Colm O’Herlihy: The Corkman making waves in Iceland's cool music scene
Colm O'Herlihy and his business parter, Icelandic composer Atli Orvarsson. Picture: Juliette Rowland
On a Zoom call from Reykjavik, Colm O’Herlihy shares stories from the trenches of late-2000s Cork music. Having done his time playing in indie bands, working as a session performer, managing labels, and booking tours for the like of Chelsea Crowell and alt-rock legend Grant Hart, opportunity came the Corkman's way by a chance meeting while on the road at a festival.
“The first time I went to Iceland was for [festival organisers] ATP, just for a festival, and the booking agent that my band at the time had said, ‘y’know, go meet these Icelanders’. And among them turned out to be Jófríður Ákadóttir, of JFDR. We became friends, and invited them to Ireland for a tour, and they said to me, ‘why don’t you move to Iceland?’. I asked what would I do, and they had a friend who ran a label, so I went over to see if I’d like it, and fell in love with the place straight away.”
The overall music export drive in Iceland, spurred on by the global success of the like of Bjork and Sigur Ros, has set the standard for other countries to emulate when conducting their own initiatives. Quite simply, the organisations involved have trusted talent to do their own thing, and helped with the legwork on an international stage.
“For me, it was the value of music here, how people treat music. It’s inspiring - to be an older musician or a writer is almost the most respected profession. It made me feel like I wasn’t crazy for wanting to be there, in niche music.
"I had paid trips to festivals around Europe, to go meet people and do the work, make connections for artists. There’s no way our company would have grown without that. You realise the uniqueness that you have on an island, and you have to value that.”
Describing itself as a ‘music company’, rather than a traditional label or agency, Inni, co-founded by O’Herlihy, has cultivated quite the portfolio of artists and composers in recent years.
“Being an artist and making a living in sales and streams is impossible, now,” explains O’Herlihy. “Our first signing was an artist called Sin Fang. We looked at his income from sales, streaming, sync [adverts, soundtracks, etc], and we focused on how he, as an artist, could make a good living. We’ve looked at film composition through our co-founder Atli, who mentored him, and he’s up to a couple of projects a year.
“We’ve developed admin for albums, rather than a typical label deal, he’ll make something and we’ll market and distribute it. So he has streaming income, too. Applying for grants, for bigger projects. To be an artist, you have to wear a lot of hats. It’s about building a good following, a great mailing list, and being sustainable with it.”
The company made trade headlines in recent weeks by closing a big publishing deal in the United States with Kobalt, an independent company in the US that handles multiple aspects of music: digital release, publishing and placement. It’s a deal that opens a lot of doors for his artists.
“We spoke to every major publisher. You need a big arm to collect worldwide, and they have offices everywhere. The thing about Kobalt is they’ve forged the way on tech and transparency, looking at an app, seeing your statements, when money is coming in.
“They also have an incredible sync team, and it’s very exciting in that this is the first big connection to that world for Iceland. The deal was fair, and similar to our own short-term timeframe, to allow artists to move where they need to move.”
The timing of the deal is fortuitous: the long-term effects of the Covid-19 crisis and Brexit have yet to be ascertained fully for artists from all over Europe and Scandinavia. Touring will be changed inalterably, and the private music infrastructure of smaller countries nearby will now have to look at Iceland’s strategy, and concentrate further on supporting local artists. It’s an exciting time, despite all the challenges, says O’Herlihy.
“I could go to a jazz or experimental gig here, and it’d be sold out, whereas maybe at one time in Cork you might have got a handful of people. When people feel supported in their scene, they want to push that forward.
“In Iceland, on daytime radio, you might have really crazy punk, and the whole country gets behind it, values it. Ireland is changing, musicians are realising they can have success and build communities. It’s perfect, but still something has to change, on the ‘other’ side.”
For more info on Inni, check out https://www.innimusic.com/
“Starting out as a string quartet, Amiina have toured the world with Sigur Rós. Their sound has been described as Arvo Pärt with music boxes, and apart from modern minimal classical music, their sound is also folky and quite hypnotic.”
“Skúli is known for his bass playing on the records of Blonde Redhead, his work as the producer of records by Ólöf Arnalds, and for his film work with Jóhann Jóhannsson and Ryuichi Sakamoto.”
“Emerging in Iceland’s scene of the early 2000s, almost entirely by accident, this unassuming but uniquely talented soul got his start in the visual arts. Through a homemade EP he made more or less on a whim, he has since then been catapulted into international fame, working on everything from his own solo project to film scores and commercials.”
“A Brooklyn-based solo musician, film composer and sound artist, and the creator of the Segulharpa (electromagnetic harp, in English) — an electromagnetically powered acoustic instrument he invented and built — which is currently in use as part of Björk’s ‘Cornucopia’ show.”
