Seemingly coming out of the blue (and pink), Kóboykex seems to be on everyone´s lips in the showcase festival circus this year. With just one single out the duo made a mark at this years The Great Escape festival, from where they were instantly picked to play Les Rencontres Trans Musicalesin in France. Kóboykex, consisting of Heiðrik á Heygum and Sigmund Zachariassen then made a strong impact at Iceland airwaves, gaining praise from media like Rolling Stone, Brooklyn Vegan, Clash and Dork. 

A new single has just been released and a performance at Eurosonic (ESNS) is announced.

So, what´s next on the agenda, Heiðrik and Sigmund?

Heiðrik: We're performing at Trans Musicales in Renné France next week which we are super excited about. And in January we're going to The Netherlands to perform at Eurosonic. These are two internationally acclaimed festivals so we're quite honored to be invited.

Sigmund: Very lucky indeed. 

First of all – who are you guys? It seems like you came out of almost nowhere! 

Heiðrik: Hmm good question. Sounds like an existential question. Haha! We're just two hillbillies from Faroe Islands who like old school music and decided to make music together after meeting drunk outside a bar. We didn't expect our little drunken project would become Kóboykex. But here we are!

Sigmund: We made a drunken agreement to start a country band. Then during lockdown we found out that we were neighbours. No excuses but to get to work!

Welcome back from Iceland Airwaves. It was quite a success, wasn’t it? Did it go as expected? 

Heiðrik: Went better than we expected! It was a full house and people loved our show and most people have not heard of us before so that was so surprising and we were just super happy about it. 

Sigmund: It feels slightly absurd to get mentions in magazines like Rolling Stone and Clash this early on, but that somehow happened. Even Brooklyn Vegan noticed us! Again, I feel like we're very lucky. 

How many days where you there for, and what did you do over there? Any spare time at all, or all work?

Sigmund: we can only travel to Iceland on Fridays and Mondays. So we played on Friday night Iðnó. Then I spent the entire saturday being ill in bed and very nearly losing my voice. Later played at Gaukurinn and went to an afterparty and danced all night. Spent Sunday at the pool, visiting friends, and being generally homeless for a night. Went back home on Monday!

Did you meet any interesting people?

Heiðrik: Yes we did! We met a lot of nice people whom we got in contact with after the festival who we want potentially to work with. Bookers, managers and so on. FMX did a really good job promoting our show and got us in touch with a lot of good people.

Sigmund: I keep meeting Bjarni from Supersport everywhere. He's a cool dude. Really dig the Post-dreifing scene they've got going in Reykjavík.

What did you learn from the experience? Anything you should have done differently?

Heiðrik: I mean you always learn something new - we never played for such a big crowd which was a very experience of its own. Personally I have a hard time mingling with strangers but I'm getting better at it haha!

Sigmund: Over the last few years, I've built up this habit of not turning the heating on in my apartment. It's pretty small and well insulated so natural body heat is more or less enough to heat the place. I learned that this is not a good idea in Iceland.

Dork (Magazine) says that “Kóboykex are the Faroese electro-cowboys you never knew you needed in your life.» Are you?

Heiðrik: Of course we are! I think in a world full of Kardashians we are definitely what you need.

Sigmund: Well we're not exactly obvious. We sort of came into existence by accident. I wish we could collab with a Kardashian!

What are the next steps for Kóboykex?

Heiðrik: As I said we're going to perform at some really good festivals where we hope to come in contact with more people in the business so we will be able to release more music to a broader audience. We have a lot of good songs coming out. 

Sigmund: We're slowly syphoning out our album. Yes, there is an album on the way. Hope people will like it and enjoy spening their evenings on the porch listening it. 

Good luck with Transmusicales and Eurosonic, Kóboykex!