Here’s the next installment of My First Time, the interview series that gives a little peek into the musical firsts of some bands I’ve been crushing on as of late. This one comes to us from Iceland’s Benni Hemm Hemm, creator of some fine pop tunes in the vein of Jens Lekman and I’m From Barcelona.

MP3: Benni Hemm Hemm – I Can Love You In A Wheelchair

My First Time …with Benni Hemm Hemm

First record you bought
I guess that was the album from the La Bamba movie. Man I loved that song, and I still think it´s cool.

First record that changed your life
That would either be a cassette release of Beethoven´s 5th symphony, or Abbey Road by the Beatles. But thinking harder I guess Nevermind by Nirvana changed my life in a more dramatic way. Those were dramatic times…

First concert that blew you away
I guess that the first Sigur Rós shows were the first shows to blow my mind out of my head.

First time playing live
I’ve been playing music for people since I was 6 years old. But the first time I was on stage with a band of my own I was maybe 13 or 14 years old, playing loud rock n´ roll music on my electric guitar. The first time was probably at my school.

First tour
My first real tour was with Benni Hemm Hemm in the spring of 2007. We drove around Europe in a van and had great fun. I expected it to be a huge headache to be responsible for a tour like that, but we had no problems. And my wife was pregnant with our son, so I at every moment I expected to have to take the next flight back to Iceland.

First instrument you learned and/or first piece of equipment you loved
I started playing the violin when I was 6. Then I played the piano, and the classical guitar after that. I didn´t love my violin very much, but all other instruments I´ve loved very much. But that has nothing to do with the violin, just the fact that I sucked big time at playing it…and I was 6 years old….

First band you were a part of
Mósaík was my first band. We played at my school and at the annual Icelandic band competition. We were very young and recorded one song that was released on a compilation focusing on the Icelandic underground. It was a very special time in the scene in Reykjavík.

First time getting press and/or being interviewed
I just found a magazine where Mósaík is being interviewed. I was never told about the interview, but two of the girls in the band talked to the journalist and talked about what I was thinking about this and that, and then I just saw it when it was printed. But I was on the photo! I don´t know when was the first time I did an interview. Probably when I was playing with Mósaík or when I was playing drums with the rap band called Mutherf*ckers in Tha House.

First song you wrote and/or recorded
The first song I can remember is “Confused Mind,” by my band Mósaík. I´m not going to tell you how the lyrics went… But the first song I recorded was the Mósaík song Sjáandi, on the mentioned compilation.

First awesome thing that happened solely because you were in a band
I´m very good at ignoring all the stupid things that come with being in a band. That maybe sounds stupid, but it kept me away from trouble when I was a kid and has worked ever since… But awesome things…I’ve met great people. I would say meeting Jón Baldvin and Bryndís Schram could be an answer to that question.

First reactions from your family when you played them your music
My family used to hate the music I wrote with my bands. They loved my piano playing, but I was in loud rock bands and playing drums in a band called Mutherf*ckers in tha house and I played guitar in a band called Rúnk (which can be translated as masturbation). So that used to be the situation. But after I started writing the Benni Hemm Hemm songs and playing with the band and so on everything has been smooth and everyone happy.

First musical obsession (band, song, singer, genre or otherwise)
That would probably be Guns n´ Roses. And Led Zeppelin. I used to sit in my room practicing guitar solos….man that was fun.