ll just keep on writing music, play some gigs, go to other gigs and mostly just have some good times.

Anything to add?

I just wanted to thank you a lot for the opportunity to be part of Stúdentablaðið. I also wanted to take the opportunity to express our gratitude on behalf of the band to every single human being out there that has supported us with buying our albums, t-shirts, coming to our shows and being overall fantastic and super supportive.

Bonus Question: What´s your favorite recently released album?

There’s a lot to choose from, always loads of new stuff coming out, but there's one album that comes to my mind if I think about the last two years. There’s a band from Sweden called Lowrider, they released their second album in 2020, 20 years after their first one which was fantastic. This album “Refractions”, is one of the best ones I've heard in a long time. I really love the sound world overall and especially the bass sound and I would be proud myself to achieve that. The singing melodies are also super catchy and I would recommend it to everyone that loves a good grooving rock and roll.

Stoner is the New Black: Interview with Volcanova