~*HiStOrY oF QuArAsHi*~
In 1996, four guys from Reykjavik, Iceland formed a band. They named it Quarashi, which means "supernatural". The history of Quarashi goes back way before '96, and they have come a long way sine then.
The four member of Quarashi are Sölvi Blöndal (pronounced Suhl-vee Blun-dal) who writes all of the music for the songs. Most of the band's songs are digitally mastered, and Sölvi does the mixing. He also plays the keyboard and the percussion instruments for the songs with live instruments.
The lead voice, whether rapping or singing, is Hössi Olafsson (pronounced Huh-see). While Sölvi writes the music to their songs, Hössi thinks up most of the lyrics.
Ómar Orn Hauksson (nicknamed "Swarez" from the movie "Scarface") is the artist of the band, he designed part of the Quarashi logo. He also raps, and sings in a few of their songs.
The other member of the band (unless you include the guitarist, Tarfur) is Steini "Stoney" Fjelsted. He raps, but he doesn't sing. An interesting fact: "Stoney" is actually a very accomplished and notorious grafitti artist and pro skateboarder.
The history of Quarashi starts in 1994 , when Sölvi started an industrial rock band called "2001". In 1995, Hössi joined it.
Before Ómar joined Quarashi, he had been part of two other bands:The Danish Death, which was a death metal band, and Trio Ola Skans, an Icelandic band that rapped in Icelandic. He joined Quarashi in 2000, though he had been rapping for them since '97. "I was surprised we never ran into eachother", says 27 year old Sölvi, because the city the two bands lived in is pretty small.
When Sölvi was at a Reykjavik skate park when he met Steini.
Now, with Sölvi, Hössi, Ómar, and Steini, the guys decided to change the name of their band. Steini was looking at a book when he saw the word "Quarashi". It said that "Quarashi" was one of the surnames of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad. Steini knew that "Quarashi" would be the perfect name for the band, so they named the band Quarashi.
In 1996, Quarashi's first album, Switchstance, was released in Iceland. There were only 500 copies of Switchstance made, and all of them were sold in the first week.
The next year, Quarashi released their first LP, titled "Quarashi". They put 6,000 copies of the album out in Iceland. All of these copies were sold, which made "Quarashi" gold.
Two years later, in 1999, the band put out "Xeneizes". All 6,000 copies made of the album were sold, which made "Xeneizes" gold as well. In '98, Sölvi visited Buenos Aires, Argentina. There, he was introduced to "a football [soccer] fanatic culture", as Sölvi put it. They called Xeneizes, and Sölvi was surprised at how much energy the people had. It influenced him a lot, which gave the songs a lot of energy. Because of that, Sölvi decided to dedicate the album to those people by naming the album Xeneizes. One of the songs on the album is also called Xeneizes. For more info on the Xeneizes, go to http://www.bocajuniors.com/.
In 2001, Sölvi and Hössi put together a soundtrack to a theatre production in Iceland called Kristnihald undir jökli. It's an instrumental album of industrial style music, and the album is completely in Icelandic.
On April 9th of 2002, Quarashi's debut album in America, Jinx, was in stores. Since not many people in America know of Quarashi at this point, the sales haven't gone as well as the previous albums. Many of the fans of Quarashi, however, are doing a lot to promote the band, which is helping a lot. People have bought multiple copies of Jinx to pass out to people, and the band has made it clear how much they respect that.
Still living in Reykjavik, the guys do their best to keep their lives the same as always, despite the hectic schedules they now have after bringing their music to America.
The style of Quarashi's music is often compared with the earlier work of the Beastie Boys. They rap, but unlike normal hip-hop, there is an energetic mix of guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, and other instruments.
One amazing achievement by the guys of Quarashi was to write and record the first rap song ever in the Icelandic language, "Tarfur". Tarfur, meaning "bull" in Icelandic, was first released on Xeneizes, but was remixed for Jinx. "There wasn't any model for rapping in Icelandic, so we had to figure it out for ourselves", says 23 year old Hössi, who wrote the lyrics for Tarfur.
Even though Quarashi has pride in their heritage, they don't show it in their music as much as many other Icelandic bands such as Bjork and Sigur Ros does. Because of this, the media in Iceland has little appreciation towards Quarashi's work. After bringing their music to the US, however, Quarashi has been recognized and appreciated in both countries, along with many others.
Hössi, Sölvi, Ómar, and Steini started out at the bottom, but since 1996 when the band was put together, they have come a long way. To help promote Quarashi, you can join the Digital Street Team, where you can get free sample CD's and stickers to pass out. You can also join Quarashi's Official Messageboard. There, you can talk with other fans, as well as the band members themselves. You can find links to both of these sites at http://www.quarashi.net/.
Quarashi's Real Site
The Maestro's Quarashi Page
An Unofficial Quarashi Page
Cdnow- to buy Jinx!
Message board to talk about Quarashi!
Send E-Mail to: quarashirules22@yahoo.com
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