Jófríður Ákadóttir
Jófríður Ákadóttir, or JFDR as she now goes by on stage, is a 25 year old singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has been mentioned by the likes of Björk as one of their most recent musical inspirations. ‘New Dreams’ (which was also released under her own label, White Sun Recordings!) is her second album released under this alias, and comes 3 years after her last, ‘Brazil’.
The band Pascal Pinon was her first musical venture, with her twin sister Ásthildur, later on forming band Samaris, a band which shouldn’t be a stranger to some listeners of BBC6 for example.
I meet Jófríður in London, the day before her gig at Saint-Pancras Old Church, along with her long time friend and musical collaborator Áslaug or Sluxxz who would be playing alongside her. I was asked to do the styling for them and we got to spend a bit of time together. Her effervescent, yet laid back nature made me instantly think I had to interview her. We meet again the next evening, just before her sold out concert and as I prepare her and the band. Once Jófríður is on the stage, the crowd is completely silent, you can feel how her songs have the audience completely captured for the entire show. She´s a amazingly natural performer and her set seems effortless.
How old were you when you started playing music, and how did you start?
I started writing songs when I got an electric guitar for christmas when I was 11 years old, me and my sister started a band together where we made songs on our mom’s laptop and made two albums, one of which was a birthday present for our dad. We started the band Pascal Pinon when we were 14 and entered a band competition soon after. We didn’t get very far in the competition but we got a bit of attention and from there on we were an official band.
When was it your realised this is something you wanted to do for a living?
I had always been writing and performing and never questioned that or made a conscious decision, however I remember very clearly when I was 20 years old and quit university after a semester and a half, because I knew I wanted to follow this endeavor wholeheartedly and not spend my energy focusing on the backup plan.
Who has been the most influential person to you when it comes to your musical career? Or the most influential artist whom you admire?
It’s impossible to pinpoint one person but my dad has had a great impact on me whether I like it or not. He taught me and my sister to take things seriously and be careful when engaging with the music industry and to know your worth and not let others tell you what to do.
This album has quite a versatile sound to it, did you find it a bit self explorative to write?
I didn’t have a sense of overall direction, I rather allowed every song to take the shape it wanted and as a result it was a very explorative process. I think my voice serves as a strong unifying factor and that allows me to play with arrangements and different approaches to songwriting and production, the core is always there.
It comes out 3 years after your last record, Brazil, and you mention in your interview with Reykjavík Grapevine you were determined to get it right. What is it you were so determined to get right?
The whole journey of being a solo artist has a lot of challenges and one of the biggest challenge is overcoming yourself, in particular unnecessary pressure and expectations. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make it the best album it could be and in many ways it helped the process being determined about that but that sense of urgency was placed on a fragile foundation and when I didn’t have a good balance in my life the album became an incredibly difficult thing to work on and finish. So those ideas that it needed to be the best it could be became toxic and i needed to free myself from those thoughts in order to finish it.
What did you find most interesting about the process of writing and recording this album?
The best part was taking more space and doing more things myself, especially on the technical side of things. At the beginning I thought I would never get so involved with that but in the end I was getting my hands dirty, making decisions, big and small, and crafting so many fun little details. The craftsmanship of this album is probably my favourite thing about it.
I always find the thought of what you musicians do so daunting. Writing about your emotions and more, and being so vulnerable and honest about it. Do you think it come more natural to some people to do so, and do you feel like you need to have thick skin to able to?
I think the more I think about that side to the work and when I challenge it, it becomes harder to do it. For me the best stuff comes naturally and when I’m not overthinking things.
What is your favourite thing to write about? And what is your process of writing? Does the song usually come first or lyrics?
It varies but the best stuff is often just memos on the phone, that I have scribbled down in passing and then come back to and edit and fit into a song. Sometimes I pick a topic and try to explore that but usually the best material is what is the most imminent or present thing available. The best stuff happens when you can write the song and lyrics at a similar time. The process starts with either one but when they are written and finished at a similar time they tend to merge together more beautifully and make more sense.
I like to approach songwriting as communication, sometimes it’s a way to communicate with the world and sometimes a single person and sometimes just yourself.
You were based in New York and have quite recently relocated back to your home-country Iceland. Tell us about this transition, and did it influence your album?
I moved to New York because it was a weirdly effortless transition and one that I didn’t need to think about very much, it just happened somehow. Doors were suddenly open and because that's such a rarity I knew I had to go. I have great friends in New York that are like family, I got to live in a beautiful loft and because of my work I was able to get a visa. Through coming to New York to record, these opportunities presented themselves.
A couple of years later a few things happened in my life that suggested i needed to make a transition so I went back to Iceland to rest and meditate on those things and for some reason I never went back to New York and ended up settling in Iceland. I just keep waiting for it to ask me to come back.
During such strange times today with a Pandemic going on in the world, what do you think is important for people to understand about your industry and how to help people in music who have lost income by shows being cancelled and such?
It’s a great opportunity to reflect on how we value music and how it’s monetised. I think in general this pandemic calls for us to reflect on everything we take for granted, from food to toilet paper, traveling to handshakes, from group gatherings to politics and leadership. Putting music into the mix is only natural and I hope we open up to the positive changes that are available to us in times like these.
As a young woman in music, what have you felt has been the most empowering for you so far in your career? And likewise, what have you found the hardest about it?
For me it all comes down to trust; it was empowering scoring a feature film last year and being trusted and encouraged to do that work in my own way, I had never scored a whole feature before.
But on the flip side; I’ve had many moments of simple and complicated things mansplained (thank god for that word, so good!) which very directly stems from lack of trust and belief that you understand and know what you’re doing. There’s a different tone when someone is giving helpful advice and when they are mansplaining. I think sometimes we don’t recognize which one it is so it’s important to have the bullshit antenna turned on.
I’m excited for women to gain more trust, I believe that’s happening everyday in small and big ways.
You’ve been a part of quite a few musical ventures now, including Pascal Pinon and Samaris. What is on the horizon for those, are they on hiatus while you focus on your solo venture or will you be introducing some new music with one or the other any time soon?
They’re definitely on hold for a while. The different members all have something else going on and we all recognize that whatever happens has to come naturally.
What is on the horizon for you after the release of this album? Since some of your gigs and appearances have had to be cancelled, what is next?
I’m in Australia with my boyfriend in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nurturing nature and sunlight. I’m going to use this time to be creative and switch gears back to the more introverted aspects of my job. The extroverted tasks will have to wait until they are safe again.
Purchase ‘New Dreams’ here, on Bandcamp, which has forfeited it share of sales in support of artists during these uncertain times.
Words by Lilja Hrönn.
Photography by Timothée Lambrecq.
