All my yesterdays have flown away And it’s better now It’s better now All my dreams have gone away And I don’t know how Oh, I don’t know how Lately in my dreams Maybe all is not really what it seems Contradictions Lately in my dreams I know, wonder what it means Contradictions Contradictions All my yesterdays make sense somehow Cause they’ve flown away It’s another day All my dreams have gone away Where they went I don’t know It’s just so Lately it’s so strange All has fallen off and gone away Contradictions Wonder what it means It’s so... That’s all that it seems Contradictions
While I’m having fun I still wonder When will it be done Contradictions It’s all fine, and why? Don’t know Wondering and why... Contradictions
Something wrong world tour \\ 2015
Bang Gang is th e nom de ban d of th e i diosyncratic Ice lan dic produce r, songwr ite r, an d vocalist Bar di Johan nsson, who starte d r ecor di ng u n de r th an d atmosph e r ic, Portish ead-li ke e lectron ica. Johan nsson is ofte n joi n e d by vocalists Esth e r Talia Casey, M83’s Anthony Gon zale z, an d Ke r e n An n M i de m Festival, wh e r e th e proj ect caug ht th e atte ntion of a r e p from East-West France with th e song “Sle e p.” Johan nsson was h ustle d i nto th e stu d Ice lan dic radio lau nch e d it i nto rotation on MTV E u rope. Bang Gang’s de b ut alb u m, You, was r e lease d on e year late r. Johan nsson spe nt th e spe nt t artists an d deve lope d a TV show for th e Scr e e n On e chan n e l. Bang Gang’s secon d alb u m, Som eth i ng Wrong, h it stor es i n 2003. Bang Gang move d to
In the last five years, Bardi has been anything but idle. He co-directed short films, produced and write lyrics for several icelandic artists, and prepared for the new album. With something wrong world tour, Bardi is not only making his comeback but also confirming his talent as a composer, performer, and producer.
h e nam e i n th e late ‘90s. Bang Gang’s sou n d prove d to b e as e n ig matic as its h e lmsman, fusi ng tog eth e r Montt Mar di e-esqu e falsetto-dr ive n i n di e pop on h is Bang Gang r ecor di ngs; Ke r e n An n an d Johan nsson also wor k tog eth e r as Lady & B i r d. Bang Gang had its b ig b r eak wh i le pe r for m i ng at th e dio an d h is fi rst si ng le, “So Alon e?,” was r e lease d i n th e su m m e r of 1999. Th e si ng le was a h it on th e Ice lan dic charts, an d th e song’s popu lar ity on th e n ext two years wor ki ng on var ious proj ects; i n addition to r ecor di ng mor e Bang Gang mate r ial, h e also wrote an d produce d songs for oth e r Cod R ecor ds for its th i r d fu ll-le ngth, G hosts from th e Past, wh ich was r e lease d i n France i n 2008.
Inside Follow Something Wrong It’s Alright There Was a Whisper Forward and Reverse Find What You Get In the Morning Stop in the Name of Love Everything’s Gone
Contradictions Look at the Sun
I can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. I ca what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. Can you fe e l what is wrong? can you what you want? can you fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you want? I can what is wrong. above all th e clou ds. above all th e clou ds. Above all th e clou d can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. can h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. H e lp m e to fe e l my sou l. h e lp m e e n d it all. falli ng down. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you want. I can what is wrong. I can do what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. Can you fe e l w is wrong? can you do what you want? can you fe e l what is wrong? can you do you want? I can fe e l what is wrong. above all th e clou ds. above all th e clou ds Above all th e clou ds. I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wrong? I ca cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. H e lp m e to fe e l my sou l. h e lp m e to e n d it all. falli ng down. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you want. I can fe e l wha wrong. Can you fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you want? can you fe e l w wrong? can you do what you want? I can fe e l what is wrong. above all th e clo above all th e clou ds. Above all th e clou ds. I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry mor e. H e lp m e to fe e l my sou l. h e lp m e to e n d it all. falli ng down. I can fe e l wh is wrong. I can do what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you w I can fe e l what is wrong. Can you fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you wa can you fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you want? I can fe e l what is wro above all th e clou ds. above all th e clou ds. Above all th e clou ds. I can’t cry an mor e. can you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. H e lp m e to fe e l my sou l. h e lp m e to e n d it all. fal down. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you want. I can fe e l what is wron can do what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. Can you fe e l what is wrong? c you do what you want? can you fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you want can fe e l what is wrong. above all th e clou ds. above all th e clou ds. Above all clou ds. I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry any m can you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. H e lp m e to fe e l my sou l. m e to e n d it all. falli ng down. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you want can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. Can y fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you want? can you fe e l what is wrong? c you do what you want? I can fe e l what is wrong. above all th e clou ds. above a clou ds. Above all th e clou ds. I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wr can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. H e lp fe e l my sou l. h e lp m e to e n d it all. falli ng down. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you want. I can fe e l wha wrong. Can you fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you want? can you fe e l w wrong? can you do what you want? I can fe e l what is wrong. above all th e clo above all th e clou ds. Above all th e clou ds. I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry mor e. H e lp m e to fe e l my sou l. h e lp m e to e n d it all. falli ng down. I can fe e l wh wrong. I can do what you want. I can fe e l what is wrong. I can do what you wan can fe e l what is wrong. Can you fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you wan you fe e l what is wrong? can you do what you want? I can fe e l what is wrong. a all th e clou ds. above all th e clou ds. Above all th e clou ds. I can’t cry any mor you h eal what we nt wrong? I can’t cry any mor e. can you h eal what we nt wro can’t cry any mor e. H e lp m e to fe e l my sou l. h e lp m e to e n d it all. falli ng down
Something Wrong, Bang Gang’s third album, is where the softness of the acoustic songs meets adventurous electronic explorations. The album contains 12 extremely well-written beautiful songs, and full of melody outbursts.
an do do fe e l ds. I you to n fe e l what what s. an’t o n do at is what is ou ds. what any hat want. ant? ong. ny t we nt lli ng ng. I can t? I th e mor e. h e lp t. I you can all th e rong? I p m e to n do at is what is ou ds. what any hat is nt. I nt? can above r e. can ng? I n.
There was a whisper
I feel so alone I feel so cold I want to fly Take off to the sky It’s so cold It’s so cold It’s so cold There was a chill There was a sound There was a whisper That I found It went along Searching It will return while I stay I feel so alone I feel so cold I wan’t to fly Take off to the sky It’s so cold It’s so cold It’s so cold There was a chill There was a sound There was a whisper That I found It went along Searching It will return while I stay There was a chill There was a sound There was a whisper That I found It went along Wandering It will return while I stay Searching There was a chill There was a sound There was a whisper That I found It went along Searching It will return while I stay There was a chill There was a sound There was a whisper That I found It went along Wandering It will return while I stay Searching
Ice lan d is sti ll a lan d of u n known m usical pleasu r es. Knowle dg e of th is cou ntry’s m usical offe r i ngs is ofte n li m ite d to Th e Sugarcu b es an d Bjor k G usG us ar e th e r u n n e rs u p for “B est Known Ice lan dic Ban ds I n Am e r ica”, b ut th e list of top-notch Ice lan dic pe r for m e rs is qu ite long. Ice lan dic g ro dese rvi ng of se r ious atte ntion wou ld b e i ncom plete without th e exce lle nt Bang Gang, whose n ew alb u m Som eth i ng’s Wrong far outpaces b ette r Johan nsson about r ecor di ng; h is r e fr esh i ng, devi l-may-car e attitu de about th e stu dio is a b it su r pr isi ng consi de r i ng th e car e fu l, b roodi ng natu r e face d cate rwau li ng foiste d onto th e pu b lic by Coldplay. Th e r e r eally is no com par ison, th e on ly r eason to m e ntion both g rou ps i n th e sam e b r eath
The Gearwi Interview
Te ll m e a b it of Bang Gang h istory, h to b ecom e tech n ically savvy i n th e s
Bang Gang started as a duo with m self released 7” vinyl called Listen Baby. A take a long break. In the mean time I was sing on it, Esther. Our first two songs were Warner in France. I needed a name for tha to use the name, Bang Gang as I didn’t th This contract put a pressure to make a ful vocalists. The record was released in Icela I took a break and worked on production f show, made some TV shows, etc... I have b work, not only do music. Then I stared wor a side project under my name with a Symp exhibition in Italy, more producing, etc, etc my travels. One guitar or keyboard. Bar di
Bang Gang has a ve ry lush, seam les har dwar e com pr essors an d li m ite r
When I record there are no rules. I instruments. Thats all you need. Reverb an Space Echo, then I use the analog one. M rather than work on the sound. I just put t distort, I record. If you spent too much tim bad performance. If you have a bad perfor Also, you can get great mistakes and new
Bar di
Any exam ples of how that’s happe n e
On the song Look At The Sun on m to record it quickly, just to remember it. Th recorded the guitar I had the window open I wanted to record the “real” guitar with th
Bar di
k, b ut Ice lan dic i n di e m usic has a won de r fu l li fe of its own apart from Bjor k G u dm u n dsdotti r, E i nar Or n, an d th e r est of th e ‘Cu b es. Sig u r Ros an d ou ps worth looki ng i nto i nclu de Hoh, Ku kl, an d B u bb i Morth e ns & Das Kapital, from th e sam e e ra as th e Sugarcu b es. A list of n ewe r g rou ps equally r known USA-base d acts such as Death Cab For Cuti e an d th e utte r ly-i nsu ffe rab le-yet-som e how-famous Coldplay. I caug ht a few wor ds with Bar di e of h is songs. Som eth i ng’s Wrong is a b eauti fu lly str uctu r e d alb u m, with r ich textu r es, exce lle nt m e lodi es, an d a com plete lack of th e ki n d of poh is b ecause th ey occu py th e roug h ly sam e m usical z i p code. B eyon d that, th e di ffe r e nces ar e n ig ht an d day...
ire
how di d you g et starte d an d how long di d it take you stu dio?
me and my friend Henrik (now in Singapre Sling). We did a After that release and a couple of concerts we decided to working on some electronic music and got a female singer to e signed to an Icelandic label and then licensed to East/West at project, so I called my friend Henrik and asked if it was OK hink of any good name. He agreed. ll album, this was in 1998. I finished a full album with 3 and, France and Korea in 2000 and did quite well. After that for other artists, film and TV music, had a everyday radio been involved with many various things in my life. I like to mix rking on Something Wrong. While doing that I have released phony Orchestra, made short films, designed clothes for an c. I got my studio built up by always picking up one object on s sou n d on CD. What ki n ds of stu dio g ear (plug i ns, s, etc.) do you use to g et that sou n d?
have a good mic, good compressor/EQ, and good nd delay I use from the computer, except when I want to use Mostly when I record I think more about capturing the moment the mic in front of the amp or guitar... listen. If it doesn’t me working on the sound the moment is gone and you have rmance, it doens’t matter how it sounds.... it sucks anyway. w sound by accident.
e d to you?
my record, I had an idea of an acoustic guitar riff. I wanted hen I worked the whole song on the “demo” guitar. When I n and my fan blowing air randomly on the mic. Then when he clean sound, there was no character. I kept the “demo”
guitar. Studios are getting better. We have some very talented engineers. I think we are missing some of the “retro” stuff. But my generation is making up for that and bringing it in. Can you te ll m e you r favor ite stu dio tech n iqu es wh e n r ecor di ng vocals to g et th e m sou n di ng as pe r fect as you’d li ke? What do you do once th e mate r ial is r ecor de d to polish th e vocal sou n ds an d make th e track wor k we ll?
You just need a good mic, a good compressor and a good voice. Then you push the performer to do his best. I do a lot of editing work and comping.
Bar di
What ar e you r fe e li ngs on pitch cor r ection an d th ese e lectron ic tu n e rs that fix outof-tu n e vocals? Som e artists say th ey ar e crap an d make eve ryth i ng sou n d b lan d. What do you r ecom m e n d for si ng e rs to war m u p th e i r voices, stay i n tu n e, an d avoi d th e mach i n e ry to fix th e vocals i n post production? Bar di I think pitch correction is OK as long as you don’t hear it. Some band would suck without pitch correction, most R&B bands, and others would lose their character, (like) Sonic Youth. I would recommend to singer to smoke a lot and drink a lot - not when singing, though. Also it can be helpful to play the melody on a piano and sing with it to get the notes right in the head. I am not a good singer and sometimes on stage I can be very “shaky”. Mostly because of stress. . . getting better though. What ar e you r favor ite plug-i ns or har dwar e processors for i nstr u m e nts an d vocals? Mor e i m portantly, how do you speci fically use th e m to tech n ically cor r ect prob le ms or e n hance what’s alr eady th e r e?
My favorite function are; Nudge, Timestretch & copy/paste. In Pro Tools, the most used plugins are Filterbank, TC Master X5, Echo Farm, D-Verb & Fairchild 660.
Bar di
Som e Am e r ican produce rs r e fuse to allow com pute rs i nto th e r ecor di ng process at som e stag es, citi ng th e i r u n pr e dictab i lity an d pote ntial for data loss. What ar e you r fe e li ngs i n r egar d of dig ital for mat an d th e h e lp of mode r n tech nology? Bar di The final product is either a CD, DVD, or MP3. None of those formats are analog. I like using old instruments and amps, but it will always end up digital in the end. If there is frequent data loss and errors. . . drink less or learn more. Explai n for ou r Am e r ican r eade rs what it is li ke tryi ng to g et a foothold i n Am e r ica for an Ice lan dic ban d an d how you have g rown you r au di e nce. What ar e you r challe ng es?
If you want to make things happen, you have to work. If they don’t happen when you work, then work more. Sleeping is for the dead.
Bar di
You and I were coming down the road like before You and I were coming down the road like before All the same words Feel so down All the same words Feel so down You and I were coming down the road like before You and I were coming down the road like before All the same words Feel so down All the same words Feel so down I feel everything’s gone I feel everything’s gone You and I were coming down the road like before You and I were coming down the road like before All the same words Feel so down All the same words Feel so down I fee Everything is gone
You You
You You
You You
I feel everything’s gone I feel everything’s gone I feel everything’s gone and I were coming down the road like before and I were coming down the road like before All the same words Feel so down All the same words Feel so down and I were coming down the road like before and I were coming down the road like before All the same words Feel so down All the same words Feel so down I feel everything’s gone I feel everything’s gone and I were coming down the road like before and I were coming down the road like before All the same words Feel so down All the same words Feel so down I feel everything’s gone I feel everything’s gone I feel everything’s gone I feel everything’s gone
tour dates something wrong \\ 2015
emi music publishing \ france