Sæfari is the solo project of Atli, an Icelandic songwriter who returned to music after a 10-year break and released his debut album only a few months ago. In this episode of the Oktaves Podcast – Talks with Musicians, Atli shares the real story behind coming back, finishing what you started, and refusing to quit on yourself again.

We talk about his early years as a guitarist in bands, stepping away from music in his early 20s, and how life took over: kids, a full-time career in software engineering, and years of silence. But the calling never left. Three years ago he started writing again and finally brought his debut record into the world.

Atli breaks down what it took to move from “creative mode” into “release mode,” why promoting your own work can feel unnatural, and how he built a team around the project. He explains his collaboration with producer Siggi Sigurðsson (Hjálmar), how they shaped the sound while protecting emotion in the final mix, and how a music video turned into a full-blown filmmaking spark.

We also get into Iceland Airwaves, industry mindset battles, working with Liberty Music PR for Spotify, radio, and press campaigns, and what’s next: live shows, more marketing abroad, and hopefully gigs outside Iceland (even after breaking his pinky finger).

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Welcome to the Oktaves podcast🎙️ Talks with musicians! Where we uplift local musicians voices.

This podcast is about chatting about and sharing with each other tips and tricks on how to succeed in the music industry as an independent musician, with an emphasis on branding and marketing, and overall management, whether your goal is to stay forever independent or get label-ready. We are very passionate about breaking the cycle of gatekeeping in the industry, so we strive towards bringing you conversations where these layers of the onion will be peeled one by one.

We are also here to uplift and shed light on independent (or previously independent) musicians in our community, who are so kind to share their struggles, their wins, successes, their strategies, and advice or some secrets possibly to how they got there.

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