Svavar Knútur is one of Iceland’s most respected singer-songwriters, known for deeply human songs that explore grief, healing, love, and service. In this episode of the Oktaves Podcast – Talks with Musicians, Svavar reflects on a 15-year musical journey that began as a way to survive personal loss and gradually became a lifelong devotion to music as healing work.This conversation moves through songwriting as a cartographer’s journey through grief, why Svavar refuses to write blame-driven breakup songs, and how music can serve both the artist and the listener. He speaks openly about collaboration, ego, service over domination, and how one song unexpectedly became a lifeline for listeners recovering from eating disorders.The episode also dives into unconventional recording techniques, creative constraints, and Svavar’s belief that artists last longer when they build community rather than chase status. This is a rare, reflective conversation about what it actually means to live in service of music.This episode is emotionally grounded, quietly radical, and deeply relevant for musicians navigating purpose, longevity, and meaning in their work.

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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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