I remember going to a Darkness show in Wolverhampton nearly 20 years ago and Frankie came out to greet the fans. He invited a few of us for a drink in a local bar and we had a great time. It might have been tedious for him, but for us it was the greatest thing ever. He hung out with us squares and embraced us enthusiastically with stories and anecdotes, as well as advice. He answered all of our inane questions with vigour, as I think he knew these questions were important to us. As a young aspiring bass player, this was huge and inspired me to buy a thunderbird bass, grow a mustache and treat everyone better. Frankie is still one of the coolest guys I've ever met. He even indulged in a game we called 'face grab'. I don't think it's fair to judge Sigur Ros by Frankie standards, but I think they could have done better, for the fans at least.

Please carry on making these videos. Forever.

On the topic of awkward and excruciating - follow me more closely on Patreon if you wish, I know I say it all the time, but it's great: www.patreon.com/jushawk

I just don´t know how to feel about this. My countrymen in Sigur Rós, whilst obviously very talented, come across as a bit arrogant in this interview. I mean, if you don´t want to do an interview, don´t. If you´re bound by a contract to do so but don´t want to, still show up and show a little bit of respect, do your "job" so to speak. Even if you don´t like the questions, and even if you´ve heard them a thousand times before. That is just embarassing to watch and not a mature thing to do. This behaviour is the epitome of being arty-farty and I for one can´t stand it! Yeah... that´s how I feel about this ;)

Thanks, Justin. You keep me entertained every day, no matter what you're discussing - keep the great videos coming! P.S. I LOVE your jacket (and most of your outfits, come to that).

These videos are an absolute gift. Justin, thank you for taking the time to make these for us. You have a style and flow of words that combine beautifully to feed me 15 minutesized morsels of nirvanameal to sustain me on my merry (sometimes) way

i love them even more now ☺️ i think this is what might happen when you put a group of introverts with very low social batteries together and ask them questions 🙂 for me, they will always be the most magical music creators and their quirks only add to their magic

I've just watched the whole interview and i think it's great, they answer all the questions but with the minimun amount of words, maybe is just their idiosyncracy (I also went to check on their music and it's epic, loved it, thanks again for introducing me to good music). This is really funny for me because i've just watched an interview of the italian band Måneskin in the Rolling Stone channel that is the complete opposite of this one, 180º, all the band members wanting to talk at the same time, moving all the time, teasing each other, very caotic, very italian

It was a pleasant surprise to see you cover this, Justin. Just a small thing to correct, Sigur Ros have one song in English, 'All Alright' from their album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. It also features on their live album 'Inni.'

Reminds me of my son answering Grandparents questions about how he's getting on with school and how his week has been!

This channel is SOLID GOLD!!

Loved your Rick James recommendation recently. My insular opinion of him had been based off a Dave Chappelle sketch. Many thanks for the homework teacher. Have an apple 🍏

I am so glad you changed the intro jingle, now you don't wake up my 1.4 years old son every time I watch your channel!

Always an interesting perspective, thank you for this channel Justin! Also, there was nothing wrong with the original intro, but I do love seeing it evolve over time… again…

I’ve been banging out ‘Love Is Only A Feeling’ in my car a lot recently. I forgot how great that song is. Really love this KZfaq channel!!

Great video Justin, this channel is fucking brilliant. Keep it up!

I was expecting Björk to suddenly storm in and pummel the NPR dude with a frozen herring.

I work in engineering and I love to think of this as the radio equivalent of sending your apprentice for a long wait. Everyone behind the scenes is pissing themselves because they know YOU NEVER INTERVIEW SIGUR ROS!

Challenge…Will Justin Hawkins interview Sigur Ros? I need this in my life.

I love the way whenever you say the word 'rides' the closed caption replaces it with 'right' making the channel and your intro/outros "Justin Hawkins Right Again".

That pose from the intro should be on our currency. Every note x

I thank you sir, privileged to get to see such a wonderful interview.

I adore your channel Justin. Your videos are guaranteed to raise a smile, a chuckle, a full blown belly laugh, in essence you always entertain, inform, provoke thoughts and stir up intellectual debate. To pay tribute to The Darkness I have sleigh bell charms on my phone...so never will I let the Bells-end 🤣💛😊❤️

Gonna have to check these dudes out, the "james brown as high as a kite interview" is one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

The beginning of the new theme song reminds me of a vocal melody from a Queen song 😁 Also sweet, the Marillion mention 😀👍

Marrillion!? Kayleigh!?? I didn’t see those references coming! Chapeau

His laugh is sooo infectious and gentle.. his delivery is that of a smooth character!

I simply cannot get enough of this channel.

I love he asks the band a question and it's dead silence!!! Lol 😆 🤣 😂

I think any musician should be grateful that anyone wants to interview them about anything. This whole anti-social attitude is really tiresome.

Very funny to watch. The interviewer asked mainly closed ended questions where the only response could be a “yes” or “no” option. To create the dialogue , it should be more open ended questions that would require the response to elaborate or provide a fuller response. Keep up the vids! Love it!

Several years ago I went to the BFI to see a preview of their tour documentary and the band were wheeled out afterwards to do a Q&A session. The whole affair was almost as awkward as this one. Man, was I glad when the fire alarm went off and curtailed proceedings after the longest 20 minutes of the interviewer's life. Talk about divine intervention...

This is interview is a work of art. No idea if there's a story behind it. I'd like to think they were sulking with their promoter/manager whoever and making a point. I'm not that familiar with their music, but like you it's made me want to listen to them.

Sigur Ros and Jonsi are amazing and make incredible music. The Nothing Song is beyond anything anyone else has ever done…

The Who were interviewed in 1972 on a British TV show. They got so sick of the interviewer, Keith Moon started yelling at him, then he stood up and stripped himself completely naked. It's in their movie 'The Kids Are Alright'.

Sigur Rós doesn't do interviews very often and they're all pretty private people, especially Jonsí. They're first handful of albums were phenomenal. Especially ( ).

I just watched the Hoppipolla [official video], I loved it. It wouldn't have been the same without the video though, that was hilarious

You look amazing in these videos Jus

I'm sort of torn about this. On one hand, there is sort of a painful comedy about it, whether the band is intentionally sabotaging the interview or just...somehow constitutionally unable to engage. On the other hand, it's not like the radio station is purely the parasite in this relationship. There's supposed to be some mutualism. The station exchanges exposure for content. I understand the band may be forced into it, but once you show up, perhaps make an effort. I know bands can feel like they're being treated like puppets or dancing monkeys, but they have the upper hand in the power dynamic and letting this guy twist in the wind just seems like really poor form. Unless they are just more legitimately hopeless at interviews than the interviewer is. That to me is, by far, the funniest option.

I've heard Sìgur Ros' music being described as minimal. I suppose their interview provides almost seamless continuity betweem life and art.

I remember first hearing Sigur Ros in college around 2004 or so. Blew me away. Hadn't heard anything like it and I've got quite a diverse scope even if I do say so myself. Heard Untitled first and then Hoppipolla and went all in. Love them. They have some similarities to Bjorks later work, or more, she shares them as her later albums followed the 'established' sound of Sigur Ros.

Is there footage of the interview afterwards just smashing up the studio out of pure frustration or just curled up in the corner of the room’ rocking back and forth, gently weeping saying “ I didn’t write the questions, it was the studio manager.”

My girlfriend made a good point recently regarding having to justify creative decisions in our time at university. Surely the point of art in all forms is to say something that can't be done in typical words/conversation, so then what's the point in dissecting it and doing the abstracted emotion/meaning a disservice?

That was hilarious! But, unless there's some story that might justify that behaviour, I find their attitude kinda rude and unprofessional. The interviewer was maybe not the brightest guy in the world, but he was just doing his job, and if you're smart, there's always a way to give an interesting answer to a silly question. If you don't wanna do it for the interviewer, do it for the audience.

Of the many great things in this video, the greatest is you revealing your level of familiarity with the Marillion catalog, which may be limited to the Misplaced Childhood album. And that’s great as it is arguably their best album. Cheers, Angus

Keep up the good work Justin! You've really smashed it with this channel 👍 Bravo!

He needed to use Nardwuar’s method of yelling, giving them an Iron Maiden album, and being Nardwuar.

Absolute gold interview! So amazingly awkward 🤣

Once, I made a 1200 km trip to Montreal just to see Sigur Ros live. ♥ Thanks Justin, this is hilarious.

Rule #1 of any interview: ask open-ended non-generic questions

Love your sense of fashion! Nice ditty variety too!

Got to admire the interviewer... he doesn't lose his candour throughout... I'd be stuttering and stammering

The absolute last thing I would have expected in this video was a sarcastic reference to doing Marillion covers of all things.

When you casually walk up to the quiet kid in class and ask them if they had a nice weekend

Many thanks... Couldn't breathe for laughing... again!

I would LOVE to hear Sigur Rós cover Kayleigh

First mistake: closed (leading) questions.

I *love* Sigur Rös. For the record, Jonsi has at least one song in English in his solo work. It's called Grow Till Tall, and if anyone reading this takes my word for it and looks up the live version of it, you'll be treated to something you've never heard before.

Anyone who’s also a fan of Formula 1 will be familiar with this lack of response to inane questions. Usually from a certain Finnish driver 😜

Brent Deramus 0 seconds ago I just discovered this channel from the Ghost video and I thought “my god I love this man!” THEN I realized who you are and it all makes sense now! Thank you thank you thank you! It was a dusty old night and I’m the first to admit it...

"they were probably quite punctual" - brilliant

Concert manager will NEVER force them to do a radio interview again. lol

Binge watching this channel lately 😀 love the vids and find Justin really interesting. Thanks Justin 👍

Well these thought videos are just wonderful.

oh and it's different at the end too! (The theme song-that is) ha ha ha

You say you hate talking to journalists Justin so it’s nice to hear you express respect for this guy.

Much better intro today. Pleasant on the ears, didn't blow out my tweeters 👍

Your laughs made me laugh. Thank you for brightening up my day 🤣

Great video 🤣🙈 And love the different intro/outros on guitar 💪🏻☺️

This is brilliant and as you say as how all interviews should be conducted.

If you have ever been to Iceland this makes perfect sense.

Hello Justin that intro was suspiciously, just a little bit ‘My Melancholy Blues’ ? Come on old chap 😂😂

The thing is, I hear these kind of inane questions from radio interviewers all the time. It's not like this radio guy is ESPECIALLY inane. These are very standard dumb questions. You would think the band would have some stock answers up their sleeve for such occasions as this, having years of interviews under their belt, no? The radio guy seems nice enough...it's just that he's a radio guy. He can't help it. That being said, it's so brutal, it's hysterical.

I would be afraid to have a drink of water in that silence, the sound of swallowing would be deafening.

New intro melody is awesome man !

In terms of awkwardness this is nearly up there with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins press conference when they returned from the moon... Nearly.

When you react to videos like these, or to music videos perhaps, could you link them in the description? Great content! Going to have to give Sigur Ros a proper listen to now

Thank you sooooo much for mentioning Fish era Marillion! Lovin' it Dilly dilly😉👍❤

This theme tune has now reached maximum melodic greatness. Thank you…Again.

I really don’t want to sound / look bad … But I was one of those 400k viewers … Found the whole interview full of wisdom like your channel Justin!!!! :D

This was one of the funniest things I have seen! ahah Justin you crack me up!

Best version of your opening yet🤘❤️

Justin can you make a video about your time on top gear! I heard it took many takes to get right! Would love to hear your experience ❤️🤟

You really have the most wonderful laugh, beautifully demonstrated in this clip.

Love the new guitar intro

Hi Justin, I’m really enjoying your channel, it has a very chilled vibe. The ad placement is a little jarring though, much love

Can't believe they're doing an interview. They've been round forever and make fairly obscure music - manager needs sacking. Seen the NPR logo and thought it would be great to see The Darkness do a tiny desk concert.

I'd love to see my boy Nardwuar the Human Serviette vs Sigur Ros. Nardwuar is great at kicking off interviews. Come to think of it, I'd like to see Nardwuar vs Justin Hawkins. Justin, any interest in being interviewed by Nardwuar if you're ever in the same city? I saw Sigur Ros play a cathedral some years ago. I say "cathedral" as that word is part of its official name but by European standards it's likely just a regular church but out here it's a "cathedral". I'm unsure what the capacity was, perhaps 500 or so? The acoustics suited the uh, immersive nature of their sound, and the reverb they were using was enhanced by the natural reverb of the cathedral and created this cocoon of sound. It was one of the most relaxing concerts I've ever attended. They played straight through, not stopping to receive applause at any point so none was offered and I happened to become so comfy on the hard backed church pews that I nodded off. This is not intended as a slight against Sigur Ros, as I remember it, I'd stayed awake the entire night prior to the concert and had worked all day before the show and was just worn out. Perhaps a few people around me had also gone without sleep the night before as I noticed them nod off here and there or it's also possible they had decided to partake too heavily of the jazz cabbage or perhaps even the devil's sugar, one can not know for certain. Either way, not a single person stood during the concert, the applause was saved entirely for the end but even then it was sparing as most of the audience had the tops of their heads blown clean off by this all encompassing visual and sonic experience. It was something like being abducted into the belly of some psychedelic space ship for 90 minutes or so only to be spat out, warm, sleepy and confused without even a scrap of explanation from Sigur Ros. One more note about Icelandic bands. I saw GusGus play and it was the opposite experience. It was so high energy that even the security guards posted up at the front of the stage were dancing. Everybody was caught up in this total shared experience.

Intro and outro is everything that is anything.

This is my favorite interview.

I had to pull the chute at just past 6 minutes. This is a cringefest. Even a capt charmypants like Justin can't save this video.

Reminds me of Kimi the F1 legend, the ice man.one word answers great..

Reminds me of the end of race interviews with Mika Hakkinen where he'd invariably be asked daft questions and struggle to know how to respond. But he tried, and his sense of humour shone through the awkwardness.

Looking very stylish today mate.

I think ALL bands should remember ...interviews are not for the journalists they have nothing to do with them. THEY ARE FOR THE FANS they are a part of the way bands engage with them. If you dont want fans and just want to play for yourself that is cool.

There's something intrinsically scandinavian (northern regions and island nations) about this demeanor as well. Zero urge to small talk or 'talk for the sake of talking', very introverted -- almost somber -- vibe and not afraid of silence. The polar opposite of your average american :D

See them live. New album is gorgeous.

Anyone who creates music, or any form of art, must surely be cringing at this interview, so I feel their pain entirely. Have seen this footage dozens of times now, and Georg quietly spoken "yes" replies just make me chuckle so much. At the end of the day, in-coming cliche alert, their music speaks for itself, Saeglopur can mean one thing to me today, and another thing tomorrow, and thats down to personal interpretation, and thats how music works, we all hear and experience music differently, Sigur Ros just provide something extra that most artists lack. Sigur Ros always will be my most treasured band, I fell in love with them through the Vanilla Sky soundtrack, certainly the ending scenes where Njosjavelin is playing, and I remember playing their album ( ) for the first time, I literally cried through most of it, it moved me beyond words and still does. and while their sound is constantly evolving, the consistency is always there, the Sigur Ros vibe is always present, even with their latest album, which is unlike anything else they have ever released, Atta! Was lucky enough to catch them at the Southbank Centre for the Meltdown Festival this weekend, along with the London Contemporary Orchestra, what a treat, just a wonderful wonderful night of fine music and amazing company! Also a big fan of some group called the darkness... had no idea Justin had his own channel, subbed now so all gravy baby!

Loved the Freddie Mercury intro/outro !

It reminds me of every interview with Kimi Raikkonen and Mika Hakkonen. It might just be a Scandinavian thing that there humorously bad at English interviews.