Adda

Adda is a singer songwriter known for her strong and wholehearted performances, playing music that pierces the audience's ego defense and goes straight to the emotional core. A tear or two, a fixated stare and hysterical laughter are common in the audience during Adda’s concerts. This is to be expected, as Adda arrived back on the music scene in 2009 with lots of painful emotional question marks ready to be expressed in music. She has a history as an obeying and anxiety ridden student of classical piano and sonology, an overactive music teacher and a silent and worried live electronic musician at the turn of the millennium. She co-founded the bands Spúnk (releasing a 10” vinyl record together with múm) and Big Band Brútal (releasing a couple of songs on the Kitchen Motors collection albums).

Many years and puzzling experiences later, walls came tumbling down and with the help of Joni Mitchell and Eminem, Adda understood that obsessive thoughts, anxiety, depression and even self pity are actually fruitful sources of creativity. Her lyrics are often about the road blocks of mind and heart, and her catchy melodies and repetitive chord progressions have the ability to sooth hurt and fear. Her music has been compared to that of Damien Rice, Joni Mitchell, Diane Cluck and Jose Gonzales. Adda’s direct influences when it comes to her lyrical and harmonic style include Ani Difranco, The Fall, SH Draumur, Morrissey, Magga Stína, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, Mirah, Leonard Cohen and Fever Ray. Her concert program regularly includes tributes to her influences.

(Have a listen: Her most recent is a cover of Eminem’s "Drug Ballad", aired on the Morning Program, Rás 2, and included in EPK package. Here is a video of a cover of Ani Difranco's "In or out", together with Lovísa - Lay Low: http://tinyurl.com/6672ubj.)

Adda has performed regularly, often joined by Haraldur Þorsteinsson (from Náttfari, Stafrænn Hákon, Feldberg and more) on guitar and Ukulele bass, and her sister, the singer and songwriter Sunna Ingólfsdóttir (Llama, The Gimmicks and more). Adda has played in venues such as, Rósenberg, Sódóma, Barbara, in the Grapevine series at Grand Rokk and Hemmi og Valdi, both solo and collective concerts with Lay Low and more at Trúnó, a warm up act for Ólöf Arnalds at the Nordic House and a warm up act for Megas, Gylfi and Rúnar at Bragginn, Hólmavík. She has performed live in the December literature edition of Víðsjá, Rás 1, the garage band program Skúrinn and the Morning Program, Rás 2. In addition to her solo project, Adda organized a series of “Queer-nights” at the queer club Barbara in 2010-11, together with the travelling club “Skyndilega greip mig óstjórnleg löngun”, which features women’s music and fringe performance art. She is part of the queer night houseband (with Lovísa – Lay Low, Eva Björk and Björg), playing ‘queer’ cover versions of classics from Metallica to N’sync, in addition to original music, including a recent rap song in Icelandic.

Adda is currently recording an album at the Icelandic National Radio, “Studio 12”, with recording engineer Úlfhildur Eysteinsdóttir. The album is to be released in the fall.