Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir


Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir is an Icelandic musician. She is the lead vocalist and guitarist, along with Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson, of the Icelandic indie folk band Of Monsters and Men.

Biography

Nanna was raised in Garður, a town in southwestern Iceland. As a youth, Nanna attended music school. Before Of Monsters and Men had been established, Nanna had a solo musical project called Songbird, she wrote and performed music on open mic nights around Reykjavik and was a video store clerk.

Of Monsters and Men

Since expanding her Songbird phase, Nanna recruited five musicians, that eventually became Of Monsters and Men in 2010 – Brynjar Leifsson, Ragnar Þórhallsson, Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, Árni Guðjónsson, and Kristján Páll Kristjánsson. After a week of working together, they won the annual music competition Músíktilraunir.
They soon released their debut studio album My Head Is an Animal in late 2011. The album charted in multiple regions and the band gained popularity worldwide. After the Seattle radio station KEXP broadcast a performance from Ragnar's living room, the band went viral. The album reached No.1 in Australia, Iceland and Ireland and No.1 on the U.S. Rock and Alternative charts. The band was tapped to write a song for the film and then a single Dirty Paws that was used in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 18 months after its release. The song "I of the Storm" was included in the USA television series "Falling Water".
They released three singles called "Little Talks", "Mountain Sound", and "King and Lionheart" and music videos for each. The videos received several million views on YouTube, the one for "Little Talks" having the most views.
In addition to My Head is an Animal, the band released two other albums: Beneath the Skin in 2015 and Fever Dream in 2019 of which they performed on Jimmy Kimmel and Ellen with their first single of the latest album, “Alligator”. For “Fever Dream,” they released three music videos, “Alligator”, “Wild Roses”, and “Wars.”

Artistry

Nanna cites some of her favorite musicians/influences as Gayngs, Lianne La Havas, Arcade Fire, Feist, and Justin Vernon, of the alt-folk band Bon Iver. She has said she would love to collaborate with Bon Iver.