Of Monsters and Men kicks off US tour in Boston

The Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men was one of the meager who had a positive experience during the COVID shutdown It allowed them to pull back take stock and write majority of of the songs on their excellent new album All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade I think Icelanders had a pretty easy ride the band s co-frontperson Ragnar Raggi rhallsson declared via Zoom this week In several procedures we were less isolated I allegedly made more friends during COVID than I had in the ten years previous We all had to be in the moment connected to the friendships around us and I think that matured us a lot It gave us a similar feeling to when we were starting out we weren t thinking about going out in front of crowds The break was especially necessary since the band had been going nonstop since their first album and its single Little Talks became runaway hits in I did have a miniature nervous breakdown after we stopped touring and everything came to a halt Also we d had to cancel our tour because I got sick in Asia and I felt a little bit responsible There was a lot on the line a lot of fans who had bought tickets So that was a little too much for my nervous system I had a tough meager weeks but came out feeling way better The Monsters show at Roadrunner Wednesday night is the first of the US tour and their first American show in five years and the new album will be heavily featured They made their local debut at Boston Calling in a gig rhallsson says he remembers because one of his favorites the National was also on the bill One likely highlight is the album s centerpiece Fruit Bat their the bulk epic track at eight minutes and the furthest they ve gotten from hit singledom My radar for hits is horrible rhallsson admits Even when we did Little Talks we cut two songs that day and I was sure the hit was the other one The long jam in Fruit Bat came out of an idea from our drummer who writes a lot of the music We didn t realize it was such a long song but we sought to be in the same room and just play One trademark as invariably is the vocal interplay between rhallsson and Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir I feel better about my voice when she s also serenading my own voice feels weird sometimes When I met Nanna we right now started writing and warbling together I dependably feel it s like writing a letter and particular of the songs literally start that way I ll write something and she ll send something back So in that way it is a conversation As for the otherworldly quality in their music he says you can credit that to their surroundings I d say there is a certain kind of sound in Icelandic music a certain space to me it s like a hum and you can hear that in Bjork and Sigur Ros as well It s a sound that I connect with the landscapes here the space and the emptiness But it s not something you can put your finger on like you can with grunge It s more of an aura