Virgin Orchestra are Reykjavik’s most exciting new band

What springs to mind when you think of Iceland? Perhaps its capital city, Reykjavík. Or the northern lights. The cold. Wild, postcard-ready landscapes. More than likely, you’ll also think of Björk.

What should really be on your radar, however, is the country’s thriving DIY music scene. There’s a flurry of both emerging and established indie bands railing against the closure of beloved venues across Reykjavik – often to make space for hotels – by putting on gigs in disused spaces and parents’ basements, or playing at cult festival Iceland Airwaves, which this year takes place 7^th-9^th November.

One such band is Virgin Orchestra. Undeterred, if disheartened, by the shrinking selection of local live spaces on offer (sadly, we can relate), its members Stefanía Pálsdóttir, Starri Holm and Rún Árnadóttir are going full steam ahead.

Over the last couple of years, the experimental post-punk three-piece have worked hard to establish themselves in Reykjavik, playing gigs in the city and completing a few headline slots in Scotland. Their 2023 debut album Fragments blends harsh, industrial sounds with hypnotic synths, cinematic strings and just a touch of pop. A simmering sense of melancholy ties all of these threads together.

“Music is a huge staple in education in Iceland,” says Rún, Virgin Orchestra’s mega cello player. ​“No matter how tiny the town is, there will be a music school there. That has a lot of impact on how many people go into music and creativity in general. We all get some kind of training when we’re young.”

When I meet up with Rún, Starri and Stef, they’re cosied up in a corner of Smekkleysa, a Reykjavik record shop that was founded in 1986 by Björk-fronted band The Sugarcubes. Thankfully, this beloved hot-spot isn’t going anywhere – neither is Gaukurinn, ​“one of the only decent venues left in town that supports grassroots bands” or Bíó Paradís, a gorgeous arthouse cinema with decor that could easily feature in a Wes Anderson film.

Starri, meanwhile, is a lifelong guitar player. Virgin Orchestra was initially his and Stef’s idea, dreamed up while the pair were studying electronic composition at Iceland’s University of the Arts, which is also where they met Rún. ​“Then, we brought her in and saved her!” Stef says, laughing.

The trio’s approach to making music is, like their sound, a little untraditional. ​“Our songs are never born in a rehearsal room or jam session,” Starri adds. ​“One of us will come up with an idea, and then we’ll each work on it separately before coming together at the end.” As Rún puts it, ​“it’s like making art with your body” – a pass the parcel way of working that results in a lush, singular sound.

Lucky for us, album number two is on the way – but not before Virgin Orchestra hit the stage at Iceland Airwaves in a few weeks. Grab yourself a ticket. You might even hear some of their new material.

Hi, guys! Talk us through the timeline of your friendship…

Stef: I didn’t have a lot of musical training as a kid – it wasn’t really an option in the suburbs. But I really wanted to be in a band. I was doing lots of other things at the time, like theatre, but it never felt right. Eventually, I did a masters in creative writing, but there was something missing. So I was like, OK, enough, I’m finally going to do music. Then I met these guys [at university]. I remember the first day, showing up and looking around like, OK, who can I fish [for] here? Who will be in my band?

So Starri and Rún were the unsuspecting victims?

Rún: Starri and Stef bonded immediately through their shared interest in music.

Stef: Starri and I were the weirdos in the class. So obviously, we started to make music together. Then we did a composition workshop, a sort of mandatory class where every student had to participate.

Rún: And yes, they fished me out! These two look like the coldest people when you see them in the hallway. But they were always super nice to me.

Stef: Starri and I have the worst resting bitch faces.

Starri: The songs that came out on the first album, Fragments, were ones that Stefanía and I wrote together.

Stef: Initially we wanted to be this avant-garde band. Starri and I made a pinky promise when we were drunk that we were gonna do this for real. And to this day, we are so in it. Then we fell for Rún’s dedication. When we met her, she didn’t have a buzz cut. After one day of working with us, she shaved her head. I took that as a good sign!

Rún: At that point in my mind I was already in the band.

When did you realise you worked well together?

Stef: There was good chemistry from the beginning. These guys are better instrumental players than me, but it’s OK, I have other things, like singing and songwriting.

Rún: Valuable things, Stef. Communication is key – we’re really nice to each other…

What music do you listen to these days?

Stef: I’m very into Bollywood funk, ​’60s and ​’70s East African music. Then classic post-punk stuff, like Joy Division.

Rún: Shoegaze. I love classical music, too.

Starri: I like industrial stuff.

Stef: We bring whatever we like into the mix. Starri had made two solo albums before Fragments that were super industrial. He has a drum kit he built himself, which we also use. It has a nice texture.

Starri: It’s like hitting sheet metal with a rock. It works well for us!

What’s most important to you when you’re playing live?

Starri: Loudness. We’ve been in venues before when it’s been really quiet and it just doesn’t deliver. When we did our album release show, we brought in a sound guy who mastered our first album – he’s infamous for turning things up.

Rún: He cranked it so loud.

Starri: That was great. The atmosphere is so important, getting the right coloured lights…

Stef: The most important thing, for me, is that we all really feel it. Then everything just falls into place.

Rún: You get into a flow state, which is very common when we play together. I almost pass out.

Starri: The longest show we played was an hour, but I could only remember ten minutes of it.

Rún: That’s what music is all about: connection and leaving yourself. Not many things do that for you, that feeling of rejecting time, almost.

Stef: It’s nice when people come up to us and express that they feel the same – that out of body experience. It’s almost religious.

You’re on the cusp of releasing your second album. Can you give us any clues?

Starri: The songwriting has gotten tighter, for sure.

Stef: We wrote the first album very fast, which means it’s very raw. We used every single thing that we wrote for Fragments.

Starri: Now we have more experience, we’ve written a lot more.

Rún: The best part is putting that puzzle together.

Starri: We’ve refined our process, is what we can say. We almost have a factory line set up now, it’s that smooth.

If listeners took just one thing from this upcoming project, what would you like it to be?

Stef: To understand that [we] put a lot of feelings into it. I’m just excited to hear what people think. I couldn’t possibly say what they should or shouldn’t feel, because parts of our souls are in there.

What’s next for Virgin Orchestra?

Starri: Airwaves! Nothing’s set in stone yet, but next year will be a bit of a touring year for us…

Rún: We are really excited for Airwaves.

Stef: Then London is the plan.

Starri: Either way, there will definitely be more international shows next year. We are plotting…

Fancy a trip to Iceland Airwaves? Nab yourself some tickets here. It’s on 7^th — 9^th November.