Of Monsters and Men: “We know our fans wouldn’t want anything totally different”

In the new issue of DIY (out 22nd May), we track down Icelandic giants Of Monsters and Men in their home city of Reykjavik.

Their new album ‘Beneath the Skin’ was recorded partially in Iceland – between Sundlaugin, the former swimming pool converted by Sigur Rós in Mosfellsbær, on the outskirts of Reykjavik, and Alex Somers’ studio in the city itself – and at Rich Costey’s Eldorado studios in California.

“More mature” is how bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson would describe the new record’s sound, and at almost the same moment he says that, Raggi spills water over himself. “Not me, obviously,” he laughs. “I’m still doing this.”

“It’s been almost five years since many of the songs were written on the last album,” he adds, with a slightly more straight face, “so maybe to our fans it feels like the first album is us, but we’ve been doing stuff for five years so we think about music and writing differently to then, you know?”