Jón Þór Birgisson

Infobox Musical artist
Background = solo_singer
Name = Jón Þór Birgisson


Img_capt = Jón Þór Birgisson at the Roskilde Festival in 2006
Born = birth date and age|1975|4|23
Iceland
Died =
Instrument = Guitar, singing, organ
Notable_instruments = Gibson Les Paul
Voice_type = Falsetto
Genre = Post-rock
Associated_acts = Sigur Rós
Label =
Years_active = 1994–"present"

Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson (Audio-IPA|Jón Þór Birgisson, Jónsi.ogg| [ˈjouːn ˈθouːr ˈpɪrkɪsɔn, ˈjounsɪ] ) (b. April 23, 1975) plays guitar and sings lead vocals for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. His trademark is playing an electric guitar with a cello bow and using delay and reverberation to get an ethereal and ambient sound. His vocal style includes the frequent use of falsetto. He is openly gay.cite web |title=Icelandic rock |url=http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_GVVSVD&CFID=27802212&CFTOKEN=87558441 |date=June 14, 2001 |work=The Economist |archivedate=2001-06-15 |archiveurl=http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/media/articles/econ0.php] citation |title=At last! The populist person's thinking band |periodical=The Independent on Sunday |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20050717/ai_n14784029 |date=July 17, 2005 |first=Simon |last=Price |accessdate=2007-11-25] His boyfriend Alex Somers has done much of the graphic design for Sigur Rós and they also perform together as an art collaboration called Riceboy Sleeps. They released their self-titled first book in November 2006. It was an embossed hardcover limited to 1000 copies.cite web |title=Riceboy Sleeps Announces First U.S. Exhibition |url=http://www.alarmpress.com/647/art-news/riceboy-sleeps-announces-first-us-exhibition/ |date=July 05, 2007 |accessdate=2008-15-01 |work=ALARM Magazine] Jónsi is also blind in his right eye.cite web |url=http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/band/faq.php#16 |title=Sigur Rós Official Site FAQ |accessdate=2007-05-12] He is a vegetarian.

Musical history

In 1995, Jónsi fronted a band called ‘Bee Spiders’, under the alias ‘Jonny B’. He wore sunglasses on stage throughout whole concerts. Bee Spiders received the ‘most interesting band’ award in 1995 in a contest for unknown bands called ‘Músíktilraunir’ ("Music Experimentations"). The band played long rock songs and was compared to the Smashing Pumpkins. Jónsi also fronted a grunge rock band called ‘Stoned’ around 1992–1993. He sometimes uses the alias Frakkur to release his solo material.

Notes

The name Sigur Rós is altered from the name of Jónsi's little sister, Sigurrós. It was also the name of his late grandmother (a fairly well known if eccentric figure in her native Skagaströnd at the time). Jónsi's sister was born at the same time as the band formed. Sigur translates to “Victory” and Rós to “Rose”, but the phrase “Sigur Rós” is not intelligible in Icelandic as it is in English. That is to say, “Sigur Rós” does not mean “Victory Rose” (like a rose one would receive for a victory), and is actually not grammatically correct in Icelandic.

Languages

Jónsi's first language is Icelandic. He also speaks English. According to the official Sigur Rós web site:cite web |url=http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/|title=Sigur Rós Official Site |accessdate=2007-05-12]

On the first three Sigur Rós albums (Von, Von Brigði, Ágætis Byrjun), Jónsi sang most songs in Icelandic but two of them (“Von” and “Olsen Olsen”) were sung in ‘Hopelandic’. All of the vocals on ( ) are in Hopelandic. Hopelandic ("Vonlenska" in Icelandic) is the ‘invented language’ in which Jónsi sings before lyrics are written to the vocals. It is not an actual language by definition (no vocabulary, grammar, etc.), but rather a form of gibberish vocals that fit to the music and act as another instrument. Jónsi likens it to what singers sometimes do when they’ve decided on the melody, but haven’t written the lyrics yet. Many languages were considered to be used on ( ), including English, but they decided on Hopelandic. Hopelandic (Vonlenska) got its name (from a journalist, not Jónsi himself) from the first song which Jónsi sang on, “Hope” (Von). [ [http://gorillavsbear.blogspot.com/2007/10/sigur-ros-vs-npr.html gorillavsbear.net: sigur ros vs. NPR ] ]

Instruments

Like a few other players of bowed guitar, Jónsi plays a Gibson Les Paulcite web |url=http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/board/viewthread.php?tid=16846#pid323341|title=Sound on Sound on Sigur Ros Official Site|accessdate=2008-03-25] .

References

External links

* [http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/media/intervi/fatcat1.php Official Sigur Rós Interview]
* [http://siouxwire-annex.blogspot.com/2008/04/interview-riceboy-sleeps.html SiouxWIRE interview(Riceboy Sleeps)]