Moff & Tarkin Interview: Icelandic Roots, Wonky Grooves & Not Taking Things Too Seriously

There’s something wonderfully slippery about Moff & Tarkin. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the groove, Magnús Felix throws in a strange synth line, a dusty sample, a warped vocal or some completely unexpected rhythmic detour. It’s house music, sure, but house music with its shoelaces tied together.

Originally from Reykjavík and now based in Vienna, Felix has carved out a distinctive space across labels including Studio Barnhus, Dirtcrew and Fortunea Records. His tracks are catchy without being obvious, club ready without feeling overly polished, and often just weird enough to keep things interesting. Basically, the kind of music that makes sense at 3AM, preferably with the lights down and nobody asking too many questions.

His latest Sit Down To EP, lands on Fortunea Records as the label’s 41st release and features four more examples of Felix’s wonderfully unpredictable approach. There are chunky grooves, hypnotic tribal elements, funky electro, soulful samples and a trip into dubby deep house, with the whole thing capped at just 200 vinyl copies and no repress.

We caught up with Moff & Tarkin to talk Iceland, Vienna, samples, strange arpeggios, accidental anthems, digging for weird sounds and the fine art of making house music that refuses to behave itself.

Q&A With Moff & Tarkin

1. Let’s start with the obvious one: who or what the hell is Moff & Tarkin? Where did the name come from, and does the alias have a personality of its own when you’re making music?

Great question, Grand Moff Tarkin is a Star Wars character from episode 4. I don’t really know why I chose Moff & Tarkin, my friends were calling themselves similar things and I guess I found it cool.

In some notorious Icelandic chat groups I’m known as “Moffarinn” which translates to The Moff, I guess The Moff has a bit of a cooler attitude than Magnus, so I hope he sometimes arrives when I make music.

2. You’re Icelandic but now living in Vienna. Iceland and Austria aren’t exactly next door neighbours, musically or geographically. What did each place give you that the other couldn’t?

One great thing about not living in Iceland is that I do not have to make up some story about how Icelandic nature influences my music. Don’t get me wrong I love Icelandic nature and driving under Eyjafjöll when the clouds are coming over them spawns some sorts of feelings within me that I cannot handle, but I don’t think that appears anywhere in my music. 

There is something about Vienna that appeals to me, this central European intellectual irony, I’m not quite smart enough to understand it but I can feel it and I think that mix with the Icelandic carelessness can be felt in my music.

3. There’s a slightly mischievous quality to your music. Do you ever deliberately think, “This is probably too weird,” and then decide that’s exactly why you should keep it?

I don’t know. My music making is an infinite struggle of trying to make something that is not house music, having it ending up as house music and then trying to make up for it by adding some shenanigans to it. Or at least it feels like that. 

4. The new EP opens with a track connected to Iceland’s Independence Day, and you’ve jokingly floated the idea of it becoming an unofficial Icelandic anthem. If Iceland actually adopted one of your tracks as its national anthem, which one would you choose, and what would the ceremony sound like?

I think Skutla from my Big Mango Bangers EP. I remember I sampled some hippos in that one, so I guess we would have to import those to Iceland and have them play live. I would probably have to make a radio edit?

5. You have a real knack for making samples feel slightly wonky rather than simply nostalgic. When you find a great sample, do you tend to know immediately what you’re going to do with it, or is the fun in completely mangling it and seeing what survives?

I use samples a lot and often they are just used as a starting point and then end up being removed from the track. So no, it’s very seldom that I know what I’m going to do. But very often I listen to songs and know there is something in this song that I am going to dig out and make a track out of.

6. Split The Difference sounds like it wandered into the studio from a different record entirely. Funky electro, soulful vocals and an arpeggio that sounds like it might escape at any moment. Are you naturally drawn to those moments where a track starts doing something you didn’t originally plan?

Now when you say it, I agree it sounds a bit off. That track came exactly out of the situation I described above. I was listening to a song for weeks and dancing while I did the dishes and I wanted to see if I could make something else out of that track. I have always liked the beats in electro songs. They feel so flashy and neat,  but most the other elements associated with that genre don’t really appeal to me. So I wanted to try to make my own twist to the genre and Split The Difference was the outcome(still not sure if it’s fast enough?)

7. Your music sits somewhere between house, disco, electro, techno and dub, but never seems particularly interested in picking a lane. Do genre boundaries help you at all, or are they mostly useful for DJs trying to work out which record to play next?

My favourite djs don’t really stick to genres and I don’t often enjoy djs sets that focus too much on one genre. That being said, I think jumping between genres whether you are making a record or djing, can be very tricky and I am nowhere near mastering it, but I aspire to do so, there is something sexy about mixing Stevie Wonder into Marcel Dettman.

8. You’ve released on some pretty interesting labels, including Studio Barnhus, Dirtcrew and Fortunea. What makes you trust a label with your music? And how much of a say do you want a label to have once the tracks leave your hard drive?

I think the output of those labels and the people behind them. I consider most of my tracks to be WIP until they have been pressed on vinyl so I’m always very open for feedback. I misunderstand the world so often that it’s great to have other people trying to help me understand it.

9. What’s currently sitting around your studio or record collection that has you excited? It could be a record, a piece of gear, an old sample pack, a weird YouTube discovery, or something completely unrelated to music.

I just bought a Devious Pocket from Nap which is pretty neat. It’s a small box that reads your USB and you can use a timecode vinyl to control it. It also looks way better than a CDJ in your living room so I really like it. 

10. Finally, if Moff & Tarkin had to spend one night in a club with an unlimited bar tab and complete control of the soundsystem, what happens? What are you playing, who are you hoping turns up, and at what point does everything inevitably get weird?

In Iceland, alcohol is expensive at bars so you always start with a home party where you drink your own booze and then you take a cab downtown. I know I’m changing the premise a bit but this question got me thinking of parties like this. So back to the party mostly friends, many of them brought records as well and maybe like 2-3 people that I don’t know that well but they seem nice, you guys seem nice so you are also there.

Since the plan is to go downtown at some point in the party, every song starts being the last song before we leave right? So like “let me just play this one and then we leave”. That means we will have a lot of great songs that could be fitting as like ending songs, but still they are not, since the evening is just getting started and every one is excited.

I think foreplay is the most important thing we have in life and I don’t mean foreplay as in sex, I mean like the way a Thursday night is a foreplay for the weekend. The excitement for an event is often way more fun than the actual event itself, that’s why I really enjoy warmup sets. And a warmup party where  you get to play records with your friends. The only way that could get better is if someone would mix Stevie Wonder into Marcel Dettman.