Hailing from Iceland but now residing in Sweden, Eva Jóhannsdóttir, better known as EVA808, has been a staple of the bass music scene for some years, having started making grime and dubstep around 2011. It’s not easy to categorize the music she’s released under one umbrella, but much of it sits close to dubstep, although often with more driving, attention-grabbing beats. It also tends to be jagged and broken, with obscure samples and rhythms. In 2020, she released her debut album, Sultry Venom, gliding through style and mood and flirting between the boundaries of genre.

Next month, Jóhannsdóttir will release ÖÐRUVÍSI—her “most personal and autobiographical work to date,” we’re told, which will launch her own new label, GLER. Across 20 tracks, she tells a story of “being different,” while retaining a dark, brooding, and bass-heavy sonic tone.

In celebration of the album, Jóhannsdóttir has delivered an XLR8R podcast, on which she takes a sharp step away from the club. Instead of beats and bass, expect 60 minutes of melancholic piano, Icelandic punk, ’60s psychedelic rock, and soul—featuring Sigur Rós, Jóhann Jóhannsson, HudMo, and more. It’s an imaginary movie score for the moment, if you will.

“It’s definitely more of a mix to listen to while taking a drive, going on a walk, or laying down to reflect,” Jóhannsdóttir tells XLR8R. “People go to the clubs to hear club music so listening to something completely different when you’re at home makes sense.”

01. What have you been up to recently?
Recently I’ve been working on a lot of new music that I’m excited about. It’s a great feeling when things just flow naturally!

02. What have you been listening to?
I’ve been listening to a lot of old Icelandic music that I never had the chance to hear before. I have Tidal on my studio computer and there’s been so much cool stuff uploaded there from like the ’60s and ’70s, and it sounds amazing. The labels that bought all the rights obviously got all the original master tapes!

03. Your new album is on the way. What can you tell us about it?
I’ve been working on this album for the last three years but I’ve wanted to make it for even longer than that. I never really had the resources to get it wrapped up in the manner it needed. Now, though, I finally have like an actual studio because I’ve put a lot of work into it. The ÖÐRUVÍSI album is the first full project I have wrapped up in there. It’s an album about realizing you’re different from a very young age and being painfully aware of it. Making this album was my way of putting into sound memories and feelings I couldn’t really express otherwise; it’s basically a movie soundtrack in my own weird way!

04. Where and when did you record this mix?
I did this mix in my little studio this past weekend.

05. How did you go about choosing the tracks you’ve included?
The tracks in the mix are a mix of film soundtracks I’ve loved since forever with some I’ve found more recently, but there’s a bunch of other stuff too. It’s really varied as I listen to so much different music. I kind of thought of this mix as if I were to score a movie but I couldn’t use any of my own music. There’s everything from melancholy piano stuff, to old Icelandic punk, ’60s psychedelic rock, soul, and everything in between. My live sets are of course one hundred percent my own productions or bootlegs, so I thought it would be fun to do a whole mix where I couldn’t include any of my tracks.

06. What’s next on your horizon?
I’m working hard on my new label, GLER, which is my platform for my upcoming projects, so if you don’t wanna miss anything you should follow thisisgler on Instagram.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Jóhann Jóhannsson “The Voice Box” (Back Lot Music)
02. Claude Bolling “Strange Magic” (Disc’AZ)
03. Melanie Safka “Mr Tambourine Man” (Buddah Records)
04. Eddie Kendricks “My People Hold On” (Tamla)
05. Antonio Pinto “Mr. President” (Rambling Records)
06. Antonio Pinto “Lord of War” (Lakeshore Records)
07. Gus Gus “Detention” (Underwater Records)
08. Trúbrot “Án Þín” (Parlophone Odeon)
09. Ólafur Arnalds “Saman” (Mercury KX)
10. Nigel Westlake “If I Had Words” (Varèse Sarabande)
11. George Bruns “Cats Love Theme” (Walt Disney Records)
12. Mark Pritchard “Sad Alron” (Warp Records)
13. Emiliana Torrini “Gollums Song” (Reprise Records)
14. Sigur Rós “Flugufrelsarinn” (Smekkleysa)
15. Manfred Mann “One Way Glass” (Vertigo)
16. Max Romeo “Smile Out a Style” (Island Records)
17. The Maytals “Your Troubles Are Over” (Trojan Records)
18. Dead Players “Call Us Now” (High Focus Records)
19. HudMo “Solstice lzo” (Warp Records)
20. Minnie Ripperton “Adventures in Paradise” (Epic)
21. James Newton Howard “The Venture Departs” (Decca)
22. Dúkkulísurnar “Að Vera” (Alda Music)
23. Melanie “Johnny Boy” (Buddah Records)