Here I am, back again with some lyric analysis!

I think that it’s valid to interpret a song to have whatever meaning it evokes for you personally - but that it’s also useful, or at least interesting, to take a close look at what the lyrics say and what they imply if taken to be a reasonably literal whole, which will probably give the best possible insight when it comes to speculating on what the original intention behind the lyrics was, whether you then choose to make that guide your personal interpretation of the song or not. In this analysis, when I speak of ‘Klemens’, I’m referring to Klemens’ character, the narrator of the song, not to actual real-life Klemens, unless otherwise stated.

Content warning for discussion of sexual assault below.



What is Klámstrákur?

“Klámstrákur” is an unreleased song by Hatari, which you should listen to if you haven’t because it’s good and features some excellent Klemens. I’ve transcribed the lyrics and translated them into English to my best ability here. As Matthías writes the lyrics for Hatari, the lyrics can be presumed to be written by him, even though Klemens performs the song. You should read the lyrics in full to follow the rest of this post!

“Klámstrákur” is a favorite among Hatari fans, largely for Klemens’ seductive, emotional vocals and the way that, during live performances, Matthías will point into the audience, often specifically at people who are recording the song on their phones, and mercilessly growl “Þú ert klámstrákur” at them, which translates to “You’re a porn boy.”



So what is it about?

Well. The lyrics aren’t super explicit about what’s going on. But we can definitely glean a few things.

Klemens is unwell

In the first verse of the song, Klemens sings about an illness that he seems to be afflicted with - he’s shivering, coughing up stuff, getting weak. Klemens at least believes that he’s dying, but the doctors he’s seen about it are dismissive.

There are a couple of possible interpretations of this. The most straightforward is that Klemens is right: he really is dying, but the doctors aren’t listening to him. This probably suggests that he’s afflicted with a life-threatening condition of some kind, but dismissed because of social stigma against his condition or who he is generally.

It’s also possible that he only believes that he’s dying, but he’s really not, and that’s why the doctors are dismissive. In this case, what the verse is getting at is not physical illness, but mental: Klemens is so miserable and traumatized that he imagines he’s dying, even though he perhaps only has a common, non-life-threatening illness. (He probably has some kind of illness; the shivering could be psychological, but the specific reference to coughing up more as opposed to just coughing more is genuinely pretty worrying.)

Klemens is mentally unwell

Even if he’s really dying of a physical illness, Klemens is clearly not okay mentally either. He describes having a weak self-image, being an anxious wreck (in Icelandic he says kvíðasjúklingur, or literally ‘anxiety patient’, though it doesn’t sound that clinical), crying, lying alone unable to sleep. Moreover, “Sometimes I lie alone / utterly lonely / tied down, insomniac / a sticky boy” is kind of ambiguous (“tied down” suggests this is while engaged in a BDSM scene, but “insomniac” kind of suggests he’s in bed and supposed to be sleeping), but it makes me imagine him kind of lying there catatonic, not even cleaning himself. All in all, he’s in a poor state, suffering anxiety/depression.



Klemens is engaged in some kind of sex work



I say this mainly because of “I’ll do anything that sells”. Given the whole ‘porn boy’ thing, he may literally mean that he’s a pornographic model, or it may be less literal. Either way it seems pretty clear he’s engaging in sexual acts for money.

Klemens has been made to do things he’s not comfortable with, but blames himself



Okay. Let’s not kid ourselves; this is my big thesis here. This is the bit I don’t really see people talking about.

Let’s take a look at these lines:

Vomiting, crying, whining

I’m a mess

Easily hurt

I’m that type, a total prude making a scene

Klemens described himself as horny and doing anything that sells earlier in the song. So what’s this “total prude making a scene” thing about? Well, to me it’s pretty clear that he tried to refuse to do something, but was then convinced - by his clients, or simply by himself - that he was being a prude, that he was making a scene about nothing. And he bought it. He thinks he’s that type, an easily hurt mess, one who’s whining. He’s fine, right? He’s a horny little guy, isn’t he? A porn boy, a bad boy? He wants this, doesn’t he? Only some kind of spoiled creature would be complaining.

I think it’s pretty well implied that the Klemens character has suffered one kind of sexual assault or another here, but has convinced himself that wasn’t what happened, that he was making a big deal out of nothing, that he deserved it. He is a traumatized victim drowning in his own self-loathing, and this is probably a large part of why he has anxiety and finds himself crying uncontrollably and unable to sleep.



Matthías thinks he’s disgusting and despicable

So who exactly is Matthías in this song? I see three main possibilities here.

The first is that Matthías represents Klemens’ abusers, who personally feel nothing but contempt for him as a sex worker. If he has a physical illness, given the rest of the song, it’s probably sexually transmitted - very possibly AIDS - and they think it makes him disgusting.



The second is that Matthías represents society as a whole. There’s a huge amount of stigma against sex work, and especially during the AIDS crisis back in the 80s, it was hugely stigmatized as well. Society considers him disgusting and refuses to see him as a human being. This would also explain the doctors, by the way; I think it’s pretty likely he is meant to have AIDS regardless of who Matthías represents.



The third possibility is that Matthías represents Klemens’ own self-loathing. He thinks he’s disgusting and repulsive, and just has a constant angry voice of judgement in his head reminding him that he’s a porn boy, despicable, a disgusting brat, the lowest of the low.

Perhaps he’s a bit of all three.

Klemens needs all of the hugs

I think I’ve made my case.

Okay, now I feel weird about being turned on by that song.

That’s a fair reaction. I think Hatari deliberately present the song in a way that’s seductive and suggestive while the lyrics are positively chilling and really anything but sexy, probably because the Klemens character has persuaded himself that this is all pretty sexy. You can appreciate the sensuality of actual-Klemens’ performance while aware that the fiction of the song describes something deeply messed up. I suspect that’s kind of the reaction that they’re going for.

To me, the song is about [x], though.

And that’s cool! Songs can be about many things at the same time, with a metaphorical layer as well as a literal layer, and even if it’s not what the author was actually thinking about while writing it, each listener brings their own experiences to the table and can find meaning in a song that the author didn’t even know was there!

But is it really about Klemens selling himself to act sexual on stage even though he doesn’t really want to?

Almost definitely not, since the song is 1) almost definitely not written by Klemens, 2) significant portions of the song don’t make any sense in that light, 3) I’m pretty sure Klámstrákur predates Hatari being famous or known for sexiness enough to feel any kind of pressure to put on a sexy show for the audience, and 4) have you seen Klemens, he really goes above and beyond what anyone would expect of him on stage, there is obviously such a thing as being in denial but if that were the case he wouldn’t be singing a very self-aware song about how much he actually hates doing this. While different interpretations of what it’s about are valid, I personally think it’s a bit tasteless to advance interpretations of what the intention behind it is that baselessly posit edgy things about the guys’ personal lives.

