Of Monsters and Men are an Icelandic indie folk/rock band formed in Reykjavik in 2010. The members are lead singer and guitaristNanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir, singer and guitarist Ragnar ‘Raggi’ Portallsson, lead guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson. The band won the Musiktilraunir in 2010, an annual battle of the bands competition in Iceland.
Following Músiktilraunir, the quartet added two more members, Árni (accordion/keys, backing vocals) and Kristján (bass, backing vocals), and continued to tour venues in Iceland and work on new songs. They were invited to perform at the 2010 Iceland Airwaves festival, and it is there that the Seattle-based radio station KEXP recorded the band performing “Little Talks” from a living room session. The band signed with Record Records in February 2011 for the release of their debut album in Iceland. In March 2011, they went to Studio Sýrland in Reykjavík to record and produce their debut album. In August 2011, Philadelphia’s Radio 104.5 began playing “Little Talks” and propelled the band to nationwide popularity. Their debut album My Head Is An Animal was released in Iceland in September 2011 with both it and “Little Talks” hitting No. 1.
The band performed at the Newport Folk Festival, on 29 July 2012. They have toured in several European countries. Of Monsters and Men also appeared 5 October 2012, on the new PBS music show Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders, performing “Mountain Sound”. Later Árni Guðjónsson left the band to go back to school. The band performed “Little Talks” and “Mountain Sound” on Saturday Night Live on 4 May 2013. Their song “Dirty Paws”, from which the title of the album originated, was featured in a trailer for the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the iPhone 5 introduction video released in September 2012.
The band began working on a new album in August 2013. In an interview published on 6 May 2014, Nanna stated that the album was forthcoming, but that the band had not decided on a release date yet. They officially began recording on 3 November 2014. At a listening session in February 2015, the band announced that their yet to be named second studio album would release later in the year. The band posted a teaser video on their site for the album’s first single, “Crystals”. It was released in March 2015 along with the track list and other details about their upcoming album Beneath the Skin, set to be released in June.
The track “Thousand Eyes” was featured heavily in the preseason advertising for the series Jessica Jones. The band appeared in a cameo in two episodes of Game of Thrones as stage musicians. In October 2017, it was announced that the band had hit one billion streams on Spotify, becoming the first Icelandic band to do so.
In May 2019, the band released their first single titled “Alligator” from their third album Fever Dream, released on in July. In July 2019, the band released the track “Wild Roses”. A week later they released their latest single, “Wars”, as a lyric video on their YouTube channel along with their entire album. In September 2020, the band unveiled the standalone single “Visitor”.
