Interview with Rock Paper Sisters: ‘We wanted to write something heavy that you could dance to, with that quirkiness’

Reykjavik-based rock band Rock Paper Sisters is gearing up to release its debut album One In A Million around September this year.

The band, who have been together since 2018, comprises Eythor Ingi (lead vocals, guitar ), Thorsteinn Arnason (bass), David Sigurgeirsson (guitar), Thordur Sigurdarsson (keys) and Jon Bjorn Rikardsson (drums). Their band name turns out to have been a happy accident: ‘It was a misunderstanding,’ Ingi said. ‘You know the game ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’? I read it wrong, I’m a bit dyslexic but I thought it was funny, so we left it as a joke. We thought we could always change the name later but were invited to support Billy Idol on one show and then we were stuck with it (laughs). The local music scene is really small, so like minded people tend to be drawn together through mutual interest in certain genres.’

Last month, they released ‘With You’, a 90’s style grungy ballad showcasing Ingi’s brilliant vocals, pulled along by a chuggy bass line and big, soaring chorus. The dip around 2 mins 30 and subsequent build up would make it a brilliant festival song. Sigurgeirsson is playing the electric guitar using an octave up Whammy Pedal , small stone Phase Shifter and space echo delay pedal, which creates fantastic spacey tension: ‘It’s got a slower grunge vibe, I was in Seattle when I recorded the demo, it was inspired by a legendary band in Iceland called Jet Black Joe,’ Ingi said.‘We (me and the lead singer from Jet Black Joe) were drinking coffee at my home, it was during COVID times. I played that unfinished version of the song  ‘With You’ to him and said that it was a little bit inspired by him and his band. We started to jam on it together. The young me was crying somewhere (laughs). He came to our rehearsal that night and we did something special together. Instead of having his vocal on ‘With You’, we wrote a whole new upbeat rock song where we were screaming at each other! That’s where the title ‘In The Ring’ came from. It was like we were fighting when we wrote it.  He’s more famous now for singing ballads but in the past he was in this legendary rock band. I really love that song, and I am looking forward to releasing it. It was really special. He was screaming his lungs out (laughs). We had a blast, it was so fun. I describe the song sometimes as some kind of a Deep Purple song If Jack White had produced it.’

‘I really like Prince and stuff like that, I think there are some influences from him in this song’

‘One In A Million’ is heavier and rockier than ‘With You’, with a huge Queens of the Stone Age vibe: ‘I’m looking forward to performing it live,’ Ingi said enthusiastically. ‘You’re on point with Queens of the Stone Age, we wanted to write something heavy that you could dance to, with that quirkiness. I really like Prince and stuff like that, I think there are some influences from him in this song. It’s dancey and funky with a groove. The song’s about an attitude, it’s saying “Here I am, I can do everything”, like when you’re high on self-confidence. That can happen onstage when the audience is clapping and you think it’s amazing but when you get offstage, when you go home, you’re not as sure anymore (laughs). It’s not about me though. We were trying to make this character, someone who is always trying to talk themselves up. It’s based on a mixture of people we all know. I get so tired around people like that. I don’t think I’m one in a million (laughs).’

The genesis for ‘One In A Million’ was the catchy, hypnotic bass riff: ‘It’s one of our newer songs, it wasn’t even going to be on our debut album but I think we were inspired by the joy of finally finishing the album! We were rehearsing for another song on the album, ‘Into The Night’, when this idea came to us. I thought Steini’s (their bass player ) riff was so nice, that “da da de dah” but it was just like a bluesey riff, which is fine but I thought could we put more dance to it? And we did. We were like “This is groovy” (laughs). We were all like: “Damn, we’re good”, so the inspiration for the lyrics came from that feeling. The first name we had for it was ‘Hail To The Sisters’, it was like a celebration!’ 

‘The songs are always best when they put their flavour on it’

Ingi has packed a lot into his musical career. He’s known in his native Iceland as a singer/songwriter, producer, actor, and musician, having played in the bands Eldberg and Todmobile before forming Rock Paper Sisters in 2018. He also represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö in 2013 with the song ‘Ég á líf’ after winning the Söngvakeppnin competition in the same year. When he was 15, he starred in the Icelandic version of the musical “Oliver!”, and in 2008 won the TV talent show “Bandið hans Bubba” after previously winning a song contest for high school students in 2007, in which he sang the Deep Purple song ‘Perfect Strangers’. 

However, Eurovision turns out not to have been one of his plans: ‘I sang the song as a favour to the songwriters,’ he said. ‘They are my friends and they were having problem finding someone to sing it because the guy who was supposed to sing it and who sang it into the competition in the beginning had another song to sing there. So I did it and, surprisingly, won!’ Music clearly runs in the family as his grandfather played the piano and the accordion and they frequently played and sung together.

Interestingly, the band write a lot of their songs together right from the start: ‘It’s different from song to song but a lot of them are written together, jamming out ideas,’ he said. ‘Sometimes, songs are written in my studio when I’m jamming on my guitar and sometimes I record a demo then I’ll show it to the guys and say: “Do you think this is something?” But the songs are always best when they put their flavour on it. We write a lot of the songs together, they might have ideas I’d never have come up with.’

‘I’d ask Bowie about being creative, how to believe in it and do it’

His musical influences can certainly be felt in their songs, from Queens of the Stone Age to Prince, Jeff Buckley, The Beatles and David Bowie. ‘There are lots of artists who I love,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I adore Queen, Led Zeppelin and those 70’s rock bands. When I heard Jeff Buckley as a teenager, he changed how I thought about vocals, he was such an amazing singer. I was really inspired by Robert Plant’s screaming (laughs) and by Thom Yorke from Radiohead. I really love Chris Cornell and Soundgarden, he’s one of my favourites of all time. I love his first solo album. I think nowadays I put on his Songbook album, the live, acoustic album, the most. It’s one of my favourite albums. I find it so inspiring listening to him siting there alone with an acoustic guitar live because of his vocals and just listening to him trying to make the songs work that you were used to hearing a whole band perform.’

Currently, the Icelandic music scene is dominated by R&B according to Ingi: ‘It was dominated by the hip hop thing for years but now it’s more inspired by R&B,’ he said. ‘It’s quite interesting, we have a lot of great local rock and jazz bands. ‘Vintage Caravan are really good, they’re 70’s style rock, a bit like Cream, they’re one of the best three man rock bands I have ever seen live. Ásgeir is really good, that’s more folk, and Valdimar, which is more alternative rock or something.’

Their artwork is really stunning, particularly for ‘With You’ and ‘One In A Million’. ‘With You’ features a mesmerising black and white painting of a dripping, smoking heart and I ask him who did it: ‘Villi Jóns, he’s an amazing artist. As is “Skveri ” Baldur Kristjansson, he paints with a pencil. He is making our album cover.’

If he could go for a pint with anyone, Ingi picks David Bowie and Jack White: ‘Jack White, to talk about reinventing yourself, he’s just amazing, it is like he never sleeps. He is constantly working on new projects and collaborates with a lot of different artists. I think I’d ask Bowie about being creative, how to believe in it and do it,’ he said. ‘I’d try to get that out of him (laughs), to find out about his mindset and what inspired him!’

(Photo from left to right: Jonbi, Eythor, David, Thordur and Steini.)

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