Tweet

 

I’ll be perfectly honest – the first time I heard Of Monsters and Men’s “Little Talks”, I thought it was a collabo between Mumford & Sons and Ellie Goulding. Obviously, it was not, but that still would have been pretty sweet, right?

 

Alas, the quirky, charming little folk-pop tune comes not from the British Isles but from somewhere much, much chillier… Iceland! Made up of approximately 732 band members, all of whom managed to cram into our little Studio earlier this month, Of Monsters and Men is a conglomerate of many different Icelandic solo acts. The mastermind behind the project was singer and guitarist Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir, who, in 2009, started scouting around for some musical support for her solo album. She found what she was looking for in guitarist and co-vocalist Ragnar Thorhallsson, guitarist Brynar Leifsson, and percussionist Arnar Rosenkranz Hilmarsson (excuse for a sec me while I go bandage my blistered typing fingers…).  As a newly branded coalition called Of Monsters and Men, they soon hit the road together, and apparently kept picking up more and more band members along the way like a lint brush.

 

In 2010, the band was featuring at the Icelandic Airwaves Festival when it just so happened that a Seattle-based radio session was on hand to record them performing “Little Talks”, and thus they were introduced to American listening audiences and a new recording contract with Universal. Their first full-length album, My Head Is An Animal, was released in April, and “Little Talks” enjoyed a cozy #1 spot atop the U.S. Alternative charts.

 

Perhaps even more memorable than the song itself is its mind-blowing music video, which was a collabo with Canadian production company WeWereMonkeys (yay, more musical monkey tie-ins!). As many artists can tell you, a sure-fire way to get your name on everyone’s lips and in their consciousness is to come up with an amazing debut music video, and OM&M have accomplished this in spades! Check it out below, followed by the band’s live performance of the song in the YH Studio!

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Katie Marzullo, YH Staff Editor

katie@younghollywood.com