Featuring appearances from School of X, Nanna and Damon Albarn, the second album from Icelandic indie-pop songwriter Kaktus Einarsson will be released via One Little Independent Records on October 25th.
Lobster Coda incorporates dreamy, glistening synth-pop and melancholic ambience, created through layers of atmospheric keys, percussion, and groove-laden funk bass. Kaktus details his journey following a stress-induced nonepileptic seizure (a functional neurological disorder called FND) that halted his brain’s ability to communicate with the rest of his body, resulting in losing control of his legs, and arms, causing involuntary facial tics. Crucially, he spent months on a course of physical therapy, requiring him to relearn how to use his motor functions while also trying to care for his children and his partner, that by his own admission he then needed to reconnect with.
”We had bought a new house, and I was renovating that, I’d become a father of two with the birth of my young boy, and I’d entered a new kind of grown-up life, financially with the mortgage and emotionally, so the pressure had been high. I realise now that during this time I didn’t do any work on myself” He explains. ”It happened while I was at my dad’s exhibition, my eyes started to feel funny, my vision was blurred, and I basically had a panic attack. I ended up losing all power and with my father holding me. It was very painful, I had no control. It was in the ER room when I was told it was FND, which is a glitch between the brain and the nervous system. It’s where the neuro system learns a behaviour that it repeats in some kind of pattern, and the brain knows that it’s the wrong behaviour. And the body freezes. And then I couldn’t walk…”
”Recovery is ongoing to be honest. But I think this experience is almost like a test, it’s a mirror that I can hold up to the stress and pressures in everyday life” he adds. ”This kind of high-intensity pressure, it’s not normal. I learned that recovery isn’t linear, there are good days and bad days. Sometimes you get setbacks. Despite all of this, it’s a big relief that there wasn’t anything wrong with my spine, I didn’t have MS, or anything chronic. I was very lucky. I got a warning card. I remind myself of that, and every day is good”.
Overall, Lobster Coda is about connection. Connection with yourself. The communication between body and mind. Knowing your own limits as well as overcoming adversity. It’s also about connection to others, nurturing relationships and finding balance. It’s about love for your friends and family, without forgetting yourself. New single Be This Way merges the darker post-punk of his previous Fufanu material with glacial pop and additional vocals from Nanna, of the Icelandic band Of Monsters And Men.
Kaktus Einarsson has led a remarkable musical life. Born and raised in Reykjavík, he was playing as part of experimental electronic act Ghostigital at the tender age of 10. In his post-punk outfit Fufanu, he opened hometown shows for Radiohead and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The band also supported Blur in Hyde Park, and stormed the festival circuit, appearing at the likes of Primavera Sound, Rock Werchter, Musilac and Down The Rabbit Hole. His debut solo album Kick The Ladder was released in 2021, and later remixed by the likes of JFDR, Modular Project and Brandt Brauer Frick.
With an occasionally brutal candour, Kaktus’s new album is about taking the time to reflect and recognise changes that need to be made, to listen to your body, and to trust the process no matter how long it might take.
Check out the video for Be This Way below –
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Tracklist:
Lobster Coda
Daze Gold (feat. School of X)
Be This Way (feat. Nanna)
Saka
Heart Spell
Koddi
White Burn
Gumbri (feat. Damon Albarn)
Kaktus Einarsson | Website | Instagram | Facebook | X | Spotify
Images by Lóa Fenzy ©
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