the musician
November 23rd, 2003
Chico Rockstar is the musical alias of Arnþór Snær, better known to his inner circle as Addi.
His involvement with electronically centered music began in the early nineties when, at the tender age of 13, he was exposed to the quickly evolving sounds of Acid House and Hardcore. A need to become more active with the music prompted him to get turntables and start dj’ing what then had become drum and bass, and start mucking about with crude music composing software.
In 1996 he, along with long time friend Eldar, started a drum and bass radio show called “Above the cloudz” which aired on Iceland’s number one alternative music station: “Radio X”. Club nights promoted by the pair quickly followed where they would dj themselves as well as getting dj’s and artists from the UK and various other countries to perform. This would later evolve into the breakbeat.is [www.breakbeat.is] “franchise”, which today is still going strong although Addi’s involvement is limited to coming to a breakbeat.is club night every now and then to catch up with old friends.
Even though having been deeply involved in the drum and bass culture during the later half of the nineties, in 1998 he teamed up with Jón Atli Jónason in a musical project dubbed “Hassbræður”, a triphop influenced project. Although a short lived project, they left their mark on the Sigur Rós remix album “Von Brigði” with their remix of the track “Hún Jörð”
At the turn of the millenium Addi had been getting disillusioned with drum and bass, feeling it had become stagnant and lacking in emotional content and experimental edge. In 2001 after spending a little under a year exploring new directions musically he found his voice, as well as getting into a creative partnership with the vocalist Augusta. That partnership first got noticed when the track Anthem made the rounds to the charts on an alternative radio station in Iceland called “Muzik”.
Another partnership was in the works as well, with Kharis O’Connell better known as Remote Worker, who releases on his own label CBB [Central Breakbeat Bionomics]. CBB became a home for Chico Rockstar when he released 3 tracks along with Apparat, Frank Murder and Modeselektor, on the CBB compilation “Hive”.
His music is not bound to a specific genre, but has elements of electronica, breakbeat and ambient in it and has been described as “original electronic angles on drums and harmonies the natives of the island execute so brilliantly”.
