Biography
Hellvar started in 2004 when the founding members Heiða Eiríksdóttir and Elvar Geir Sævarsson (Heiða + Elvar = Hellvar) moved to Berlin to
study philosophy. Heiða had been a singer in the band Unun (the band of ex-Sugarcube Thor Eldon & Dr. Gunni) which released 2 albums: "Super Shiny Dreams" (1995, released in
Iceland one year earlier as “æ") and "Ótta" (Almost morning, 1999), as well as an EP-album called “Bones”
(1997).
Heiða made 2 solo-albums "Svarið" (The answer, 2000) and
a Charles Bukowski-tribute entitled "Sun Fruit Grape Shine" (2003).
Another album "tiufingurupptilguds"
(2003) was made as Heiða & Heiðingjarnir (band members were Birgir
Baldursson, Sverrir Ásmundsson &
Elvar Geir Sævarsson). Material
written for their rock band was rearranged for a drum machine.
Hellvar
became a trio with Flosi Þorgeirsson as bass player, who
plays in the famous Icelandic band HAM. First
project was an art-installation called 'Hellvar – ekki Helvar', that took place in
Keflavík’s SSV-gallery from December 2005 to January 2006, when Elvar, Heiða
Flosi and a video-artist called Sunna Guðmundsdóttir transformed a gallery into
a working recording studio/rehearsal space and lived there for 3 weeks, recording
an experimental album to be released in 10 copies only.
Early
2007 Hellvar became a quartet: Flosi left the band, but child prodigy Alexandra joined on guitar and bass
virtuoso Sverrir was added to
the line-up. Together the two boys and two girls stirred up a cocktail
from electro-indie to new-wave with a twist of lime. Debut album "Bat out of Hellvar" was released in
the end of 2007 and was the first release on the new Icelandic record label Kimi
Records. The band toured in the USA, Germany and China, and then started
working on their next album, adding Ólafur Ingólfsson to the mix on live drums.
The 2nd album "Stop that noise"
was released on Kimi label in September 2011, and later that same year
an acoustic version, "Noise that stopped" was recorded, picking the bands favourite songs from Bat
out of Hellvar and Stop that noise. Around 200 limited edition home-made cds
were made. Now Sverrir left the band because he moved with his family to
Denmark and Haukur of the band Morðingjarnir (The Murderers) replaced
him. Ólafur the drummer had to leave shortly after that and Birkir Fjalar Viðarson, of I Adapt and Bisund,
drummed for a while inspiring Hellvar to become more of a noticeable full-on
Rock-band.
Vocalist Aðalheiður Arna
Björgvinsdóttir came to do some backings for while. She also has a solo project
called Death of a Scoobafish. Baldur
Sívertsen stood in for Alexandra when she was living in Belgium for a couple of
months, and a bandmember of his, Andri
Geir Árnason replaced Birkir, but Andri and Baldur had been together in Hljómsveitin Ég and Monterey, and Andri had been drumming
for the legendary Geirfuglarnir.
In 2014 a lot of writing got done for the next album and by fall 2014
Alexandra moves to Sweden, and Haukur decides to concentrate on Morðingjarnir.
Hellvar becomes a four-piece for a while, with Andri drumming, Heiða and Elvar
playing guitars and doing vocals and Bogi Reynisson joining on bass. His most
recent band has been Sushi Submarine but he was also in two legendary bands,
Sororicide and Stjörnukisi. Genious-musician Hallvarður Ásgeirsson steps in to
play guitars in the fall of 2014. Early 2015 the Icelandic and Swedish branches
of Hellvar unite their kingdoms in United Kingdom, as a tour is booked in
February.
An album is due later that year...
To be continued
An album is due later that year...
To be continued
