About Ingi
Ingi – Human Oddities
It’s doubtful any album from the last 12 months has a less conventional recording history than that of Human Oddities, the critically-lauded debut record from Icelandic singer / songwriter Ingi.
Iceland, London, California, a world-famous producer, Al Capone, some superb song writing and a batch of legendary musicians all form part of the story behind this unique album.
Making the album
It all started with Ingi sailing the North Atlantic as a fisherman with gruelling
30-day shifts to finance his life a a musician.
After spending some considerable time writing songs and living in London, Ingi travelled to California – a world away from his fishing village hometown of Hafnarfjörður in Southern Iceland – to record the Album Human Oddities. He’d been working with Scott Mathews.
The San Francisco-based maestro was highly-impressed by Ingi’s music, in particular a song called ‘You Little Fruitcake’.
Scott Mathews has worked with David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Mick Jagger,Van Morrison, Steve Perry, Joey Ramone, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Barbra Streisand and just about every significant musician to have existed over the past decades.
Scott has a richly-deserved reputation as a musical genius. He turned down the chance to drum for the Beach Boys. He has enjoyed sustained success throughout his musical career. His awards include several gold and platinum albums and many Grammy Award winning projects. Currently, the pan- Asian Pop Group „Blush“, produced by Scott, is No. 1 in the US Bilboard Charts.
The recording went well; Scott’s vast experience and unique musical brain honed the raw songs into full-blown tracks, layered over Ingi’s powerful vocals and rhythm guitar. They formed a grand sound but kept the witty, poignant lyrics at the centre of the record. However, they had one song, full of anger and strong feelings, that they simply didn’t know what to do with – ‘Nightmares In My Head’.
Alcatraz
Ingi and Bibbi (Ingis dear Friend and guitar player from Iceland who was also playing on the album) decided to visit Alcatraz. They bought some instruments and a tape recorder along with them. Being a bit of a history buff, Ingi knew that Al Capone was once incarcerated in Alcatraz and he managed to find the cell where Al spent most of his time. The friendly warden obliged by locking them in Al’s solitary confinement box and they recorded ‘Nightmares In My Head’ in the few minutes between when the door slammed shut and Bibbi began to get scared by Ingi freaking out on the floor and singing. It was his Sergeant Pepper let-it-all-out song,
After many weeks spent recording the album in the sun and having lunch with Elvis’s drummer Hal Blaine, Ingi headed back home to Iceland . He launched the album touring around Iceland, starting with a huge gig at Iceland’s largest indoor venue, NASA. The Song ”You little fruitcake” had great success on the radio going to number one on Iceland’s radio two. Ingi had numerous TV appearances on all the major channels in Iceland as well as a couple of music videos on rotation. Ingi’s video to the song ”Power to the bastards” starring the very popular Actor Ólafur Darri had great success on TV, as well as making the headlines in the newspapers for it´s cruel but at the same time comedic content. Ólafur Darri has had Hollywood success this year with his role alongside Mark Wahlberg in the movie Contraband.
Human Oddities and Ingi in the Icelandic media:
Ingi has been featured heavily on almost every major radio station, TV channel, newspaper and magazine in Iceland following the successful release of Human Oddities in his home country.
Rás 2 (radio)
Interviewed on a total of four different radio shows and played live. ‘You Little Fruitcake’ has received heavy airplay and reached the top of their playlist charts. ‘Power to the Bastards’ has also been playlisted alongside ‘You Little Fruitcake’.
Bylgjan (radio)
Interviewed on two occasions and played live. The album has been playlisted extensively, with ‘You Little Fruitcake’ receiving especially high levels of airplay. ‘Sylvia’ is due to be the next song added to their playlist. Generally, it is tough for Icelandic musicians to get on Bylgian – the fact that Ingi has done so is a solid endorsement of his popularity.
Stöð 2 (TV)
Performed on their prime time entertainment show.
RÚV (TV)
Due to air a pre-recorded performance by Ingi.
Press
Positive reviews and features on Ingi have run in all the main newspapers (Morgunbladid, Frettabladid and DV) plus Monitor magazine, which rated Human Oddities as one of the best Icelandic albums of the past year. He has also featured in several lifestyle magazines.
www.ingitunes.com
