Lyrics about bad weather and bad communication

Ambient/dream-noise-rock band Oyama are releasing their debut LP, Coldboy,  out on November 3rd in Iceland and have received considerable attention for music that they describe as " sleepy melodies wrapped in puffy clouds of noise and angsty peachy fuzz." They're also heading for a Japan tour in November after playing at Iceland Airwaves. 

Úlfur Alexander Einarsson, singer and guitarplayer of Oyama  was given the third degree. 

Oyama is a Japanese word. What exactly does it mean? 
"The name kind of just chose itself and can mean many things. It's a pretty common place-name as the word "yama" means mountain in Japanese and the "O" can be a honorific prefix in words, making them more "respectful", thus Oyama can be a like a respectful way to refer to a montain. Oyama is also an old way of saying Onnagata, who are male actors who impersonate women in Japanese Kabuki theatre."

Do you like or dislike the shoegaze genre that has been attached to you?
"No we don't mind it since we started out playing mainly shogaze influenced music, so it makes sense. But we've stepped a bit away from the shogaze sound and into more ambient and psychedelic realms with the new record. We've also started to work on our songs more as a band, which has resulted our newer songs to be more dynamic and varied in sound."  

Do the band members share common musical influences?
"Yeah,  totally. Although all of us listen to different music day to day, we share a love for the woozy 90's indie rock that had such an influence on us when we were growing up." 

So apparently Oyama are going to be big in Japan?
"Our album is coming out in Japan on October 29th via Imperial Records and we'll be playing a series of concerts there in November, including a Nordic Music Festival in Tokyo. A person from Imperial Records saw us play at the Great Escape festival in Brighton last year and liked what she heard and talked to us afterwards and kept in touch with us through email and we ended up signing a record deal with them. Pretty cool if you ask me!"

So what's with this Coolboy title of the album?
"The name 'Coolboy' came to us when brainstorming a title for the album and it just immediately made a lot of sense to all of us. Partially just because it sounds nice in relation to the band name and our attitudes, but also it can imply a double meaning of physical and emotional coldness which fit nicely with our lyrics on bad weather and inability to communicate."

Worst gig experience ever?
"Probably at the Eurosonic festival in Holland this year when the elecricity at the venue blew out 15 minutes before we were supposed to play. We were in the middle of soundcheck and the electricity didn't come back on until 2 minutes before we had to start playing. Needless to say it was quite frustrating. We found out later that someone had pulled out the powerlines behind the venue, which is totally weird. We are not blaming anyone, but we also heard that Ólafur Arnalds was seen hanging around the dumpsters at the venue..so...you never know." (Oyama had a bit of a soundclash with musician Ólafur Arnalds and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at Harpa concert hall during the last Iceland Airwaves festival when Oyama had to pull the plug to not disturb the concert in the main hall). 

Any Icelandic bands you think people should be listening out for?
"Yes- there are three bands that people should check out now, Muck, Börn and Kimono." 

When and where are you playing next?
"We are playing on Thursday October 23rd at Húrra in Reykjavík with Bob and Mc Bjór & Bland. Doors are at 21:00 and it's gonna be pretty ok."

Check out Oyama's brand new song Old Snow from the new album HERE.