Hössi Olafsson
Encyclopedia
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He is best known as a founding member of the Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic rap group, Quarashi
Quarashi
Quarashi was a rap and hip-hop group from Reykjavík, Iceland. It was composed of Hössi Ólafsson , who was the lead vocalist and frontman of the group, Ómar Swarez , rapper and hype man, and Steini a.k.a. Stoney , also rapper and hype man...
.
Professional career
Ólafsson first met future Quarashi member Sölvi BlöndalSölvi Blöndal
Sölvi Blöndal is one of the founders of Quarashi. He is the producer, and also plays the drums at concerts. Sölvi has also played in bands such as "Púff", "Júpíters", "Ss span", "2001" and "Stjörnukisi". In the band "2001" he played with Gaukur and Hössi was the lead singer...
at the University Of Iceland
University of Iceland
The University of Iceland is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern comprehensive university, providing instruction for about...
in the early '90s. According to Blöndal, the first thing Hössi ever said to him was if he had any marijuana to sell.
Sölvi and Hössi would go on to play in the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band, 2001. However, Sölvi soon began to develop a preference for studio production over band rehearsal-style songwriting. He also wanted to make different types of music besides industrial rock
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
and punk, so he quit 2001 and began making rap music. Later on, Sölvi invited Ólafsson to join him in making rap music along with famous Icelandic skater and graffiti artist, Steini a.k.a. Stoney. Originally, Hössi would sing, while Steini would rap, but when Sölvi heard Hössi rap, he decided that his music group would have two rappers. Once that was settled, the three men formed Quarashi in 1996.
Hössi would serve as a vocalist in Quarashi from their first record, an EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
entitled, Switchstance
Switchstance
Switchstance is the first and only EP by Quarashi. It was also the first record they ever released. It quickly became a hit in Iceland thanks to the title track. Only 500 copies were made of Switchstance, but all 500 copies were sold in a week...
, in 1996, until their first international release, Jinx, in 2002. Ólafsson rapped the most on Quarashi songs, and also did some singing for the group, singing on "Dive In", "Into Your Arms", and "Fly To The Sky", in addition to singing the chorus of some songs.
Ólafsson, along with the rest of Quarashi, were featured in a 1999 documentary about the group entitled, Around The Country On Medicine. He was also seen in a 1998 documentary that talked about Icelandic music.
In 2001, Hössi and Sölvi Blöndal produced the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
for the Halldór Laxness
Halldór Laxness
Halldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels...
play, Kristnihald undir Jökli
Kristnihald undir Jökli
Kristnihald undir Jökli is an album by Quarashi. It was released on September 22, 2001 in Iceland . The album contains mostly instrumental music written and produced by Quarashi founding members, Sölvi Blöndal and Hössi Olafsson as the soundtrack for the Halldór Laxness play, Kristnihald undir...
, which was directed by Bergur Þór Ingólfsson, and ran in the Borgarleikhús in the winter of 2001. The album was released under the Quarashi name and most of the 500 copies made were sold. Hössi has been quoted as saying that working on Kristnihald undir Jökli was "one of the most amazing things I've ever done in my life."
After spending 6 years with Quarashi, Ólafsson became bored with making music and performing. He also claimed that he was forgetting how to speak Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
due to being away from Iceland for long periods of time. Because of these two reasons, Hössi left Quarashi in December 2002. Quarashi announced Hössi's departure from the group on their official messageboard on January 3, 2003.
In August 2006, Hössi Ólafsson joined the Icelandic alternative pop band, Ske
Ske
Ske is an Icelandic band whose origins can be traced back to 1992, when a band called Skárren ekkert was founded by Eiríkur Þorleifsson, Frank Hall and Guðmundur Steingrímsson, and joined by Hrannar Ingimarsson in 1998....
, as the lead singer.
Performance style
Hössi has a deep low pitched voice when he talks and sings, but a high pitched nasally voice when he raps which some have compared to Rage Against the MachineRage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
frontman, Zach De La Rocha, and King Adrock from Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
. This was used as a point of criticism when Quarashi released Jinx in 2002, as some felt that Hössi's voice made the group sound like a Beastie Boys rip-off. Hössi's voice was noticeably higher on Switchstance
Switchstance
Switchstance is the first and only EP by Quarashi. It was also the first record they ever released. It quickly became a hit in Iceland thanks to the title track. Only 500 copies were made of Switchstance, but all 500 copies were sold in a week...
and Quarashi's 1997 full-length debut album
Quarashi (album)
Quarashi is the debut hip-hop album by the group of the same name, released on October 13, 1997 in Iceland . Already popular in Iceland thanks to the EP, Switchstance, Quarashi released their first full-length album with more of the hip-hop infused rock, techno, and funk that brought them fame in...
than it was on his last two albums with the group. This could be because of Hössi's well known chain smoking
Chain smoking
Chain smoking is the practice of lighting a new cigarette for personal consumption immediately after one that is finished, sometimes using the finished cigarette to light the next one. It is a common form of addiction.-Causes:...
habit.
Life outside music
After leaving Quarashi, Hössi enrolled back into the University Of Iceland in order to study Icelandic, and to begin leading a normal life. During his time at the University Of Iceland, Hössi wrote several articles for Icelandic newspapers, and starred in an Icelandic comedy film in 2004.Hössi is an avid reader. He referenced several books that he'd read in Quarashi songs, and some Quarashi song titles were named after famous literary figures such as "Mr. Caulfield" (named after the character, Holden Caulfield
Holden Caulfield
Holden Caulfield is the 16-to-17 years old protagonist of author J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. He is universally recognized for his resistance to growing older and desire to protect childhood innocence...
from the book, The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, language, and rebellion. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major...
by J.D. Salinger), and "Malone Lives" (named after the book, Malone Dies
Malone Dies
Malone Dies is a novel by Samuel Beckett. It was first published in 1951, in French, as Malone Meurt, and later translated into English by the author....
by Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
).