Johann Johannsson

“I've never been very good at creating absolute music, which has no non-musical dimension to it. I think that is why filmmakers gravitated toward my work.”

“I try not to obfuscate or to be to obscure or to be too cerebral. I like to work on a visceral, emotional level.”

“I don't really take vacations.”

“Pan Sonic sound like they are playing music of the future made with the electric instruments of yesterday.”

“I like the whole Pacific Northwest.”

“I don't want to make light of the importance of my musical upbringing, as you cannot avoid being influenced by the area you grow up, but I will say that Reykjavik's geography is very different from, say, New York, Paris, or Copenhagen. There's big skies. The buildings are low. The landscape is spread out.”

“When I work on films, I like to be involved from as early as possible. I think this is really good and beneficial in terms of absorbing the atmosphere of the film and for the music to become a part of the DNA of the film.”

“I've been sort of playing music since I was probably 8 years old or something like that.”

“When I make film music, I'm a filmmaker first and foremost. It's about serving the needs of the film. You're telling a story; in a way, you stop becoming a composer and become a storyteller instead. You tell the story with the most appropriate themes. How you approach these things is a very personal matter, but your goal is to tell the story first.”

“Music has to be treated in the same way as set design, casting, or choice of location - it has to start at the same time.”

“I am not very extreme in my life. But I'm very attracted to art that works with extremes and works with limits, that transgresses limits and transcends limits and crosses borders and has a certain boldness.”

“I don't watch TV that much, but I like to get series on DVD and watch them all back-to-back.”

“Film is a collaborative medium, and I very much enjoy that.”

“There's very little synthesized sound in the 'Arrival' score. There are a couple of synthesized beats in there, but 99 percent of the sounds in there are acoustic in origin and either played or sung by a musician or a singer and recorded in a room.”

“When I'm writing film music, I feel like I'm more a filmmaker than a composer. It's more about what the film needs. I'm basically part of the team that's creating a film, and the music is a very important part, but it's just one part of many.”

“I think there's very little interesting in art that is not transgressive in some way. And I don't think that's a very revolutionary thing to say.”

“I love old industrial imagery and smokestacks belching pollution, maybe because Iceland doesn't have any industry, just mountains and beautiful nature.”

“I think I have a sound or a certain feel in certain harmonies in the way I construct melodies.”

“Music should resonate with people on an emotional level. That's one of the criterions I use for an idea. Does it speak simply and directly without obfuscation and without being unnecessarily complex or obscure?”

“I always do very detailed demos. I feel that it's better to show the director a demo that sounds as close to the final thing as possible with samples. It takes time to create, but I feel that it's better to get the director on board very early on in terms of the sounds that I have in my head.”