‘We Love The Small Bands’: Q’s With Will Larnach-Jones, Managing Director Of Iceland Airwaves

“Iceland a country of endless possibility, and I think music is inherently linked in a unique way to the country that it comes from,” Will Larnach-Jones, managing director of Iceland Airwaves tells Pollstar, adding, “it’s difficult to put into words, but a lot of music is forged, in part, by the climate, the physicality of the land and the weather, and the experience of Iceland in itself.”

The last 20 years have seen a real broadening of music in Iceland, from a great neo-classical movement to RnB and soul-inspired pop to hip hop, which is doing as great in Iceland, as it is in the rest of the world, and, of course, the guitar-heavy indie and hard rock sound, for which Iceland has long been known for – as it is for producing stars, including Björk, Kaleo, Sigur Rós, and Of Monsters of Men, who are playing their only Icelandic show in 2019 during Iceland Airwaves. 

This year’s edition, Nov. 6-9, will be the festivals 21st, and the first one hosting a dedicated music business conference on two of the three days. In competing for ticket buyers, live events in 2019 are outdoing each other in terms of the experiences they offer their guests, and Iceland Airwaves is no exception. With its setting in the capital of Reykjavik, surrounded by the extreme beauty and climate of a country that feels brutal and beautiful at once, Iceland Airwaves has a lot to offer, even without mentioning the more than 100 artists that will perform in various venues littered within a one-kilometre radius in Downtown Reykjavik.

Firstly, we’re placed very uniquely. Iceland is three hours from New York and three hours from most of mainland Europe. So, as a meeting point for creatives, musicians and industry, it’s positioned like no one else. It really is a way for both continents to experience music from each other’s continents.

The scale, as well, is something that works for this industry. We’re a boutique festival, and that really enables you to connect with musicians and other delegates. Iceland Airwaves has long had a reputation as tastemakers. If you look back as far as ten years and beyond, Airwaves is one of the first festivals to give international plays to the likes of Florence + The Machine, Hot Chip, Sufjan Stevens, Mac DeMarco.

If we look a little closer, just three or four years ago they had Mable, and Sigrid performing. Last year, we had bands such as Fontaines D.C., who have gone on to have huge success in Europe this year, Tierra Whack, who chose perform at Iceland Airwaves as her only non-U.S. show last year. We have a peerless reputation for highlighting the best bands. It’s part of the festival’s DNA.

The other thing that is important for the industry to remember is, because we’re in early November, if you’re a talent buyer, a festival or an agent, it gives you an amazing opportunity to come and see bands for 2020 and beyond before the year is out.

We want to see great outcomes for the Icelandic and international bands. As a steppingstone for artists, we bring in a lot of international press, not just from the U.S. but also the UK and mainland Europe. We also host radio sessions, which have huge traction, particularly in North America. We’ve had a more than ten-year relationship with KEXP. Their Iceland Airwave sessions on YouTube have well in excess of 60 million views. The Current, that’s Minneapolis Public Radio, have now been on board for three years. Their sessions have been very well-regarded.

An artist can often come away with an experience that goes beyond just performing in Iceland. It’s really about using this opportunity as a steppingstone into the following year.

We have hard rock from people like Une Misere, I really like Kælan Mikla, a dark wave female three-piece, who have been making really good inroads internationally in the last year, touring really hard. The Cure’s Robert Smith invited them personally to perform at his London Southbank performance last year. We also have Of Monsters And Men’s only Icelandic show this year, after a triumphant 2019. 

On the international side, there’s many people we’re excited about. Orville Peck seems to have really shot up in people’s mind since we booked him earlier in the year. I think Georgia will have a replay good show, on the [back] of incredible radio play in the U.K. this year and a really solid bunch of touring. We’re, of course, excited for Whitney to come back over for the first time.

Another one to mention is John Grant, who will be doing two shows for us at Fríkirkjan, a tiny church, 500 capacity. That is going to be absolutely incredible, just him and the piano. The last time he performed for Airwaves was about four or five years ago with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, so this is a significantly more intimate performance, which will be amazing.

Although these are highlights, the discovery is just as important as the highlights. We love the small bands that may be unfamiliar to people but are really worth uncovering. 

We recognized that was important to return to the heart of the festival. This is the 21st edition, it’s extremely challenging to find ways to tell new stories, and also to keep audiences engaged, especially when experiential festivals throughout the world have become much more of a theme. We’ve really begun by simplifying, one ticket gets you into everything. For a few years there were different messages about headline shows, side show, etc., which was well-intentioned but way too complex. 

We’re also working as hard as we can to bring as much as we can into Downtown within walking distance. In terms of the festival, we always look for bands that are aligned with us. Once you start to go into the competitive festival space, and chase headliners or the hottest new act, in a certain way you then run risk of feeling quite generic, and not have much of a point of difference. We always try and maintain a point of difference.

The other key thing for me is working closely with Iceland Music [export office] and with STEF, which is the music collection society in Iceland. We try to better develop the conference side of the festival.

On the Thursday and the Friday during the festival, we’ll present a two-day program of panels, network sessions, speed dating, drinks and all sorts of things. We have some fantastic creative thinkers and keynotes, and some really good cooperations. 

I want the industry to come to Iceland Airwave, not only to see good bands, but to reconnect with your partners from the other side of the pond. And I also want it to be a place now where you can really do good business on a b2b level. One of the things we would love to see is greater development of Icelandic bands into the Nordic network of touring.

Yes, for instance, Music From Ireland, we have five Irish band’s performing, which we’ve organised with Angela Dorgan. We also have the support of M for Montreal, we’re hosting four or five Canadian bands, and also have a stand at M for Montreal this year. We also have a good cooperation with Music Finland, with Niko Kangas, who’s really helped us with the three Finnish bands performing this year. It goes on and on. We have the like of the Norwegian Music Export working with us, too, and others. I’m constantly trying to join the dots, to thread narratives together, and I can see the potential here to create a much broader and richer festival that’s more-dimensional and works on a number of levels.

We’re probably going to be ab out 6,500 to 7,000 attendees this year, of which delegates will probably be somewhere between 400 and 500. It’s boutique, but it gives you a really unparalleled opportunity to connect meaningfully with people.

People are consuming more music than ever before. How artists cut through no is a different challenge. We’ve seen a great democratisation in music, with DSPs and a shift away from some traditional media. At Iceland Airwaves, we’ll be discussion the future of radio and how it fits in, we’ll be discussion PR and media at length, [AWAL’s] Alison Donald will be discussion the changes that she’s seen, and how that works for creatives.

The biggest challenge for us as a festival is the shift from people being more fans of artists to fans of songs. It’s a tricky one, and that’s not unique to us, it’s inherent in the live scene. How do we keep people excited about live music? If the shift has moved from artist and album to song, how do we harness that and how does it relate to everything we do?

Sena has been working hard to produce more shows locally and develop a better cooperation and good relationships with international promoter. For example, the Ed Sheeran shows were outstandingly successful. One in seven of the Icelandic population were in attendance, which obviously shows that there’s a huge appetite for music.

Where we’re hoping to see more growth is the 1,000 to 4,000 capacity attendance. There’s an appetite for music, but it’s also a small market, ticket sales don’t grow on trees here. 

You should definitely get some good food in you, that you have no shortage of in Iceland, before you begin proceedings, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time pounding the pavement. If I look at the kilometres I did, I was doing above 20,000 steps each evening from one venue to another. So, you want to start the day right and eat early. It’s definitely a case of experiencing as much as you can within reason. If you really want to catch a band, be sure to go early to that show. But also, if you don’t get into the thing you want, be sure to head to something else, because we really have 100% belief in everything we’re doing on the band front. So, if it’s something you don’t know, it’s something you’re pretty much bound to enjoy.

It’s definitely worth checking out different spaces. The Art Museum is a venue, which is the kind of the crown in the Airwaves story, but also venturing to places like Fríkirkjan, the church, where you’ll see the beautiful acoustic sets, is a wonderful point of difference. We have really charming venues like the old Opera House Gamla Bíó, and the rock venue Gaukurinn.

It’s really about mixing it up, and going with the flow a little bit. And I would strongly advise to maybe take a minute out the following morning to head to one of local swimming pools in Reykjavik that are all thermal, and they’re amazing. I promise you, they’ll wash away any hangover you might have, and hopefully get you on your way for whatever you do next.

Will Larnach-Jones first fell in love with Icelandic music after moving from his home Australia to London in the early 90s, where he worked in music PR for John Best, now the manager of Sigur Rós. Larnach-Jones was working on the PR campaign for the band’s second album Ágætis byrjun, which led to their international breakthrough. Through working with an Icelandic act, Larnach-Jones started developing a relationship with the country, as well. He moved back to Australia in the early Noughties, and for the next ten to 15 years, he managed bands including The Presets, Nina Las Vegas, Luke Million, and Strange Talk. After a stint in A&R consulting with Sony Australia, Larnach-Jones moved back to the UK and reconnected with Sigur Rós for the band’s Nordur og Nidur festival in 2017.

Through that event, he connected with the Icelandic music scene even more, including the producers of Nordur og Nidur, Sena Events & Entertainment. Sena purchased Iceland Airwaves at the beginning of 2018, which is when Larnach-Jones got involved, too. Today, the event is run by a small team in three countries, with the core staff in Iceland, one in Berlin, and Larnach-Jones in London.