Name: Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Nationality: Icelandic
Occupation: Composer
Current release: Anna Thorvaldsdottir ARCHORA / AIŌN is out via Sono Luminus.

If you enjoyed this Anna Thorvaldsdottir  interview and would like to find out more about her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.  



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

When I am inspired by something it is because I find things in it that are musically interesting. For me this is often connected to energy and flow and structure and sometimes with reference to nature in those respects but also to the human aspect and the construction of larger forces coming together.

Inspiration is something that is often subconscious. So it can of course be hard to determine specifically the role it plays - and I somewhat like to keep inspiration on a subconscious level to allow for a certain amount of magic to it. Although reflecting on it can of course also allow for creative insights.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?
 
At the earliest stages of working on music, when I am thinking about a new piece I allow myself a lot of headspace to dream on the music, to understand and recognise what it is that the piece wants and needs to become. A lot of this process is about selecting the right ideas for the project that I am working on each time, and realising what belongs and what doesn’t.

This process naturally involves a lot of going back and forth between different ideas and aspects of the new piece. Then, when I get to the point where I am actually notating the music that’s where I really have already composed the piece internally.

So if the “starting point” is where you put the pencil to the paper and start to write notes, then yes the ideas are very concrete and quite clear at that point for myself.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

For me, in the so called preparation phase lives almost the entire creation of the piece because the ideas for a piece emerge at the initial stages and really somewhat materialise in a sense at that point. I nurture them here and they come into existence.

This happens internally through internal listening of the music that I am creating and that then continues throughout the composition progress where the sounds circle in my head over and over again and brew until I find the right balance for them.

As for my tools and process, then yes, I need my headspace and also my physical space to be free of clutter and to be calm - I need sensory stillness when I am making music.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Headspace and good tea.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

For myself, when I am writing, the first note the piece has already brewed within me for a while.

So I don’t start to write the music on paper until I have quite a clear idea about what it is, how it sounds and the structure of the piece. I need to know where the music is going in order to know where it is coming from - this happens in the mind during the initial phase which involves sketching the ideas that I have for the piece, which is a mnemonic device to remember the music.

So putting down the first written note is never the beginning for me, and the initial stage for me is never in front of an empty page either really. I don’t find that particularly inspiring, and it does not help me to stare at an empty page to begin with. The music comes into existence through internal listening in the mind where it brews and forms into a world of sounds and atmospheres and this process can take various amounts of time.

But I don’t feel that it is ever frightening, it may not always be easy and it is a lot of work, but it is not “difficult” as such because of the freedom of exploring in this search for the music in the mind and soul, which to me is freeing and is such a nice space to inhabit. After that, the first note is really not that difficult to write because I already know what it is going to be.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

During the whole process of composing, the ideas continuously grow new ideas. So an idea will turn into many other ideas, like branches growing on a tree or roots sprouting. It is about following the leads of the ideas and where they will take you, and about selecting the right ideas and materials for each moment.

A lot of this is also about realising the best ways to orchestrate the sounds and nuances and the overall music materials that I am hearing internally. It is of course really difficult to describe how it gradually emerges because it is not a verbal process — it feels like it lives and breathes and you have to allow it to emerge.

For myself this is a key part, to allow the ideas to come rather than to force them to come — to select the “right” ideas but then also not be afraid to throw things out. The balance of nurturing and letting go — maybe you have nurtured an idea or material for a while but then you realise that it does not belong and have to let it go and that is fine.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I definitely feel like at some point in the process of making music the music really does start to take over. Of course I know that it is me making the music but the ideas and everything, the structure and progression lead the way at a certain point.

So I think it is a balance — sometimes you need to go with the flow and sometimes you need to take control in a way. It is a sensitive balance that we need to strike each time.  

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

It is really difficult to describe the creative state, I really believe in allowing oneself to be really open and to search and allow for the ideas to come as they are for each piece, and for each part of a piece.

Openness to me is a combination of various states of mind and space - it is quite hard to describe in words what openness is precisely, it is both in a sense very simple and complex. It is also not a state that I enter into when I go to work, as such - it is both part of how I need to be and choose to be in general.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

When I have a really clear sense of what the piece and the music is - that is when I start to notate on paper. When I have finished the handwritten sketch of the piece in music notation I put the music into the notation device to create the material for the performers.

At that point I know the music really well and when I have finished writing the music up into the software I allow the music to rest with me for a few weeks to really know that it is ready before handing it in. I always need this space in my process, to keep the music ready with myself before handing it, I need for it to live with me fully ready so that I can be sure that it is ready. So in the end for me a piece is ready when it has been “finished” for a while with me and there is no more work for me to be done with it.

This is also why I have never edited a piece after handing it in or after a performance because I really obsess over every single detail in the process of making the piece and I really make sure that it is as that piece should be before I hand it in.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

In fact, I don’t feel that I experience emptiness after I hand in a piece. Perhaps it is because I often am working on more than one piece at the same time and I usually have at least one piece in the creative process at any given moment — so even though I might be handing in one piece I am still working on another.

I always feel excitement and joy when I hand in a new piece, and the space that opens up in the spirit for me does not feel like emptiness but rather is filled with excitement about the next piece and project that will start to grow in that newly opened space.  

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

It is difficult to separate making music from my life in general. I feel like, music really is my life in a way and I live musically.

But when I am making music I am able to tap into some parts of myself that I don’t think I am able to in other areas in my life. I am able to allow myself a certain type of complete freedom through my music — I dive in and am completely free in that space which is full of focus and openness at the same time.