Siggi Björns

Siggi Björns grew up as a third child of five in a small fishing village called Flateyri, up in the Icelandic westfjords. His father was a captain on a fishing boat and his mother worked in the local fish factory all her life, a typical fishing village background. As all the other boys there, Siggi started about ten years old to work in the fish factory and on the fishing boats. That was nothing unusual for boys in Icelandic villages like Flateyri to do. That came to be Siggi’s life more or less until he reached thirty, working around Iceland, travelling to places along the coast for seasonal fishing as well as staying on and off in Flateyri.  

When Siggi was about thirteen his older brother gave him a guitar and from then on “that thing” was never far off. Listening to some old folk-blues-storytelling recordings like Leadbellys and Big Bill Broonzys music, plus all the popular Icelandic stuff, Siggi was always there to play in parties and gatherings wherever he was at the time. And with that bunch of hard working, drinking and hard living people there were some spectacular parties to go trough…no kids stuff that!  

On and off, Siggi played with some local bands for shorter periods of time but never took that too seriously, a bit of fun it was….  

1984, Siggi went back to Flateyri to stay (or so he thought) and to clean up his act. He went on working for the longline boats and then on a trawler. From then on he started to play and entertain in pubs during his time off from the trawler, more for fun than other reasons, and still not taking it too seriously, as before, a bit of weekend fun and extra money in his pocket. Before to long he became sought after for his performances and even got gigs in Denmark…hmm… (that was never the plan… since he didn´t have a plan). In the autumn of 1988 Siggi thought it could be fun to live off the music for one year and see places, then go back to the “normal” life of being fisherman having done something else. He asked the captain for one year off from the trawler and got that. With no particular plan, Siggi bought a ticket to take him around the world, packed his suitcase, his guitar and took off. To make a long story short he found himself playing in places like New Zealand, Australia, Fiji Islands, Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and lots more. Having a great time and earning some money along the way. Siggi’s talent to connect with his audience, his big husky voice and his energy made him welcome back to all the places he played. He´d made his last trip on a trawler, that was clear to most people other than Siggi himself. He thought for a long time that this would be over soon and that he would be back to the cold waters of Iceland again, but that hasn’t happen yet. (A sort of a Fisherman on holiday).  

Siggi started writing his own songs and soon recording and releasing them. His first album with his own material was released in 1994 in Iceland “Bisinn á Trindad” it was called. Funny enough, that´s the only album of his that is completely in Icelandic, all the others are in English. Besides some live recordings of all kinds of stuff he has made, the cds have kept coming on a regular basis. “Bluesy on Both Sides”, an album recorded in Iceland and New Zealand, “Roads” recorded in Denmark, “Patches”, a cd he made with his friend and longtime partner and musical influence, the Englishman, Keith Hopcroft, then “ Stories” recorded in Flateyri, Iceland. There, Siggi goes back to his roots, so to say, and uses local musicians from his home-village, on the album, and the songs are partly about life in such a village as Flateyri. From 1993 he has been co-writing songs with the Danish musician “Esben Bøgh” and their songs appear on every cd that Siggi has made since he met Esben in Århus, Denmark. Esben is a well known folkmusician and storyteller in Denmark and the two of them, or with others, have done several projects.  

Siggi Björns lived in Denmark from 1992 to 2004 and is now living in Berlin, Germany and constantly on the road. Things have developed in such a way that Siggi performs two separated solo programs, plus other projects.  

STORIES  
A story-telling setup. Siggi tells stories from walks of life, from Iceland and other places. All of Siggis songs are about real people, real happenings of good and bad, happy and sad. His own life, of people he has met, and situations that Siggi has come across on his journey through live. Siggi has a way of telling the saddest of stories in his humorous way and capture the audience like few others can. With his stories, he takes his audience on a trip to Iceland, to his little village and on to the roads of a musicians life. Acompanied with his fingerstyle guitarplaying and the rough, husky voice, Siggi makes performances in his own way to be remembered.  
Every now and then he is joined by Olavi Korre fro Estland, who plays instruments as Buzuki, Violin, Mandolin, Lyra and more instruments he pulls out of his magic bag.  
That puts a whole new flavour to the whole thing.  

THE BORNHOLM PROGRAM  
The “other” program is a mix of his own songwritings and some oldies, aimed to entertain people in a noisy sort of a way, that is called “The Bornholm program” named so because Siggi has been playing shows in the Danish Island Bornholm, in the Baltic sea, since 1990 and has his own status in that context, appearing in tourist books over the island as a “have to see” thing when one is on a holiday there. For the last few years Siggi has been playing only one place “exclusively” there, “BakkaRøgeriet”, four shows a week, two months a year, always for a full house.