By Boardpass Members Arthur Ostrowski
Quarashi is:
Sölvi - Sampling, Programming, Drums, Percussion, Keyboards
Stoney- Vocals
Hössi - Vocals and stuff
Ómar Swarez - Vocals
Interview with Sölvi of the band Quarashi
(Arthur) Tell us a little bit about your band.
We're from Reykjavik, the capitol of Iceland in Scandinavia. Our band name is Quarashi ( pronounced “kwa-ra´-she”) and we want to define our music as sort of punk-rap. Obviously it's a mixture between rock and rap. But branding it as rock-rap definitely doesn't describe it as we would like it.
(Arthur) Where did you guys get the name Quarashi from?
Quarashi is originally Stoney's pack name, and the thing about that is that we had a show in '96 and we were like “Shit we gotta get a name!”. Iit was the coolest name we could come up with but later on we found out that the surname or second name was for the prophet Mohammed the founder of Islam, and it's a very common name in the Arabic world. That was totally news to us when we found that out. Needless to say that we are not Muslim or anything like that, we just though it sounded cool, and looked cool and is cool hopefully.
(Arthur) How did Quarashi get started?
I was in a lot of punk-rock bands and rock bands, and needless to say the lead singer or rapper of Quarashi. We were in a punk-rock band before, did some concerts and hung out before. We were in the same college together me and Hössi were hanging out. The first thing he ever said to me was if I could sell him some weed, but I didn't have any weed, I wasn't a drug dealer, my friend actually was, and was looking for my friend, but that's a long story. We were in a band together and then we just quit the band because we were doing bad music, and we realized that we were doing bad music so we quit. Six month later I bought my first sampler and done all the first Quarashi tracks, and I needed someone to sing over the first Quarashi tracks so I called Hössi on the phone and asked him if he'd join me in the studio. By that time I brought in Stoney, which is one of the rappers because he was like the B-boy type, the only B-boy that I knew when I was getting into electronic music at that time, so I though that was pretty fucken cool. Later on I called Ómar and had him join the band, and that's the current line up. We knew each other ever since 1996 although Ómar didn't join the band until 1999, but he has been rapping with us since 1997. Reykjavik is a small town and everybody knows each other.
(Arthur) What bands Influenced you sound?
Basically as far as influences are concerned, the first and foremost we have to mention the Chemical Brothers. There is no denying that the Chemical Brothers caused Quarashi's existence, to a point where you know my first songs were, well I was just trying to rip them off basically. But what made us different from the Chemical Brothers was the fast that I got to meet these three other guys, that are the rappers and singers of Quarashi. They definitely bring to the table some Rage Against the Machine influences, and a little bit of Beasty, that's an obvious influence but also Hössi brings in a few of his pop influences which are Led Zepplin and a little bit of ELO which you can hear in the bass line and where he sings, and he sings the chorus of Mr. Jinx. He brings to the table a little bit of his pop background.
(Arthur) What was in like for you guys growing up and trying to get into the music industry?
Basically what it was like was… Living in Iceland you get exposed to the best of both worlds, you know. So we had more then most of European Nations, we have more American influences in our country. Which means obviously more American pop culture, but fortunately we got a lot of good American pop culture like Iceland got suddenly exposed to hip-hop sooner then compared to the rest or Europe. I remember back in 1989, Public Enemy were getting pretty big, and that had a huge impact on me. it made me want to do music in a different way. I've grown up playing in punk-rock bands and rock bands and it basically made me put that aside and made me start concentrating on rock. I went to a store and bought myself my first sampler because by the way Public Enemy was doing music, it was obvious to me that they couldn't make really cool rock tracks with just a sampler. It didn't really need guitars, it didn't need a band, you could do it yourself. That had a huge impact on me.
(Arthur) How hard was it for you guys to get Quarashi out there and to start touring?
Well what we did, because we didn't even try to get a record deal. I just formed my own label and produced all the records myself, put my own money into it and then we helped each other get the music out there. Carried our own gear, took our songs to radio stations ourselves, we did it all ourselves. It's also when you're from a small country like Iceland, you don't really need anybody else and it's the best way to learn because you don't get spoiled. (Arthur - sounds like you guys had it tough in the beginning) Oh course it was tough, but then again we learned so much from that period. We had learned that if you're going to do something right, you can do it yourself.
(Arthur) Where do you see Quarashi in the future?
Well this band has just taken a step forward into another world, which is kind of unknown to us because we're not from around here. We've spent the majority of our time here lately but we're just getting introduced into a world where we can do what we've been doing since '96 and make a living out of it and that's fucken great. And not every band can get that so it's great! And also to us, to our surprise after hearing all the horror stories about the major record labels, Columbia has been great and have given me and us the total artistic freedom that we can ask for. So that's really cool.
(Arthur) How did you guys get picked up by a major label?
Well it's a long story but we had friends in New York that believed in our stuff. In our friend opinion, our place in the world was America. And they were absolutely right. In spite of having really cool fans back home, there were only like fifteen hundred of them. So basically, they took us over and introduced us to a lot of people. We eventually ended us signing with an Indy label in Orange County called Time Bomb Recordings, they have like Social D and a whole lot of other bands. From there we went to Columbia, and it was basically a sequence of coincidence and a bit luck, but a lot of hard work too.
(Arthur) Where are you guys touring and how is it going so far?
We're in the beautiful country of Canada and we're doing a show in Calgary in a couple of hours. Warped Tour is great and is one of the best things that have happened to this band! Because back home you don't really get a chance to tour a lot, because it is such a small country where you can basically finish it off in two weeks. Touring America has not only made this band better but has also taught us a valuably lesson. Like if your stuck with your band for almost four months, you gotta learn to cut them some slack, and you gotta learn more about each other and simply become a better band.
(Arthur) Have you guys ever toured the U.S and Canada before?
We did two tours before. We did a short club tour in December and toured with the Lost Prophets in March and then we did 15 radio festivals in May and June. The difference between this tour and those is that the Warped Tour is probably the coolest tour that exists in the United States, because it is totally loyal to its punk roots and nobody get a chance to become a star. Everybody is from the same table and we all get to hang out. Nobody gets a chance to say “ I'm better then you” because they'll end up being kicked off the tour, and that's a really cool thing about this tour.
(Arthur) Where do you guys get the ideas for you songs?
Well when I write the track, I come up with a basic idea of what the track is about. For instance “Malone Lives” the fourth track on the album (Jinx), we were like “Lets do a west coast type of thing, and lets try to keep that feeling throughout the track”. For “Mr. Jinx, it was a song that I did back in '97, and it's always been my favorite Quarashi track, so I released that track for the first time on our first album in '97. When I was doing the Jinx album I thought to myself that it's a damn cool track so why don't I bring that back to the table. Because I like that track so much, it's got a brassy 60's style sound to it, so I remade it for the Jinx album. “Stick 'Em Up” is like the typical party ass track. I wanna knock somebody out or something like that. It's got that feeling to it. So it's basically me. I sit down with the track, finish off the tracks instrumental and take it to Hössi and we together lay down the vocals. Then usually if we need a second voice on the track we'll call in Stoney or Ómar and let them do their rhymes. That's the way we usually do it and it's worked so far.
(Arthur) At your shows, what its the general response of your crowed?
We are a highly energetic band, more then you would ever think. We feed off the energy of the crowed and that's very important to us. Basically what we bring to the table as far as live performances are concerned is that we bring like a seven picece band. Yes it's only four of us but I play live drums, the guys may rap and sing and then we have a human guitar player, bass player and a human DJ. So it's not all computers and shit. When people come to our concert, we like to give them something back. Like they paid for the tickets and shit so we don't want to stand up there with a bunch of turn tables and 3 MC's. that's not our thing, that's not what we grew up on and that's not what we like. The shows that we do are very energetic and real fucken live shows! You're not going to be disappointed.
(Arthur) Do you think you'd ever go back to Iceland or would you stay in North America?
We're definitely in North America now. Some of us are even becoming more and more cosmopolitan. We can say that we live her. We have permission to work here we have friends here and our management is here our label is here. In a sense New York city is our home basis even though we are from Iceland. Iceland is a great place to do music from, it's calm and a really quiet place. You can get everything you need there but America has been so good to us and we've found so many good fans here that we should have a dual-citizenship.
(Arthur) Any Last words for your fans and new listeners?
If you have a chance, please come check us out at a show. Preferably if you have a chance, come meet us backstage! We love hanging out with our fans and giving autographs and shit if that's what they want. So come hang out, drink beer that's fine as long as you're 21 (or 19 in Canada!).
For more on Quarashi, click here
