In an industry that thrives on tradition and rebellion in equal measure, a long-standing anti-tradition persists: musicians venturing to the fringes of civilization to unearth new sounds. Throughout music history, many have turned their backs on the polished perfection of Nashville, L.A., and New York recording studios in favor of raw, elemental spaces—like the fabled Caribou Ranch in Colorado or Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, where music was born “in the mud.” Now, pushing the frontier of this renegade tradition is Flóki Studios, situated 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle in Iceland’s wild Flókadalur Valley, near Eleven’s Deplar Farm.
“We surfed in a blizzard right outside the studio. It wasn’t planned as a team-building exercise, but that’s exactly what it became.”
