We don’t use the word enigmatic lightly. Getting in touch with Jónsi has been an experience wrapped in an enigma inside a mystery inside an Eyjafjallajökull – after five scheduled phone interviews, and five times hanging up the phone with no answer from Mr. Birgisson, Groupie’s Cathy Thwaite emailed her questions over to the Sigur Rós singer without a lot of hope. And he replied!!! Read the interview below, and when you’re done make sure you enter our comp to win a Jónsi prize pack including sideshow tix, signed album, T-shirt and poster! Details at the bottom of the post.

You have been working with Sigur Rós for over a decade and this is your first solo album. Why did it feel like the right time for a solo album? How different do you feel now about making music from when you started with Sigur Ros?
The rest of the band were off having babies and I had all these songs I wanted to work with so I thought now would be a good time to get them out there. It’s different because in Sigur Rós we all work together and now it’s just me and my ideas.

How different is the process of making your own solo album as opposed to making music with Riceboy Sleeps and Sigur Rós? Is it lonelier or scarier, liberating or more fun?
It’s a bit scarier, it’s nice to write music with other people, to have someone to bounce ideas off.

‘Go’ was supposed to start out as an acoustic album. You’ve been described as saying ‘it exploded’. What happened?
It started with me writing songs in my house with piano, ukulele, acoustic guitar and harmonium, then it turned into this crazy monster!

You also worked extensively with Nico Muhly on the album, who is a protégé of Phillip Glass – tell us about that. What did he bring to the process?
Nico is really, really spontaneous and quick in the studio as am I. He’s super creative and works amazingly fast and I feel the end result came out exactly how I wanted it.