Sigur Rós bassist Georg Hólm has admitted that he considered leaving Iceland after the band was accused of tax evasion.

The Icelandic government accused the band of of evading 151m króna (£840,000) of tax between 2010 and 2014. Blaming an accounting error, they repaid the debt plus interest, but then faced a second prosecution for the same offence in 2020, which froze their assets. They have since been acquitted.

At a similar time, their drummer Orri Páll Dýrason left the band following allegations of sexual misconduct by artist Megan Boyd, which he has consistently denied.

“I really did feel like I can’t live in this sort of society,” Hólm told The Guardian. “I felt violated, basically. It was a dark period of time for all of us. It was scarring, you know. But then you realise that things just happen and it doesn’t really matter where you are. I have come to the conclusion that I love living in Iceland.”

He suggested elsewhere in the interview that the second prosecution was “nobody’s fault really”, but later wondered if the government was trying to make them “the poster boys of something”.

“There’s so much energy and time that goes into it that could be spent on beautiful things. You get angry thinking about it,” added frontman Jónsi. 

Jonsi also emphasised that he doesn’t see the band parting ways. “You have more outlets but you always love the band. It’s been part of your DNA for so long, so you don’t want to kick it to the kerb,” he reasoned. “I love Sigur Rós and I love what we have created.”

The band – completed by multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson who rejoined after leaving the band in 2012 – surprise-released a new album, ‘ÁTTA’, yesterday (June 16), marking their first full-length in 10 years.

In a four-star review, NME wrote: ‘ÁTTA’ is at least the band’s best album since 2005’s monolithic ‘Takk’ made them a household name, and at most a record that gives Sigur Rós plenty more reason to exist in adding some pure and natural soul to this cold and unfeeling world.

Sigur Rós performed at Meltdown Festival last night alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra, airing new material, deep cuts and rarities.