GRÓA’s ‘Drop P’ Is Feral, Free, and Fearless
“A fiery, delightfully aggressive energy” – KEXP
“GRÓA have a natural unruly, unleashed fervour to them that rattles throughout their post-punk sensibilities” – The Line of Best Fit
“Like the best DIY shows, their performances make you feel like anything could happen” – Chicago Reader
Icelandic punk trio GRÓA return with their new album ‘Drop P’, a raucous, chaotic, and heartfelt record that perfectly captures the band’s DIY ethos and spirit; forever rooted in fun, creativity, and making music with your friends. Out now via One Little Independent Records, ‘Drop P’ collects nine feral and discordant anthems for the rebellious and unfiltered.
The writing of ‘Drop P’ took place partly in Reykjavík and partly in a house 40 minutes from Akureyri, where the trio isolated themselves for two weeks to write, experiment, cook, and just be together. “It gave a mixture of excitement and unexpectedness, the decisions we made were different from playing live,” they reflect. “Then there’s the calmness and the time you have that comes from more isolated spaces.” This dynamic between disruption and peace, spontaneity and precision, is at the heart of the album.
“When working so closely together in the writing process, on every detail in every song, it became a part of us, as well as the reason for each of the songs,” the band explains. “From improving and having fun, to talking seriously about life and music, the album’s core can be found in the cooperation and the circle of; friends → creativity → music → friends → creativity → music → and so on…”
It’s within this creative harmony that the album finds it’s absurd but assured voice. “Drop P is a safe space for us to explore, enjoy, rest and think,” they say. “We gave ourselves more time and worked with a bigger instrument arrangement than ever before, which was very exciting.” They also developed a mantra with which to live by, “snouge”. A fictional word and guiding force. “Drop P is snouge,” they declare. It's not just a made-up term, but a feeling, a space of artistic fluidity and a state of mind that welcomes strangeness and the unusual.
‘Drop P’ begins with the riotous but surprisingly philosophical punk poetry of ‘birdshit’, a spontaneous comic number about karma and the unexpected ways that nature can humble us. “The origin of the song came to us when we were walking around New York City two summers ago. It was a sunny day and we were in a very good mood. Suddenly a bird pooped a toxic green, big crap on Hrafnhildur’s cap. It took us all some time to realize what had just happened and Hrafnhildur was left with mixed feelings. And she sang and sang and sang ‘I got birdshit on my cap, one big fat splash, fat splash on my hat birdshit on my cap yeah.’ Then we figured it was all fair, because we used to eat a lot of chicken when we were younger. In the end shitting is the free bird’s revenge.”
