Music vibrates in you: Getting lost in Bjarki's unpredictable techno

'I Wanna Go Bang' was the techno tune of 2015. But dancefloor ubiquity was the last thing on Bjarki's mind on the day it was released. The banger – made in 30 minutes with a kick drum originally intended for a gabba track and a nifty DJ Deeon sample – had been sitting on the Icelandic artist's hard drive for three years before it was cut to wax for Nina Kraviz's трип imprint. In fact, it was only after friends encouraged him that he sent it over to the label boss.

Released on the brilliantly titled two-track 12" 'Arthur And Intergalactic Whales', the runaway success of the spontaneous jam caught Bjarki off guard. It thrust him into the limelight, increased his bookings and turned him into something of a star. But, as a trilogy of albums released this year shows, his production goes way beyond the floor-filling belter that made his name.

'Б', released in June, 'Lefhanded Fuqs', released in September, and 'Æ', released at the end of this month, showcase music Bjarki's made over the last few years, a sprawling, ever changing collection that's as wildly experimental as it is downright slamming. It's clear that the trio of records are from an artist who defies expectations, burrowing deep into the possibilities of electronic music. And one who also refuses to be defined in live settings, often neglecting to play 'I Wanna Go Bang' and relishing the divisive outcome.

Bjarki's always done his own thing: he says his grades slipped at an early age, preferring to be the class clown rather than hone in on his studies during his childhood in Iceland. He got into music at the age of 12 after using his friend's older brother's music equipment and soon found his calling. After years of messing around with hardware and Fruity Loops, he eventually linked with Nina Kraviz after a USB of his music made its way to her. Bjarki's found home on three of the four various artist concept albums that трип has issued since its inception in 2014 and this year, with three full length releases, steps out as an artist proper.

Bjarki is at the epicentre of the трип operation (which scored Mixmag's Label Of The Year in 2015) and, alongside the label head, is about to embark on a US tour that sees the pair host parties in a series of unique locations. As with everything that goes into трип, each rave has been carefully considered and everywhere from air hangars to film studios have been chosen as far more interesting places to party than established venues.

Though he's definitely a "name", it's clear Bjarki isn't too fussed about consciously maintaining his headline status. As he revealed when we caught up with him in London in September, he prefers the mysticism of raves and the outdoors to dark clubs, isn't bothered by the technicalities of music production and just wants people to dance, whether they've heard of him or not.

Exclusive Q+A and track premiere below.

Let’s talk about your three-album project. All three contain different sounds, styles and tempos and were made over an extended period of time. Why did you choose to release them like this. What are you trying to get across?

There was no particular reason. I just gave my music to Nina and I really like being a part of трип so I decided to give her all my music so it all just seemed pretty natural, I guess. We didn’t really decide any particular style or sound and a lot of the stuff is maybe four or five years old so releasing it now feels like closing a chapter of my life. I want to put all of this music out so I can focus on something else for the next few years.

Will the music you focus on next be very different to what we’re hearing now or in a similar vein?

I like how I work now, in that most of the tracks I’m going to release are always going to have a three or four year gap between when they were made. Next year I’ll probably release something I made in 2013. I like doing it like that. I won’t ever release something I’ve just made, I’ll maybe sneak something in there that’s fresh but I love the idea of releasing something I’ve been listening to a lot and that has meant something to me for a long time.

I make music all the time, I’m like an addict, it’s an addiction for me so I can always create something but a lot of it is shit, maybe. It’s nice to have someone like Nina who can filter out what suits for her concept.

Forty one tracks across three albums is a lot of music to release at once.

You know I’d love to release 80 but I don’t think it would be worth it and it would just be stupid. Like an overload, I guess.

It's quite a bold statement releasing that much in such quick succession, you don’t really see artists do that often and we’ve also heard there’s a story behind each one of your tracks. Is that the case?

Yeah I mean most of the good stuff that I do, that I like, usually has something to do with me personally. Either something that’s happened to me before, like I met an alien or I had a dream about something, or I close a certain chapter in my life. The music is like a photograph of something. I think that might be quite cliché but it’s something like that. I like to experiment a lot with both programs and gear – or people.

What do you use to make your music? It all feels very analogue?

I definitely don’t want to go into the technical side of things but I think that it would be best described as using everything and nothing at the same time. I’ve made with tracks with YouTube samples and YouTube Amen drum beats and breaks. I’ve even uploaded stuff to YouTube then downloaded it back and then uploaded it and downloaded it again, just to see how it sounds, like some sort of a glitch, then I’ll use that. It doesn’t matter what you have really, it’s what you do with what you have. Moodymann said that in his RBMA interview. It just depends; music is not only coming out from speakers, music is something that vibrates in you, whether it’s in key or off key, or if it’s on a keyboard or on a guitar. It’s just a fucking stone in the ocean. Wind can be music – I love wind, wind is my favourite thing.

We can’t not talk about ‘I Wanna Go Bang’, it was one of the breakout tunes of last year. Did that come as a surprise to you? How did it feel knowing your track was getting played by so many major DJs?

Of course it was a surprise. I mean, I made it in like 20 to 30 minutes. I’d already made the kick drum and it was meant for a completely different track, a hardcore track I was working on, more like gabba. I just switched it, deleted some channels and grabbed that vocal from Deeon’s record. That was it, done. It was kind of weird because I was never even going to release it, it was my friend that pushed me into doing it. Exos [fellow трип signing and long-standing techno artist] was like, “Send it to Nina, she has to have it” because he was the only one who had it. I made it in 2012 as well.

It literally took over clubs for a year.

The weird thing is that it was that track in particular that made it big. It was more awkward for me after that to accept bookings because I wasn’t ever really going to go in that direction, to become a travelling DJ or musician. I always thought it would be nice to travel but I didn’t realise it would be so in your face.

Really? What makes you say that? How have your gigs been so far?

Some people really don’t like how I reacted to it because I didn’t want to follow the hype too much and do all these bookings because I knew all these people were just booking me because of ‘I Wanna Go Bang’. Even when I didn’t play it so many people were pissed off and they started screaming at me. They started sending me messages on Facebook asking me why I didn’t play it and shit like this. It’s like they expected me to play two hours of ‘I Wanna Go Bang’ but instead I’d play two hours of breaks! Some people just left [the gigs], which is great, I like that too.

What were the трип parties like this year and last year? Was it special going home to play such cool gigs?

It’s always nice and this place is super special. I used to camp out there before we did the трип party and we used to stay there sometimes. We’ve seen some crazy shit there. This place is really magical, people don’t believe in aliens which is obviously because it’s a bit of a long shot but there is a special kind of force within that place. It’s so empty, like no man's land, and we’re talking about there being nobody there. There’s a town, about 30 minutes away, but it’s quiet and it’s magical.

The трип parties are always unique. Have there been any memorable moments?

I’ve never really been into clubs and I don’t believe this music that we’re playing belongs to a club and I always felt stupid when I was going out partying in Iceland and then walking out of a club. You always feel a little bit like you’ve been wasting your time in this place that’s not reality and you come out and reality hits you and it always depresses me. That’s why I really enjoy playing with трип because I get to go to some unique locations that are not really built for this kind of music and I just have a good time. I guess that’s what the 90s were like, sticking speakers in a field and going out there to enjoy. We’re picking up a lot from this type of atmosphere and we're bringing this energy with us as well.

A lot of my friends are 10 years older than me and when they come to a трип party they’re like, "This is what we’re missing. We don’t just want to be in the club every weekend with all these kids on drugs who don’t know how to handle it." So it’s a unique experience for me personally because I’m not really into playing or doing anything live anywhere, not even at a festival. That’s why this is amazing and we want to do more for sure.

You’ve mentioned that you don’t necessarily enjoy doing live shows or DJ sets. What goes into your show when you do actually play?

It all depends really. I have so many tracks that I can always play. Sometimes I don’t plan anything, I just play what I feel, and it also depends on the party. I also don’t really care too much about this live bullshit, this technical side of things, I just want to play tracks and have a good time. I kind of want to avoid these technical talks like, “How many buttons are you pressing in a minute”.

There seems like a lot of talk at the moment about the live show and what goes into it and how live is a live show etc.

Yeah, totally. I think music is also going more in that direction, people are talking about stuff a lot more instead of actually just listening to it. It’s more about the look of it at the moment, more than what’s happening on the inside. I try to avoid putting live by name because then sometimes you get people just staring at you.

трип has become a really established label, one that’s pushing boundaries and becoming a go-to for exciting techno and electronic music. What’s your relationship with трип like and how has it helped your career lift off?

трип is my home label and I guess it’s going to stay that way for my music. I have no interest in releasing anywhere else. I get sent a shit load of remix requests and I get asked to release on other labels but I don’t really see the point in it. I have such strong family connections both with Nina and our illustrator Tombo. He’s doing all the artwork and we all work really closely together. You can’t create this sort of connection, I can never do the same with other labels, especially the parties. Releasing was one thing and then we decided to do the parties and I’ve been in on all of it since the beginning. To me that’s far more interesting than just putting out a track anywhere else. If it wasn’t for all of this and for the parties things might be different you know, flipping burgers or something.

You’re going on a US tour with Nina. Are you excited about it? From your experiences playing Stateside, are the crowds particularly receptive when it comes to your techno music. Are they more or less switched on than European crowds?

I think it’s actually a turning point now. It seems like crowds in Europe are more focused on talking about the music rather than listening to it whereas Americans don’t have a great deal to discuss. They might not know you so they just listen and enjoy and I can feel the difference. Of course it matters where you play but I had some great gigs in the US and this fall tour is going to be even more special because we’re designing it closely with our agent and with the promoters. We are choosing the venues ourselves and one of them is actually a film studio. We chose a film studio because the first raves in LA were held in studios so they could bypass the police. So we’re going to go on a trip, we’re going to get on a bus and every location is unique. It’s more special to do it like this than to go to clubs.

What other spots are there in the tour you can tell us about?

There are all kinds of spaces. There are air hangars, old textile warehouses, weird spaces. They’re really cool buildings and they all have great acoustics and nice scenery. We want it to be a trip for the people that live in these cities. If someone came to my city I wouldn’t just take them to the bar or club that everyone goes to. I want to trust someone to take me somewhere different. We’ll have some secret guests but I can’t say too much about that now.

How important has Nina been in terms of pushing you as an artist? Has she influenced your music since you’ve been part of Trip or has she just helped you further your ability?

I’ve never met someone with such a strong vision towards what they're doing. When I heard Nina play, I didn’t know anyone who was playing like that, I thought it was really daring. That’s why I like her and she’s really helped me be more open about releasing my music. For me some of it was always difficult but now I’m already getting more comfortable by showing her stuff that I've done. I’m seeing my music in a different light. Some of the stuff sounded bad two years ago and you listen now and it’s really cool. I had no idea how to pick out tracks, play them out and even talk to people, these were all things I learned from Nina. I’ve always enjoyed making music but her way of playing is so distinctive and really fucking cool. She plays my music even better than me.

'Æ' arrives on October 28 via Trip

Full North American tour dates below. Bjarki and Nina Kraviz will be joined by K-Hand and Nikita Zablin on some dates:

Trip 2 Miami - Thursday, October 27
1306 - 1306 North Miami Avenue, Miami

Trip 2 Brooklyn - Friday, October 28
Blkmarket Warehouse - Secret Location

Trip 2 Montreal - Saturday, October 29
Hangar 16 - 1 rue Quai de L’horloge, Montreal

Trip 2 Toronto - Monday, October 31; Coda 10 Year Anniversary
(only regular club date of the tour at Coda 10th Anniversary)
Coda - 794 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON M5R 3G1, Canada

Trip 2 Mexico City - Tuesday, November 1
Foro Normandie - Anatole France, Zona Polanco, Mexico City (Mexico)

Trip 2 Guadalajara - Thursday, November 3
BMLS - Avenida Avila Camacho # 1567, Niños Heroes, Guadalajara (Mexico)

Trip 2 San Luis Potosí - Friday, November 4
Centro De La Artes - Calzada de Guadalupe 705, Julián Carrillo, San Luis Potosí (Mexico)

Trip 2 Los Angeles - Saturday, November 5
Venue: Secret Location

Trip 2 San Diego - Sunday, November 6
Venue: Secret Location

Funster is Mixmag's Deputy Digital Editor. Follow him on Twitter