2022 Dance/Electronic Grammy Preview: Olafur Arnalds on Being ‘Stumped’ By His Nomination & Popping a Tiny Bottle to Celebrate

[Taylor Swift]

"I'm a guy from a small town of like, 5,000 people in Iceland. The Grammys were not on my radar of things that might be possible in life."

 

Ólafur Arnalds

 

 

Editors note: In this series, Billboard Dance is speaking with each 2022 Grammy nominee from the dance/electronic categories ahead of the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on April 3, in Las Vegas, NV.

When beginning to piece together his 2020 album, some kind of peace, Ólafur Arnalds had the idea to begin the project with an electronic track. This would function as a sort of segue from his electronic oriented 2018 LP, re:member, nodding to where that work had left off before transitioning into more orchestral, ambient sounds. Turns out, Arnalds had the perfect song.

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In his files was a collaboration that the longstanding Icelandic producer/composer — whose work earned him a 2020 Emmy nomination — had made with Bonobo during a trip Bonobo had made to Iceland prior to the pandemic. The song, “Loom,” is a textural IDM slow build that shimmers with piano keys, vocal samples and strings, and serves as that electronic segue as the opening track on some kind of peace.

It’s also helped Arnalds delve deeper into the electronic scene, via his 2022 Grammy nomination for best dance/electronic recording, where the composer finds himself amongst perhaps strange bedfellows, including Afrojack and David Guetta and Tiësto. This year, he’s also up for best arrangement, instrumental and vocals for “The Bottom Line,” a collaboration with German composer/producer/vocalist Josin, which also appears on some kind of peace.

Zooming with Billboard from his studio in Iceland, here Arnalds talks about watching the Grammys since he was a kid, popping a tiny bottle of champagne to celebrate his nominations, and why the awards aren’t important, he says, “in any way that matters to creativity.”

Where was “Loom” made, and when?

The song was made in Iceland. Bonobo, Simon, we’ve been friends for a little while, and I invited him to come to Iceland to visit me and do a little secret DJ show together. I’ve done this series of small shows here using my connections to the big DJs to come here, because everyone wants to come to Iceland for a holiday. Simon came during the summer and stayed for a few days, and we went traveling into the highlands of Iceland. We slept in a tent, and when we got back to town we just had a free mind to go create something. We booked one day in the studio, and this song got created in that one day.

How long did this song take for you to then finalize it?

We did most of it in one day, and then we didn’t touch it for a year or so. I’d almost forgotten about it until I was making my record. I was digging up old ideas for things that would fit on the record, and I kind of rediscovered it. At that point we started sending it back and forth – we were already in the pandemic at this point – so we sent it back and forth a few times and finished it over a few weeks.

What non-collaborator did you first play it for and what was their reaction?

I think it was just one of my managers. That’s a boring answer. My question was to him – because this song is kind of different than the other songs on the album – it’s an electronic song and most of the album doesn’t have much [in the way of electronic elements]. It’s one of my more acoustic works, this album. I was just kind of asking him what he thinks, because I had this great, weird idea in my mind that because my last album was quite electronic I should start this album with an electronic song so I can transition it, like a segue. That was my reason for showing him this song, and he was like “Dude, don’t even think about it, this should just go on the album no matter what.”

Did you know the song was special, or a “hit”?

No. Definitely not. It’s probably the least hit song of this Grammy category, in terms of traditional hit song structure. I think it’s just kind of ambient and strange and pretty. I was more thinking about it like a segue, really.

What do you think the track appealed to Grammy voters?

I’m stumped. I’m really stumped. I like the track, I think it’s a good track. I think it’s just synergy – a lot of worlds coming together. There was a beautiful music video that people really liked and responded to, and it helped translate the meaning of the song so people could understand what we’re doing. It sounds a bit different than the other songs, and maybe that’s interesting to people. But, I don’t know.

What were you doing when you found out you were nominated?

I’m working on a score right now, and I was just working and had my email open on my laptop. It was the middle of the day and I was kind of multitasking while working on a track. And I just saw an email with the subject “congratulations!!!!!” There were a lot of exclamations points, and I had no idea what they were talking about. So I go out, and my manager is in the next room and I’m like, “what’s going on?” That was when they were livestreaming the nomination announcements. I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know I was submitted for consideration. So I turned on the announcement livestream, and that’s exactly when they announced my other nomination. We had a tiny little bottle of champagne in the fridge, so we opened it.

How did it feel in that moment, to be nominated?

I’m a guy from a small town of like, 5,000 people in Iceland. Grammys are not on my radar of things that might be possible in life. So this is an unreal shock, because I’ve followed the Grammys since I was a kid. Then I started doing music and it’s like, medium successful, but it’s still not pop music — so it’s not something that you see on the Grammys. So even then I wasn’t even thinking [being nominated] was a possibility. So I was just in a bit of shock. I called my mom. She was in shock too. Then I just didn’t have time to celebrate, because very quickly I started getting a lot of phone calls. This is a small country, so all the newspapers were interested.

The collection of tracks nominated this year is really sonically diverse, from EDM to IDM to rave to dance pop. What’s your take on quite disparate styles of dance music competing against each other in the same category?

I think it’s amazing, because electronic music — previously it’s been EDM or popular electronic music, but electronic music is such a broad genre. So I think it’s really cool that it’s all being seen and appreciated.

Would you like to see the Recording Academy in any way expand or update the way they handle electronic music?

Electronic music has been some of the biggest music on the planet for some time now, so I think this should be a big category. It should be one of the main ones. Even though it’s not the stuff you hear on the radio, it is the stuff everyone is listening to on Spotify. But I’m not in a situation to complain about anything about what they’re doing. I’m just happy.

When I googled your name and “Grammys” there was a tweet from 2018 that came up in which you wrote “despite making some of the best albums of all time, Kendrick Lamar has lost best album at the Grammys to both Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars, and yet we still talk about commercial awards shows like they have some sort of merit.” Do you think these awards have merit and credibility?

Ah, now you’ve put me on the spot! In terms of popular music, no — but I think it’s a great celebration between artists. I think the Grammys have more merit than others, because it’s voted by peers, by musicians. I was probably in a bad mood that day, really. I wanted Kendrick to win. [Laughs.] But I don’t think they’re important in any way that matters to creativity. Of course I’m honored that my peers would consider me. That’s amazing, and it’s such an honor. But for me, it’s a celebration of each other. I don’t see it as something to aim for as a career move.

There are no female producers nominated in this category in 2022, and this isn’t the first year that this has happened. How do you explain the lack of female artists represented here?

That’s something that would be nice to change. I don’t get it. It’s not like there’s a lack of female producers. It’s a minority, but there’s great female producers. Tokimonta. Nina Kraviz. There’s a lot out there that deserve just as much to be considered as I do. I don’t know the answer to this, but it’s a typical thing where it just often lacks precedence. It’s hard to break out of a loop. We’re used to seeing men up there, so we continue putting men up there.

The same happened with female composers at the Academy Awards two years when Hildur Guðnadóttir, an Icelandic friend of mine, won the best score for The Joker. She was the first female composer ever to do so. In the couple of years since then, I think everything has changed for female composers in film scoring, where we’re seeing them everywhere. It’s like — we’re stereotypical people, we don’t like to look outside of our boxes.

What do these nominations mean to you in terms of your own career?

It’s a bit surreal to take part in it. It’s just not something you imagine. Like I said, it’s not a career move you go for, but of course it changes peoples’ careers. I fully realize that. There’s a lot of media attention. It’s a good thing to put in your biography. [laughs] I’m excited to see how all of this goes down and see my friends like Simon who are nominated and spend time with them.

Simon is also nominated elsewhere in this category and has been nominated before. The Grammys really seem to love his sound.

I’m not sure I’d be nominated if Bonobo wasn’t on this track.

Do you really feel that way?

Not in a way where I feel insecure about it — but he lives in L.A., and he’s much more involved with the American industry than I am. I’m sure they chose the track because they like the track, but I’m not sure they would have considered it if they hadn’t seen his name on it. I don’t know, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt. The Grammys love him, so he’s a good luck charm.

If you win, how will you celebrate?

What do you do in Vegas? I will avoid all of the things that people think about when they think about Vegas. I’ll try to find the people who I actually know and love, and maybe we can find a corner to hang out in. I’m going to bring my partner and just have a nice time.