Feature: Daníel Hjálmtýsson Decodes “Mirror, Mirror”
What inspired you to write the lyrics/music for "Mirror, Mirror?"
"Mirror, Mirror" is a song about body dysmorphia and a lifelong battle with self-love. The song is a ballad but still has the kick of a heavy rock song and therefore mixes influences from all over. We recorded the song in my basement and also at the studio of Of Monsters and Men and we feel very good about it as the first single from our upcoming sophomore LP, "A Piece of Broken Glass."
How did you approach the arrangement and composition of the music for "Mirror, Mirror?"
The song basically got born out of the first piano melody you hear at the beginning of the song. Just a little dancing piano on my 100-year-old upright piano in my basement studio. Then I added some guitars and electronics and called my band to arrange the song with me, as we always do. I love how the fragile and frail elements blend with the heaviness. It symbolizes a lot of weight being put on you and how you set yourself free from it. I also think the music video creates another orchestra of emotion and flavours for the song.
What was your favorite moment in making the music video?
Hanging out with my Romanian crew and roaming the beautiful city of Bucharest in the dark. It´s such a magical, raw city full of history, beauty, pain, art, and this edgy feel I crave in my life. I got to see so many new places that Miluta and Ionut showed me and I also was able to get in touch with my younger self as an artist. Just roaming around making art and being very open-minded and flexible. We shot this guerilla style in various places with no script and I love the David Lynch, dark vibes we got to accompany this song I am really proud of. I am very happy with the result.
Can you tell us more about you as an artist?
I come from a very vast place of nature and conflicting elements of weather, day and night, and yeah…Iceland. It can be very challenging to grow up on an island like that and the seasonal affects can be very heavy. Yet it’s one of the most beautiful places you will find. It’s like this beautiful beast that squeezes out some crazy things in you. Some good, some bad. I try and work out my feelings and thoughts through my music and as a person that´s been sober for nearly a decade now it’s a way for me to dance with my demons and beasts in a new way, where I have full control over them and we work together to craft something beautiful. I am also very fortunate to have some of the finest players in the country in my band and a great team around this project. All people that have come together for the love of the music and what it represents, working towards the same goal. To keep making beautiful music and playing it in as many places as possible. It’s the greatest feeling in the world when you feel that something pure such as a song you wrote, not trying to follow a standard or whats hip at the moment, reaches another person in a way that can not be explained and you might even hear that person singing your song back to you in a crowd in a foreign city. It’s just magic and we love it so very much.
