FM Belfast 'How To Make Friends' - debut artist album from Icelandic collective

FM Belfast
How To Make Friends
Morr Music / Kimi Records
Released: Jan 22nd


“Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don't Matter and Those Who Matter Don't Mind.” - Dr. Zeuss

FM Belfast are Iceland’s best keep secret; a band with colourful energy that instantly captures your attention. Musically, they create inspiring electro-indie-pop and always put on an explosive, impulsive and unpredictable live show - with anything from 3 to 30 people - always hitting the high notes and always leaving you with a smile.

‘How To Make Friends’ is the debut album from the creative collective… Lyrically it covers everything from the VHS (a stage on from The Buggles), to Love, to a Tropical, Exotic Rocky Island, to Running Down The Street In Your Underwear… And the band do cover versions (re-working Rage Against The Machine and Technotronic) in ways you would least expect… Get ready for Fun…




Beginning as a living-room project with Árni Plúseinn (vocals, computers, lights) and Lóa (vocals, percussion), ‘Pump’ became the first FM Belfast song created - a Christmas present for friends. Their first show, as still only a duo, took place in a cave on The Faeroe Islands, in the summer of 2006. Later in the Autumn came their first official Live Show at the Iceland Airwaves Festival - The annual Iceland Music event which showcases local and international talent to the music industry and beyond. Árni Vil (vocals, drum machine, falsetto) and Örvar (vocals) joined before that show and from here the band became a quartet, with some variations.

FM Belfast have since played the festival every year, with the Airwaves Annual booklet describing them as: “Reykjavik’s masters of public pantlessness have no problem getting a whole room to bust a move. Their shows are consistently high quality, electro-pop ragers. Constant Airwaves favourites.” – from here they got to tour far and wide and have been propped by magazines including Clash, NME, Rolling Stone USA, Telegraph and Q magazine as a must see Live Act.

some links..

http://news.qthemusic.com/2009/10/iceland_airwaves_festival_our.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/blogs/breaking/2008/10/hype-monitor-passion-pit-fm-be.php

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-festivals/6439268/Airwaves-Festival-in-Iceland-review.html


http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%22FM+Belfast%22&ss=2&s=rec



The band are inspired by artists including Gary Numan, Toto, Aha, Pavement, Flaming Lips, Smog, Primal Scream, Jóhann Helgason, Biggi Veira from GusGus and many more. Their album’s title ‘How To Make Friends’ is inspired by the many great people the band met when making the album and by a comic book title Lóa was illustrating at the time - ‘How to make friends in summer camp’ (a selection of Lóa’s art works can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/loaloaloa).






















A track by track breakdown by the band themselves…


Frequency: “This song was made after a family gathering where one of us had to be the designated driver for drunk family members. It´s probably an experience most people recognize. It can be awful while it lasts but usually funny afterwards.”|

Underwear: “The song is about boredom combined with the freedom of running down the street in your underwear. It’s about growing up in place where you have to make your own entertainment.”

I Can Feel Love: “When you fall more and more in love with each drink you have - when you are drunk and happy in a cheesy kind of way.”

Tropical: “To some people it sounds like it’s a song about Iceland. Tropical was originally written about the town Gjogv in the Faeroe Islands, about a place that’s almost the opposite of Tropical. Exotic rocky island.”

Pump: “Pump is the first FM Belfast song ever made. It was a Christmas gift for our friends Inga and Bóas. The recording on the album is the original one and the lyrics are borrowed from Technotronic´s Pump up the Jam.”

Par Avion: “One very cold winter day there was an article in the newspaper about an Icelandic girl that had moved to the Caribbean and was renting a house on the beach for a small amount of money. At the time it felt almost ridiculous to live on a frozen island and pay high rent for a tiny apartment. We just wanted to move right away. It helps singing this song, then you can go to the Caribbean for 3 minutes and 47 seconds.”

VHS: “About when formats change and become obsolete. You’ve grown attached to some technology and then someone comes along and changes it ruining your collections. Like a love song to a lost friend.”

Lotus: “A friend of ours said: " Why don’t you do something with the Rage against the Machine?" so we did the best we could. We still don’t know if he was being serious or not.”

Optical: “The joy of getting your vision back by buying a pair of spectacles. Most of us in the band are visually impaired. Some in more denial than others.”

Synthia: “There once was a beautiful synthesizer that was owned by a neglectful man. The song is about poor treatment of synthesizers and our desire to save them.”

President: “It’s a song about a determined person that never gives up.”


‘How To Make Friends’ is released January 22nd on Morr Music / Kimi Records

www.myspace.com/fmbelfast

For more press information, contact Kim Booth
kim@rebelbutterfly.co.uk