JÓNSI FINDS HIS CHEMISTRY

In this intimate and inviting chat with Buds Digest, the Promethean and multi-sensory artist lets us linger in his laboratory, sharing his passion for perfuming, tips on his favorite nootropics and how weed can completely change music. Read the interview below.

Photographer and Brooklyn’s brightest smile, Shawn Michael Jones captures Jónsi’s latest concoction, Exhale by Vona, putting the CBD line’s “chill factor” to the test in his beautiful, comedic and wry weekend journal. Click here to read his journal.

BUDS: Hi Jónsi, how are you?

JÓNSI: I'm good. Thank you. How are you?

BUDS: Great speaking with you. Thank you so much for your time. Where are you? It looks sunny there.

JÓNSI: It's cloudy actually, but I'm in LA. See the palm trees? 

BUDS: Is that where you're living full-time now? 

JÓNSI: Yeah, I've been here for like three years, maybe. It's usually really sunny and warm. I am puppy-sitting for my ex-boyfriend, actually. His name is Mooney… Mon.

BUDS: What a cute dog. Is he Alex's?

JÓNSI: Yeah, exactly.

BUDS: I had no idea he was a dog daddy. 

JÓNSI: I know, he just got him like three months ago. He’s really cute. 

BUDS: We love the new VONA CBD tincture, Exhale. Are you a cannabis user outside of the CBD line?

JÓNSI: I wasn’t when I was younger, in Iceland, because when I was growing up there was basically no cannabis. Teenagers didn't smoke cannabis, nobody had cannabis. It's changed a lot now, everybody smokes. It was kinda treated like a hard drug in Iceland. But when I came [to California] two years ago, because everything is kind of legal here, I've been experimenting with different strains and stuff like that. Actually, I really like it. It’s interesting that you get different takes, a different viewpoint on different things. When you listen to music, for example, it's very different, listening when you're a little bit high or sober. It's definitely interesting. Actually, it's been kind of helpful – or not helpful – just different. You get a different perspective on your music and how you write and how you listen to it. It's really interesting to me.

BUDS: Do you feel like you are using cannabis in your writing process now?

JÓNSI: Yeah. I mean, kind of, yeah. I'm working on another album and I'm listening to mixes back and it's so different when you're high. I like it but I probably wouldn't be doing that if I were still living in Iceland, definitely not. Moving to California definitely gave me a different perspective on cannabis and THC, in a really positive way. I like that everything is legalized, but also mastered out. You know exactly what you're getting and where from and what it is and how strong. I really like that. So, you can experiment, slowly and just try different things. It's fun.

BUDS: Yeah. It's come a long way since most people were buying it 20 years ago.

JÓNSI: I know, exactly. And you have no idea what you're smoking.

BUDS: Do you remember your first experiences with cannabis?

JÓNSI: When I was a teenager in Iceland, probably wasted on moonshine, then smoked some hashish or something. Actually, I remember being really drunk with my friends one time and we smoked something and got… I dunno how you say it in English, but you get all white — you'd be incredibly uncomfortable. So, I kind of haven't had a really positive experience with cannabis until I came here.

BUDS: I think some people might assume you've been using cannabis for a long time because your music is just so ethereal and out there.

JÓNSI: It is definitely interesting. I can definitely see now why people like smoking weed and listening to our music.

BUDS: Do you use CBD tinctures mostly?

JÓNSI: Mostly what I do here is smoke THC vapes. It's just something easier, but I'm trying to… My boyfriend also smokes flower, so I'm kinda getting a little bit more into that. I’ve been interested in hemp in general for, I don't know, 20, 25 years, when me and Alex were kind of really into raw foods. We were raw food vegans for a long time. And then we got really into hemp and hemp products and all the benefits of hemp, in general. I think that definitely opened my mind to CBD.

So, we did these Sigur Ros tinctures, Sleep and Awake and then I kind of really wanted to do an anti-anxiety tincture. I have a big smoothie every morning with a lot of good stuff in it; raw cacao beans, some Spirulina and all this stuff. Also, I was researching this anxiety stuff, L-Theanine. All the stuff that’s in the tincture, I take that almost every day in my smoothie.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jónsi shares his medicine drawer on camera.

BUDS: What I like about some of those, is they often change my olfactory sensations and smells. They bring back memories and can take me to different places. 

JÓNSI: I have this… piracetam, have you tried that? I just got it, so kind of just experimenting with it.

BUDS: I love how it's associated with memory – and the same with cannabis. I love using cannabis alongside some of these supplements that you have. I think they compliment each other really well.

JÓNSI: Yeah, exactly. You can get a really good… what's it called, when things enhance each other? 

BUDS: The entourage effect.

JÓNSI: Yeah, the entourage effect. You can get stuff for that, if you know what you're doing. Have you tried kratom?

BUDS: Yeah, for sure. I don’t love it. It's funny how each supplement really is unique to the individual. Some people get stronger effects, some people don't.

JÓNSI: It's really interesting because you can get it at all the smoke shops. I really didn't like it. It just made me too “anti” and kind of weird. It was too intense for me, but then I tried this Bali Kratom and that's amazing. It tricks your brain into thinking you're on opiates. You feel kind of amazing. You should definitely try that because it doesn't have a “pumped up” feeling. Some kratom is really intense. Only super chill… like crazy chill.

BUDS: I noticed that you've included some of those ingredients in the Exhale tincture. Is VONA going to start experimenting with producing other supplements?

JÓNSI: It's basically why we started VONA – we haven't actually [been able to do] what we want to do. I can't say now what it's going to be. We're really excited about that, though. 

BUDS: We just love the output from the collective. It's so you. I love the visualization of everything, putting it to music and now putting it into these tangible tinctures. It's almost like a multimedia output and it's really impressive. So we hope you do more.

JÓNSI: Yeah, definitely. I would love to do some kind of weed, THC stuff. That'd be really fun. 

BUDS: That would be so cool coming from your world. 

JÓNSI: I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to weed or THC. So, I buy a vape and it lasts me for months on end. I just take a little bit. Everything is so strong these days. So I would love to make “wimp vapes,” weak weed.

BUDS: There's a market for that!

JÓNSI: I know! For normal people who don’t smoke like crazy stoners. You can smoke, you know, a few puffs without getting fucking smacked in the face with THC. It’s so powerful these days. 

BUDS: All this indoor grown weed and they want to make it as strong as possible.

JÓNSI: It’s so crazy. 

BUDS: We love your newest album Shiver. I mean, every song on there's such a treat. Working with A.G. Cook, it almost takes it to a psychedelic place where some of your other albums don't. Were you using cannabis during that process?

JÓNSI: We did the album in a few places; Berlin for a month, something in London and some here in LA. So, no actually, probably some, but nothing crazy. The album I’m doing now has a lot of weed going on. Kind of floaty, spacey, kind of ambient soundscapes and stuff. So, it's definitely really weed-friendly, in a good way. I'm also here in my garage and I'm doing perfumery. It's hard to see, but…

BUDS: Wow, incredible.

JÓNSI: I have a scale here and my perfume is super messy.

BUDS: You’re doing all the combinations and experimenting yourself?

JÓNSI: I'm really deep into perfume and I've been doing that for, I don't know, 10 years. So, I'm still learning. That's an incredibly hard school. Perfume is like one of the hardest things I've done. There’s so many molecules out there and it's just hard to get knowledge because perfumery is a secretive world somehow. It's hard to get solid, good info, but it's fun. It's like endless experimentation, concocting new blends. It's usually a disappointment, but you learn a lot. Also, super interestingly, when I was doing this, talking about CBD, I started learning about terpenes. That's, like, so interesting. Basically, terpenes in THC and cannabis are exactly the same molecules I'm working with in perfumery.

BUDS: Wow. So interesting. What kind of these molecules are you drawn to? 

JÓNSI: My favorite, grass, like a grassroots, you know? That's kinda my favorite thing. I'm always trying to master that scent to make it pure. It’s kind of intense, but in a good way. That's a hard thing to master but I'm doing it though slowly; the bottomless pit of this appointment.

BUDS: But I'm sure it's a beautiful process.

JÓNSI: It is. It is a really beautiful process. It's really lonely process, because you're just by yourself in silence. But it's really fun. I love it. 

BUDS: I noticed you are also using reishi mushrooms in the VONA tincture. Do you like all kinds of mushrooms?

JÓNSI: Actually I just got into this mushroom coffee, not magic mushrooms, “Dose” or something? It's really hipstery looking.

BUDS: Oh, yeah. Very today.

JÓNSI: Yeah, very today. But it's got a lot of L-theanine and stuff, lion's mane and all that. Very interesting stuff. 

BUDS: You're making that into a drink in the morning?

JÓNSI: Yeah. It’s a mix of coffee and mushrooms. It pumps you up in a good way. But now I’m really starting to like roasting my own coffee. You roast them over fire on the stove top. 

BUDS: No way!

JÓNSI: It’s so fun. And it's so easy! You take raw coffee beans and roast them over the fire for 10 minutes and you get beautiful roasted beans. It's so nice. It's so good. I don't understand why I didn't do this earlier.

BUDS: I haven't seen a lot of people roasting their own coffee beans like that. It's very homestead-y.

JÓNSI: Probably part of “cottagecore” or something.

BUDS: You also have a solo gallery show coming up in New York, Obsidian, starting the 30th of October – what is that going to be like?

JÓNSI: The main installation is 200 speakers. It’s basically a sound installation that is also a sculpture. It also has scent involved…  

BUDS: Incredible – we can’t wait to see, hear and smell it.

Shawn’s CBD Journal

We asked photographer SHAWN MICHAEL JONES to keep a journal as he tried JONSI’s VONA CBD for the weekend. CLICK HERE TO READ IT.