The East Of My Youth debut EP of has been released on the 13th of January. It contains six energetic, electro-pop songs, with great vocals and fantastic sound. I’ve been waiting for this album with high expectations, after watching live recordings the band made for KEXP. East Of My Youth has also been invited to make a live recording for Landsbankinn and promote last year’s Iceland Airwaves.
East Of My Youth are Herdís Stefánsdóttir and Thelma Marín Jónsdóttir. They live and compose in Reykjavik, although the group has been founded in one of the bars in Berlin, somewhere in the 2014 year. Interestingly, they met years back, as they were in high school together. Finally they met again, although their life roads led through different paths – Herdís is studying film scoring, Thelma is an actress. But it’s their first serious musical project, their first band, which they always dreamed of. When asked about the name of the group, they answer shortly –
I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road
East Of My Youth is a full EP. In fact, I would call it even a small album, as it last more than 23 minutes. All songs are in English, and every of them could be played on radio stations successfuly. This is well refined album with thoughtful compositions and catchy melodies. EP sounds outstanding in every aspect – Thelma’s vocal is perfectly clean and so powerful, although she’s a petite in stature. The music layers are rich and expanded. Before their KEXP live show, Katy Mccourt-Basham wrote, that the band is like a well-oiled machine, they cooperate smoothly and perfectly in every detail. Actually I think, that the group knows exactly how they should really sound. They’re not searching for their style, but rather gives us a coherent whole. The album complements „Stronger” with its delicate piano parts and full of emotions voice of Thelma. This is one of the best tracks on this release. But there are more great songs – like „Words”, „Sirens” or „Only Lover” (there was also a video for that track). On the day of EP release the group also published their new video – stronger, directed by Erlendur Sveinsson.
I have to admit, it’s very successful debut. Although Iceland has much to offer on the electronic pop music, I think that East Of My Youth has a chance to get the wider audience. Certainly they deserve it. I would add that the band decided to release their EP by their own (West Of My Future LTD.). The digital version is available in fact on all the music platforms from iTunes, through Spotify for Google Music (price is slightly more than 8 PLN). You can also order CD version through the facebook fanpage.
East Of My Youth – East of my Youth EP
1. Words 3:43
2. Sirens 4:04
3. Mother (EP Version) 3:44
4. Only Lover (Remastered) 4:36
5. Stronger 3:57
6. You are the one (Adanowsky) [feat. Salka Sól] 3:25
Released on 13th of Jan, 2017 – WEST OF MY FUTURE LTD.
