Reinvention does not require losing sight of the past. Embracing your roots and returning to what feels like home, physically or emotionally, can revive familiarity with newfound perspective and inspiration. Of Monsters And Men are championing this notion on their first full-length album in six years, All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade.
Referred to as a series of conversations stretched across time, the album and its entire creative process serves as a love letter that reminds the band of why they came together in the first place. After time spent in solidarity and pursuing individual projects, Of Monsters And Men spent recent years silently recording and writing the new record in Iceland. Its intentional, two-year production was built on a genuine desire to come together in child-like ways to celebrate the band’s decade-long history.
While ushering in a new era, the Iceland-native members Nanna, Ragnar (Raggi), Brynjar, Arnar, and Kristján meet their past selves with peace and compassion. All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade is a two-point perspective story that cherishes the duality of remembering where you came from while continuing to grow further. Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir recounts the way the band’s past influences the present, returning to the world with a stronger foundation than ever.
Thank you so much for joining.
NANNA: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to chat.
Of course. I’m grateful to have people chat with me in the first place. So again, thank you. Where are you guys right now? Are you in Iceland?
NANNA: Yeah, in Iceland right now. I’m in my car. I was in the studio, but it was very chaotic there. So I figured I’d go into the car to get some nice quiet time.
This is your first album in 6 years – that must feel so exciting for you! How does it feel to reintroduce yourselves with this new body of work after silently writing, recording, and recharging over the last few years?
NANNA: It feels really great. With COVID and everything, things went quiet for a lot of people. In that period, we started to venture out into other projects. I think in some ways it was really nice for the band that we went into our own corners and explored different things. I did a solo record and our guitar player made a record with another band–he started with this band in Norway. It was pretty cool because we got to learn and gather a lot of things individually. It felt really cool going back into the studio to work on the album because I feel like we were doing it purely from a place of wanting to do it–not that that hasn’t been the case in the past.
It’s a different feeling to come back to something after taking time away from it. It makes you appreciate it more.
NANNA: In some ways, I also feel like we were at the point where we could have honestly just been like “All right, should we continue?” But it was a very genuine thing for everybody wanting to be in the studio to make this record. That felt really cool.
I love that. When you started working on All Is Love And Pain In The Mouse Parade, you mentioned rediscovering the initial connection you felt as a band being a surge that guided its sound and energy. Thinking back to your first two albums, My Head Is An Animal and Beneath The Skin, what emotional and creative elements within that era have carried into or transformed in this new one? In what ways do you believe the new record has evolved from these ones?
NANNA: For the first record, we were just starting out and figuring out how to play with each other. We would write a song, book a place to play the song, and get feedback from people. You know the feeling you have when you play someone a song and you realize you love it or it’s right because you hear it through somebody else’s perspective? That whole record was made like that–very curious and wide-eyed.
The second record, we went on tour and it was more isolating in a way. We had been touring a lot, feeling very open and ütopun [Icelandic word for extroverted or giddy]. A lot of that record was written when we came home in winter. We hibernated a little bit. In some ways, this record does blend those two things because it was like this genuine wanting to be together and making something that we talked about earlier. But also we’re older, a lot has happened since we were 20, there’s a lot of history and sometimes heaviness, but also appreciation. I think these two things come together in this record.
For sure. And then when you kind of think about the third record, Fever Dream, it saw you experimenting with electronic elements and pop-song structures. It was met with mixed reactions from fans, did those reactions ever jade your individual opinions towards the album and your creative process?
NANNA: I like that question because it’s funny–I always have this feeling towards the most recent record that we did–I connect to it the least. It is something that I do understand why it had mixed reactions. It was very much us trying something new out and trying a sound that people didn’t know us for. Personally, I always enjoy when bands and artists do that. When they say “I’m interested in this thing so I’m going to explore it.” I think it’s nice to explore different parts and let yourself do what you need to do at that moment. But I also get it, what people are saying.
And when you think of that theme of duality within this album, did you find yourselves–whether it was intentional or not, trying to balance creating an album that felt authentic to you while also trying to appease fans who may have not resonated with Fever Dream?
NANNA: Because we’re five people, there’s a lot of different things running through different heads. Speaking for myself, I’m always a little bit oblivious in creative moments. I’m very out of tune with the outside world. But because I understand why some people didn’t connect to that record, I can also ask myself what did I not connect to with that record and how can I bring that into this next one? But like I said, I don’t know what I’m doing when we’re writing records, I’m just in my own little world.
100%. I mean, I’ve never written a record but I can assume it would be hard to draw back on the whole process and all the feelings. Usually when I write I just sit down and let whatever happens naturally come out.
NANNA: I think that’s the way to go. I heard somebody talk about where you have these two hats, one is the creator and the other is the editor, and you can’t wear both because there’s not enough room. I think it’s very important to not think about outside opinions when the creative hat is on.
It’s always best to go with your gut no matter if people resonate with it or not, if you’re following your heart, someone will get what you were trying to do. If they don’t, that’s not for you to decide, doing your part is putting out what feels true to you and hoping someone just finds what they want out of it.
NANNA: Completely.
While working on the new album, did you include any call backs to your previous records? Intentionally or unintentionally?
NANNA: I’m sure there’s lyrics that went back to, we sometimes have done that. For our last record, on ‘Stuck In Gravity’ at the end we say “My head is still an animal,” calling back to that first record. Sometimes we’ll do that. For this record, we definitely have connections and even though we don’t know it at the moment, I can’t remember any currently.
Another thing I really loved about the way you guys have spoken about this record is that it’s a series of conversations stretched across time. While working on the album, can you pinpoint specific moments of clarity or new meanings you discovered on songs you were revisiting that helped lead them to their final form?
NANNA: All the time. The way we worked on this record, we would work on songs sometimes, the story was a certain way, then we would leave it for a while and come back after things changed. In the years of making this record, there were a lot of changes. Something that was unresolved would then resolve. In a lot of ways, it is like a time capsule. I feel like there’s always these conversations, like in ‘Television Love’ where Raggi is doing his thing, he’s telling the story and then I come in and I’m saying something very different. It’s just these different moments in time that live in our song.
That concept is so cool to me. I was really intrigued when I read that. I would have never thought about putting a song together in that way, where two things that are happening in two separate points of time come together in a song.
NANNA: Thank you. I’m very happy. Raggi said it’s like back in the day when you would write letters to each other. Like in that song–I’ll write something, wait for a response, then much later, he’ll write back to me. Then [within those responses] something has changed. It’s that kind of thing.
I totally get it. That’s so cool to think of in that way. I read another quote from Raggie saying that while this album is about growing up, it’s also about returning to your roots and making peace with your past. In your individual lives, how have you approached reconciling moments of pain, suffering, or trauma from your past-self with more compassion, and are there specific lyrics, instrumentals, or imagery on this album where those moments of reconciliation can be depicted?
NANNA: There’s a lot of songs where I feel there’s a sort of parting with somebody or things are changing and it’s a bit painful, but it’s also a part of life. I do always feel it’s in a hopeful way. Then there’s also stuff that relates to yourself. There’s a song called ‘Kamikaze’ which is interesting to me because it’s very much an inner dialogue. It shows how my brain usually operates, how things can become very chaotic, it’s like ADHD basically. To me, that song feels like something that urges me to be a bit more gentle with myself in those situations.
Amazing. And then moving from that, you’ve mentioned that after 10 years of doing the album and tour cycle, the time came to take a step back and re-evaluate the band in the grand scheme of your individual lives. Time spent focusing on yourselves clearly paid off, and you’ve been able to come back feeling rejuvenated and reinspired to work on the new album. What does the idea of rebirth mean to you, and how did this feeling of rebirth show up in your creative process for All Is Love And Pain In The Mouse Parade, as well as your current connections with each other?
NANNA: That’s a big question–but I have to say, I really like these questions. It’s been a while since I’ve done any interviews, this is the first one that I’m doing for this album cycle.
I’m so happy to be the first, thank you!
NANNA: You’ve set the standard high! But yeah, it’s funny. With the band we have changed, but when you’ve spent so much time with the same people, the group dynamic that we have when we’re all together is very childlike in a lot of ways. Very chaotic. I’m very excited about this next chapter, putting out touring this album, and what this album is. I hope people connect to it.
My last one for you touches on that whole idea of what we talked about earlier, coming home to one another. Iceland was highlighted as an anchor in your lives to remind you of your roots, like when you started the band, but leaving room to acknowledge the way that life has pulled you in different directions. In what ways did working on this album feel like coming home to one another?
NANNA: A lot of it was because we took a little breather from doing this. Like we talked about earlier, this genuine feeling of wanting to make a record and because we worked on this record in our studio in Iceland, it’s a place that has grown with us. From just being a rehearsal space and then slowly we’ve been building it up. Now it’s become this home for us.
We also worked with our very good friend, Bjarni Þór Jensson, who’s an engineer and childhood friend. So we kept it very close. We knew that we were going to make a record, but in the process of making this record, we left our label and in a lot of ways, for a while we were floating. There was nobody there to be like “Hey, how’s the record going?” It was a test for us to finish this record because we wanted to do this together. That was a way for us to return to the feeling of why we wanted to do this. I think it’s normal at some point to be doubting it a little bit. But this one, it really does feel right.
Izzy Petraglia is a publicist, writer and photographer based in Toronto. Within her work, she loves to tie in her passion for music, fashion, and pop culture. Follow her on Instagram.