A few Sundays ago I spoke with Icelandic producer and DJ Bjarki, whose seems to be at an interesting point in his artistic evolution, capable of creating club bangers yet seemingly more curious to explore dark yet heartfelt spaces between satire and science. 

From his explosive blunt weapon of a debut track "I Want to Go Bang,” almost ten years ago now,  to his innovative new album "A Guide to Hellthier Lifestyle." Bjarki shares how he weaves themes like environmental awareness  and the wellness industry into his music, shaping each track into a piece of conceptual art. 

Bjarki has built up a reputation for releasing under different pseudonyms and is able to create music that doesn’t sit under one label, he’s pretty hilariously dissmissive about how easy it is to make a club banger in our chat, for one. We discuss the creative journey of producing an album that examines wellness and influencer culture while embracing new technologies like spatial sound design to enhance the listener's experience. We also get to weave one of my favourite semi-regular sidenotes into the conversation — the connections between music and food!

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“A Guide To Hellthire Lifestyle” by Bjarki is released on February 7th, pre-order on Bandcamp.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

Paul’s BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

Paul’s debut book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins