Of Monsters and Men
Icelandic folk-rock band
Of Monsters and Men is an Icelandic indie folk/rock band formed in Garðabær in 2010. It consists of lead singer and guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, singer and guitarist Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson, lead guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson.
The band has released four studio albums: My Head Is an Animal (2011), Beneath the Skin (2015), Fever Dream (2019), and All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade (2025). They achieved commercial success with their 2011 hit single "Little Talks", which reached the top 10 of the charts in several countries and no. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2010, Of Monsters and Men won the Músíktilraunir, an annual Battle of the Bands in Iceland. They won the European Border Breakers Awards in 2013.
History
2009–2010: Formation and early work
Of Monsters and Men was formed in 2010 when singer, guitarist, and pianist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, who originally performed solo under the name Songbird, asked friends Brynjar Leifsson (electric guitar) and Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson (backing vocals, melodica, glockenspiel) to help her perform. They were invited to play at Músíktilraunir, an annual music competition in Iceland, at which point Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson (backing vocals, melodica, glockenspiel, tambourine) joined the band. As a quartet, they won the competition.
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This entry incorporates text from “Of Monsters and Men” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.