Push to Fire: Alternative Music Webzine

Interview with Kolli from Gavin Portland
In June 2007 Icelandic hardcore band Gavin Portland toured the UK with Hell is for Heroes and Disco Ensemble as part of the Kerrang! tour. Suzy Witts caught up with Kolli, the lead singer, to find out how the tour went.

1. How did you get on the bill with the Hell is For Heroes?
Well, we played Iceland Airwaves last October and Kerrang have a regular night at that festival. We weren’t playing that but for some reason their editor wandered into our show and really liked us. When we told him that we were planning to go on tour in June he offered us to jump on the HIFH tour which Kerrang were organising. We’d never played a tour like this so we thought we should go for it.
2. How was touring with Hell is for Heroes?
It was fun, those guys are amazing. They helped us out a lot by lending us their equipment and stuff. The shows were, like I said, not something we were used to. We’re used to small hardcore shows with a lot of intimacy. On this tour we had a barrier between us and the crowd most of the time and people came to watch, not to interact. We kinda knew what we were going into before we left so it was alright, we knew not a lot of people would like us but I’d like to think we opened up a few eyes.

Kolli from Gavin Portland

3. Kolli, you were the driver for Gavin Portland on the tour. Why did you decide to volunteer to do this? Was it tiring doing that in addition to fronting the band every night?
The reason why I volunteered for this was basically that we couldn’t find anyone to drive us around. I guess we could’ve looked harder but finding someone who’s willing to take time off work to drive for 2 weeks and sleep on floors is fucking hard. Would I do it again? Probably and hopefully not, I would if we were in trouble but to answer the second question, yes it was very tiring especially towards the end. Also because I get most of my sleep on tour in the van and when that wasn’t an option it made me more tired than usual. Luckily I took my vitamins so we had no accidents.
4. What was the most interesting gig on that tour? Why?
The gig that was most fun was definitely at the Corporation in Sheffield simply because we played with Boris from Japan and our friends from Manchester, The Freezing Fog. As for our most interesting gig I think that would either be the first show in Cardiff or the one in Birmingham. The Cardiff one just because then we kinda realized how absurd this whole thing was, playing in front of this kind of a crowd with the Kerrang banner hanging behind us and the Birmingham show simply because the venue was fucking huge and the kids there whispered and pointed at us when we stood in the crowd like we were some rock stars haha it was hilarious. Good times, though.
5. Would you say you prefer gigs such as this one arranged by Kerrang! (?!) or do you prefer the whole DIY thing? Why?
Oh easy answer. Even though Kerrang has been most gracious to us the DIY scene is where we belong and this tour just reaffirmed our belief in the punk scene for the obvious reasons, the three Is of hardcore; Intimacy, Interaction and Intensity. That’s what it’s all about. When people come to shows knowing that the guys and girls playing the instruments on stage are in no way different, better or worse than themselves that’s when you get the right atmosphere at a show and that’s what got me into this kind of music in the beginning.

Kolli from Gavin Portland
6. How and when was Gavin Portland formed?
We've been going for 2 and a half years now and hopefully we’ll keep going. This is a band I do not want to see circling the drain because I truly believe we’re onto something.
7. Why is the band called 'Gavin Portland'?
Ah. The golden question. It might be the name of one of the greatest human beings ever to walk the face of this earth...or it might simply be a bullshit name because we couldn’t find anything else. You decide.
8. Who would you say influences you the most?
I guess musically our closest influences are bands like Jesus Lizard, Slint and Drive Like Jehu along with Scandinavian hardcore bands like Refused and Breach, maybe even early JR Ewing. A little At The Drive-In as well. Lyrically there are no certain influences, everything kinda melts together and the lyrics are usually poems written way before I hear the music.

9. Have you ever met any of your music influences or heroes?
I don’t think we could call any of our influences a hero and no, I don’t think that any of us have ever met anyone in the aforementioned bands. Our friends start bands all the time that influence us in one way or another and we hang out with them all the time, I’d call some of them my heroes...not people I’ve never met.
10. Which has been your favourite venue? (not necessarily on this tour)
Personally I love playing in Kaffi Hljómalind in Reykjavík, an amazing, tiny vegetarian café. We’ve played so many shows there we’ve lost count. Le Pub in Newport was really cool as well, it looks like a log cabin on the inside. Most other venues are just another venues....oh Satan’s Hollow in Manchester. I don’t like it but how weird is it to have a circle stage!
11. Tell me a bit about your other bands and side projects e.g. Fighting Shit - what are they up to at the moment? Any plans for touring?
Haha some would say that Gavin Portland are a side project from Fighting Shit but I guess that’s changing now. We haven’t played a show in a year now just because me and Thórir have been busy with GP and Óli, FS drummer, has been doing his solo stuff (www.myspace.com/olafurarnalds). On top of that our bass player quit the band after our last show so we’ve only started looking for a new bassist now. It’s good to take a break, we were all getting a bit sick of the band just before the break. We’re playing a couple of shows in Iceland this august but after that who knows. We’re not calling it a day, maybe we’ll come and tour again some day if it suits us. Time will tell.
12. Which band have you most enjoyed touring with?
It’s a totally different experience with either band. With Fighting Shit you get a different reaction from the crowd so the shows are perhaps more "off the hook" sometimes and I like that. With Gavin Portland I can tell not everyone in the crowd is getting it so they kinda looked puzzled. Our music doesn’t offer a lot of interaction, there aren’t any sing-alongs or breakdowns but then that was never the plan. In short I think I like touring with Gavin better simply because I like the songs better.
13. What do you like to do after you've played a gig?
Umm catch my breath, look for wounds haha I don’t really understand this question. I don’t really do anything except sit still for a few minutes and wait for my head to stop spinning. Then I start hoping that the person we’re staying with has a good dvd collection so we can watch something before we fall asleep. We’re not the coolest guys you’ll meet.

Kolli from Gavin Portland

14. You've been over here a few times now, what's so appealing about touring in the UK? How does it differ to playing in Iceland?
Well, it’s basically because it’s easy to tour here. There are a lot of towns and you don’t have to drive too far. Also we can speak your language which makes it a lot easier. Now that we’ve toured so many times we’ve built a lot of friendships here so every town we see a friendly face and that’s one of the most fun things about touring. It’s not too different to playing Iceland except the Icelandic kids are a bit more crazy than the British ones. Also in Iceland there’s really only one city you can play and that’s it which sucks.
15. Which other countries have you played gigs in?
It’s just Iceland and the UK. Hopefully we’ll change that soon, though.
16. How did you get into playing music?
This question really isn’t for me since I’m instrumentally challenged but I guess the guys got into playing music either because they were bored or they needed some way to impress the girls...maybe both.
17. Who writes the songs for Gavin Portland? How does this process happen?
Usually one of us brings an idea to practice and we take it from there, trying different variations of the same riff or drumbeat. We’re not entirely sure how it happens but you know when you’ve gotten a complete song in your hands. I can’t really explain it, you just know.

You can visit Gavin Portland's MySpace page to hear tracks and find out more about the band. All photos are © copyright Suzy Witts 2006/2007. Thanks go to Kolli for taking the time to take part in the interview.

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Interview with Kolli from Gavin Portland In June 2007 Icelandic hardcore band Gavin Portland toured the UK with Hell is for Heroes and Disco Ensemble as part of the Kerrang! tour. Suzy Witts caught up with Kolli, the lead singer, to find out how the tour went.
1. How did you get on the bill with the Hell is For Heroes? Well, we played Iceland Airwaves last October and Kerrang have a regular night at that festival. We weren’t playing that but for some reason their editor wandered into our show and really liked us. When we told him that we were planning to go on tour in June he offered us to jump on the HIFH tour which Kerrang were organising. We’d never played a tour like this so we thought we should go for it. 2. How was touring with Hell is for Heroes? It was fun, those guys are amazing. They helped us out a lot by lending us their equipment and stuff. The shows were, like I said, not something we were used to. We’re used to small hardcore shows with a lot of intimacy. On this tour we had a barrier between us and the crowd most of the time and people came to watch, not to interact. We kinda knew what we were going into before we left so it was alright, we knew not a lot of people would like us but I’d like to think we opened up a few eyes.
3. Kolli, you were the driver for Gavin Portland on the tour. Why did you decide to volunteer to do this? Was it tiring doing that in addition to fronting the band every night? The reason why I volunteered for this was basically that we couldn’t find anyone to drive us around. I guess we could’ve looked harder but finding someone who’s willing to take time off work to drive for 2 weeks and sleep on floors is fucking hard. Would I do it again? Probably and hopefully not, I would if we were in trouble but to answer the second question, yes it was very tiring especially towards the end. Also because I get most of my sleep on tour in the van and when that wasn’t an option it made me more tired than usual. Luckily I took my vitamins so we had no accidents. 4. What was the most interesting gig on that tour? Why? The gig that was most fun was definitely at the Corporation in Sheffield simply because we played with Boris from Japan and our friends from Manchester, The Freezing Fog. As for our most interesting gig I think that would either be the first show in Cardiff or the one in Birmingham. The Cardiff one just because then we kinda realized how absurd this whole thing was, playing in front of this kind of a crowd with the Kerrang banner hanging behind us and the Birmingham show simply because the venue was fucking huge and the kids there whispered and pointed at us when we stood in the crowd like we were some rock stars haha it was hilarious. Good times, though. 5. Would you say you prefer gigs such as this one arranged by Kerrang! (?!) or do you prefer the whole DIY thing? Why? Oh easy answer. Even though Kerrang has been most gracious to us the DIY scene is where we belong and this tour just reaffirmed our belief in the punk scene for the obvious reasons, the three Is of hardcore; Intimacy, Interaction and Intensity. That’s what it’s all about. When people come to shows knowing that the guys and girls playing the instruments on stage are in no way different, better or worse than themselves that’s when you get the right atmosphere at a show and that’s what got me into this kind of music in the beginning.
6. How and when was Gavin Portland formed? We've been going for 2 and a half years now and hopefully we’ll keep going. This is a band I do not want to see circling the drain because I truly believe we’re onto something. 7. Why is the band called 'Gavin Portland'? Ah. The golden question. It might be the name of one of the greatest human beings ever to walk the face of this earth...or it might simply be a bullshit name because we couldn’t find anything else. You decide. 8. Who would you say influences you the most? I guess musically our closest influences are bands like Jesus Lizard, Slint and Drive Like Jehu along with Scandinavian hardcore bands like Refused and Breach, maybe even early JR Ewing. A little At The Drive-In as well. Lyrically there are no certain influences, everything kinda melts together and the lyrics are usually poems written way before I hear the music.
9. Have you ever met any of your music influences or heroes? I don’t think we could call any of our influences a hero and no, I don’t think that any of us have ever met anyone in the aforementioned bands. Our friends start bands all the time that influence us in one way or another and we hang out with them all the time, I’d call some of them my heroes...not people I’ve never met. 10. Which has been your favourite venue? (not necessarily on this tour) Personally I love playing in Kaffi Hljómalind in Reykjavík, an amazing, tiny vegetarian café. We’ve played so many shows there we’ve lost count. Le Pub in Newport was really cool as well, it looks like a log cabin on the inside. Most other venues are just another venues....oh Satan’s Hollow in Manchester. I don’t like it but how weird is it to have a circle stage! 11. Tell me a bit about your other bands and side projects e.g. Fighting Shit - what are they up to at the moment? Any plans for touring? Haha some would say that Gavin Portland are a side project from Fighting Shit but I guess that’s changing now. We haven’t played a show in a year now just because me and Thórir have been busy with GP and Óli, FS drummer, has been doing his solo stuff (www.myspace.com/olafurarnalds). On top of that our bass player quit the band after our last show so we’ve only started looking for a new bassist now. It’s good to take a break, we were all getting a bit sick of the band just before the break. We’re playing a couple of shows in Iceland this august but after that who knows. We’re not calling it a day, maybe we’ll come and tour again some day if it suits us. Time will tell. 12. Which band have you most enjoyed touring with? It’s a totally different experience with either band. With Fighting Shit you get a different reaction from the crowd so the shows are perhaps more "off the hook" sometimes and I like that. With Gavin Portland I can tell not everyone in the crowd is getting it so they kinda looked puzzled. Our music doesn’t offer a lot of interaction, there aren’t any sing-alongs or breakdowns but then that was never the plan. In short I think I like touring with Gavin better simply because I like the songs better. 13. What do you like to do after you've played a gig? Umm catch my breath, look for wounds haha I don’t really understand this question. I don’t really do anything except sit still for a few minutes and wait for my head to stop spinning. Then I start hoping that the person we’re staying with has a good dvd collection so we can watch something before we fall asleep. We’re not the coolest guys you’ll meet. 14. You've been over here a few times now, what's so appealing about touring in the UK? How does it differ to playing in Iceland? Well, it’s basically because it’s easy to tour here. There are a lot of towns and you don’t have to drive too far. Also we can speak your language which makes it a lot easier. Now that we’ve toured so many times we’ve built a lot of friendships here so every town we see a friendly face and that’s one of the most fun things about touring. It’s not too different to playing Iceland except the Icelandic kids are a bit more crazy than the British ones. Also in Iceland there’s really only one city you can play and that’s it which sucks. 15. Which other countries have you played gigs in? It’s just Iceland and the UK. Hopefully we’ll change that soon, though. 16. How did you get into playing music? This question really isn’t for me since I’m instrumentally challenged but I guess the guys got into playing music either because they were bored or they needed some way to impress the girls...maybe both. 17. Who writes the songs for Gavin Portland? How does this process happen? Usually one of us brings an idea to practice and we take it from there, trying different variations of the same riff or drumbeat. We’re not entirely sure how it happens but you know when you’ve gotten a complete song in your hands. I can’t really explain it, you just know.
You can visit Gavin Portland's MySpace page to hear tracks and find out more about the band. All photos are © copyright Suzy Witts 2006/2007. Thanks go to Kolli for taking the time to take part in the interview.