Musician Ingibjörg Friðriksdóttir’s latest release Brotabrot explores the complex relationship between entertainment and incarceration, questioning the morality of the wildly popular true crime genre.
By fusing interviews with former prisoners with dance-appropriate electronic music, Ingibjörg (a.k.a. Inki) raises this question, revealing more about the entertainment we consume, especially our relationship with those incarcerated. Encourage critical thinking.
California roots
While a student at the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music in California, Ink joined as a producer on his first album, San Quentin Mixtape, released from behind bars in the United States. Working on this project opened her eyes to the world of incarceration and gave her the insights it most lacked.
“I think people like to tell their stories.”
“It was then that I became interested in the relationship that people who are not in prison have had with this world that they have never experienced or seen,” says Ink. “I was wondering about this relationship between entertainment and incarceration. It’s obviously important to have these stories heard, but it’s a complicated relationship because people make money from their stories.”
Drawing on her background in the San Quentin project, Inki decided to create her own art to understand this complex relationship. “Thus, I came up with the idea to create a hit her song that fuses these two elements of her dance. It’s fun music with a very dramatic story from prison,” she said. I will explain.
storytelling
Inki interviewed several former inmates of Iceland’s women’s prison. However, when prisons operated, few women were incarcerated, so men were often placed in women’s prisons as well.Inki used her media outlets, friends, family and social media, to interview I found someone to
“When an artist comes to someone from the government or the prison system, it gives it a different vibe,” says Ink. I knew I had to ask.”
Inki was able to find several ex-convicts willing to share their stories for the project.
“I think people like to tell their stories,” Ink said when asked why people are willing to be on the project.
juxtaposition abundance
The album is a slow burn, ending with a big dance hit titled “Love of my life, bad guy.” The album titles are all quotes from interviews used in songs, most telling their own short stories.
“A lot of people go out dancing to forget,” Ink says. “I like to think that people on the dance floor are dancing to forget the true story of prison.”
“Incarceration is important for everyone.”
Listening to the album leaves me feeling a little emotionally uncomfortable. You are doubly enchanted. Initially, I enjoy listening to electronic music and having a good time. Then, listening to the interviews on top of that, I feel overjoyed and guilty, but I am drawn into the story that is handed down.
fill the gap
It is very easy to distance yourself from prison and assume that you will never be jailed. However, Inki recognizes the fallacy of this assumption.
“People feel alienated by the possibility of being in prison or knowing someone in that position,” says Inki.
In her interview, Inki focused on the more mundane aspects of incarceration, including smells, time (or lack thereof) outdoors, and other aspects of everyday life. I think it makes it easier to relate to the story and, as a result, removes assumptions.
“Incarceration is relevant for everyone,” says Ink. “How we as a society decide to punish people should be relevant to everyone.”
Through this project and the San Quentin project, Inki became close to some of the people he interviewed and worked with.
“By doing this project, you’re asking people to trust your story, so you have to trust them,” Ink says of working with ex-convicts.
Advance
Inki is already working on her next project ‘Thoughts Midsentence’, the album she is producing and singing on, and the first single ‘Playing with fire’ will be released on September 30th. For the first time we can hear Inki working on her songwriting in her own voice.
Brotabrot can be heard on Spotify.
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