Jon Thor Sigurleifsson’s journey into the music world began in his teenage years, fueled by a passion for not just playing but mastering multiple instruments. Starting on guitar and later picking up bass, drums, and keyboards, Jon quickly became devoted to shredding, but his real ambition extended far beyond technical mastery. Influenced by bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Mr. Bungle, Necrophagist, and Dream Theater, he sought to create music where technical skill served a deeper purpose—a love for meaningful, complex composition.
After years of playing in bands in Iceland’s small but passionate metal scene, the constant search for the right bandmates and projects that could fully realize his vision proved to be a challenge. Following the breakup of his last band, Jon made a decisive shift: it was time to venture into a solo project. This journey culminated in the birth of Kilpréz, a project initially launched as a creative outlet during the pandemic, allowing Jon to dive into production, songwriting, and even returning to vocals after a hiatus.
With the release of Patron Saint of Lost Causes, Kilpréz quickly gained momentum within the online mathcore and prog communities, leading to collaborations on SPLIT.AM with Serling, hopscotchbattlescars, and Clifford Hoyt. His latest record, A Dirge for Dregs, showcases Jon’s evolving sound, blending poetic lyricism with a return to his philosophical and literary inspirations. The album features notable contributions from Caleb Marsters of Serling, Lou Kelly, and Pete Fraser of Down I Go, all bringing their unique styles to the project.
Now, as Jon continues to share A Dirge for Dregs with the world, he’s already laying the groundwork for the next chapter in Kilpréz’s journey, all while embracing the artistic freedom and collaboration that make this solo endeavor so distinct. Following the inclusion on Progotronics XLVI compilation, Jon dives deeper into his musical evolution, his drive to create something profound, and what lies ahead for Kilpréz.
Jon, you’ve been involved in music for many years, starting with guitar and expanding to various instruments. How has your journey shaped the sound of Kilpréz, and what does this project represent for you personally?
The journey has definitely had a significant impact on how I approach music. My first ever band was founded before I even had a guitar and yet it had already been decided I was gonna be the lead guitarist so ambition has never been an issue.
Early on though I remember finding it difficult to work with those who had too clear of a reference point as to what they wanted to sound like. That is, when people just wanted to sound like a specific band. I can’t count the amount of people who’d say “I wanna start a band that sounds like Lamb of God/In Flames” which would lose my interest immediately.
I was always more interested in the idea of allowing the music to find its own shape.
Through a few failed attempts at starting bands, I remember deciding to take some time to just work on my songwriting, my understanding of music theory and of course my technique.
All three definitely took a huge leap forward and one day I got a call from a couple members of that first band, asking if I’d be interested in starting a new one. We decided to write everything in jam sessions and just see what happened.
I grew a ton from being in that band but admittedly the jam session process was an incredibly slow way to get shit done and having to get new members into that vibe each time we lost someone was a hell of an undertaking.
On the other side of that band, I went the other direction and wrote an entire album to then recruit people to play that material, so we could get on stage and in the studio faster.
But you know what they say about best laid plans and as such we went through several line-up changes, the loss of a hard drive with recordings for the album and eventually I found myself burnt-the-fuck-out from trying to be the band leader, manager, driver as well as a member.
So what does that have to do with Kilpréz? Well, after all that back-and-forth, I really found myself needing a break and I started focusing more on my career, while doing some music stuff on my own. Eventually, when I wanted to get something going again, it was clear to me that I needed to face the shortcomings of the past head-on and as such, I felt I needed to focus on getting music recorded and released before anything else. That meant writing what came naturally at the time and focusing on getting out of a perfectionist mindset and into a mindset of “what does “good enough” look like?”
The name Kilpréz has a backstory from a previous side project. Can you share the significance of the name and what it represents for you now in this new context?
As anyone who has been in bands will know, getting the right members on board and keeping the ball rolling can be a huge pain in the ass. So in one of those past projects, Hreinn, the bassist of that project, now in a band called Kvelja, and I decided to start a side project aiming to get something “quick and dirty” done and released. It was supposed to be basic in terms of arrangements, even if it had some technical parts. Only one guitar, a bass, drums and the two of us splitting vocal duties between us.
Kilpréz got chosen as a name based on a silly inside joke that evolved into something we thought sounded cool. Initially it came from me picking the bassist up for our first rehearsal and saying “are you ready for Codename Side project?” to which he replied “that’s not a codename, that’s just what it is. You wouldn’t call a military coup “Codename Kill The President” would you?”
So after laughing at that and calling our first song “Codename Kill The President” as a temporary working title, we started shortening it with each time we played it, eventually landing on “Kill pres”.
We loved the way it sounded but didn’t like how it looked written down or the blatant connection to a presidential assassination.
So we wrote it down and took turns making changes. We took out the space, we removed an L, we swapped the S for a Z because Z is just an inherently cooler letter and added an accent above the E to make it vaguely European.
When I started working on Patron Saint of Lost Causes, I didn’t have a project name locked down but I came across a folder of songs we’d worked on and still loved the way the name looked. On top of that, considering Kilpréz in its current iteration was started to get shit done, for lack of a better way of putting it, this felt appropriate.
You decided to embark on a solo project during the pandemic. What were the key factors that motivated you to take this step, and how did the experience of working alone differ from your past band experiences?
The big thing that pushed me was suddenly having time. I’d been playing some open mic gigs and such but between 2015 and 2020, I’d largely been focusing on my career which took up most of my time.
When the pandemic hit, my working life ground to a halt and I found myself fresh out of excuses for not doing something like this.
For years, I’d procrastinated releasing anything, afraid of it being a failure and never feeling like anything was good enough.
But when I considered what was scarier, never releasing anything or releasing something and potentially getting poor reviews, the idea of not even trying felt horrifying.
So I set myself a deadline at the start of 2021 and said to myself that whether I’d end up with an EP or full length album, whatever I had in June would be the release. I wanted to release the first single on July 1st and accompany it with pre-orders for a full album and some merch.
Not having to rely on anyone else really pushed me to hold myself accountable and I got a couple friends to be my accountability partners, checking in regularly and asking to hear what I was working on. This, on top of actually utilising some project management skills I’d picked up professionally, helped me stay on track and get the album out in the time I’d planned for.
Your debut, Patron Saint of Lost Causes, helped you connect with the mathcore and progressive scenes. How did these connections influence your songwriting and the development of A Dirge for Dregs?
To be honest, I’d always been really connected to those scenes as a listener but there were a few big ways these new connections influenced the album, a big one being the opportunity to work on SPLIT.AM with Serling, hopscotchbattlescars and Clifford Hoyt which also got me on the radar of the labels I’m working with on A Dirge For Dregs.
Collaborations with other musicians in this weird online scene have also popped up, with a remix for Serling, guest vocals for Pillows For Prague already done and some other things possibly in the works.
With A Dirge for Dregs, you’ve moved away from blunt political commentary to more philosophical and literary themes. What inspired this shift in lyrical direction, and how did it impact the songwriting process?
While it may seem like a shift from the outside, in a way Patron Saint was the shift from my perspective. I’ve always been more of a poetic lyricist in the past but with what was going on in the world during the pandemic I just found myself increasingly frustrated with my fellow humans and needed an outlet that wasn’t just arguing with people on social media.
But once that was out of my system, I felt drawn to write something different rather than just continuing my political diatribes. My art will always be political and my stance and beliefs haven’t faltered, but I had to follow my heart.
It impacted the songwriting process in a pretty profound way as I like the idea of having motifs both lyrically and musically when you’re doing a concept album so throughout the album there are call backs and references all over the place.
The recording process for A Dirge for Dregs included taking vocal lessons to achieve your desired sound. Can you talk about the challenges you faced during this process and how it contributed to the final product?
Absolutely! When I record my vocals, I tend to go into the recording booth with a general idea of the lyrics and some rhythmic cadences but most of the time I don’t have a 100% locked-in idea of what kind of tone or technique I’m going with. It really comes down to how I feel and what I think the part calls for.
When recording the first album, I was doing vocals for the first time in years so it’s definitely a lot rougher around the edges than maybe I’d accept if I were to re-record it, but for this one I found myself nailing the first two songs I recorded and then hit a massive wall on the next one.
I heard in my head exactly what I wanted to do and it was this pitched screaming kind of thing. Clearly melodic but quite distorted too.
But when I tried to do it, I was inconsistent and wasn’t happy with the tone.
I decided to do what I’d wanted to do for years and get a vocal coach. I went in with the mindset of starting from square one; going into breathing exercises, vocal warm ups and all that good stuff and making sure I was treating my instrument with care.
This meant putting the record on hold but I decided to look at the vocal lessons, and the work I went through to learn more about production along the way, as an investment in the project’s future. Funnily enough, I found that a lot of what I was learning was sort of like repurposing things I’d learned as a teenager in the theatre and just applying it in this context.
All in all, I see it as an absolute win and something I have no regrets about. The vocals came out the way I wanted them to and I feel more confident about proper clean singing should that make more of an appearance in the future.
You collaborated with several guest musicians on this album. How did you choose these artists, and what unique contributions did they bring to the project?
Each of the guests came to the project from slightly different angles.
Pete Fraser from Down I Go is someone whose work I’ve been a fan of since 2008 or so. Then in 2014 I had a chance to help Down I Go out with their record You’re Lucky God That I Cannot Reach You and that led to a friendship with Pete and a longing living in the back of my head to work with him properly some day.
When I had written the story for A Dirge For Dregs, I knew there was a chapter in there where I wanted sax to feature quite heavily so Pete was the first person I really reached out to about this project specifically.
For most of the parts, I gave him sheet music but I noted down a couple parts where I was looking for some noisy improvisation and one part, the end of “A False Embrace” where I said I’d love to hear both the sheet music as written and what he’d come up with on the spot.
While I ended up loving the melody I’d written for that part, the improvisation was too good to let go and I ended up writing “Last Call” around that sax solo.
In 2011 I saw a trailer for a band called Zelophilia and not only was the trailer my exact brand of humour, but the music was sick too! I came to find out it was a one man project by none other than Lou Kelly. That name meant nothing to me back then but over the following years I only became more and more impressed with Lou’s work.
Shortly after the release of Patron Saint of Lost Causes, Lou commented on a video of me playing “Bridges Burnt”, we connected via messenger and started chatting about collaborating. Lou’s voice is so singular and unique so I’m sure I could have had him do something on every single track and those two tracks he’s on, “Scorched Birth” and “One Of Us Is All Of Us” were really elevated to the high heavens with his contribution.
I got to know Caleb Marsters from Serling when the band tagged Kilpréz in a post about great new bands to check out, in turn I checked Serling and was instantly hooked.
We then did a split together, I remixed a Serling track and I’d mentioned to Caleb that him doing some guest vocals on the album would be really fun. During the writing process, I had a few moments where I wasn’t quite sure where Caleb’s moment to shine would be but once “Neon Veins” and “Reptilian Roundtable For One” were written, I knew exactly where he’d fit in.
Finally, on “Unfinished Business” , one of the EU bonus tracks, we’ve got Andy Siver of Pillows For Prague. I got to know Andy via some mutual friends and he invited me to do some guest vocals on the last Pillows album where some of the songs were giving me similar energy to my track so we came up with a nice way to integrate him into the picture as well.
What was the songwriting and recording process like for A Dirge for Dregs? Did any particular songs or moments stand out during the creation of the album?
The songwriting started similarly as it always does for me, in terms of just sort of playing around on different instruments, because that’s what I love to do, until something grabs me.
I wrote and demoed a few songs around the time I was putting the finishing touches on Patron Saint of Lost Causes, including ones that ended up on SPLIT.AM, but the song that truly put me on the path towards A Dirge For Dregs both musically and conceptually was “Death of the Author”, especially once I’d reworked one of its main riffs into “This Is Not A Distress Call”.
Both of those songs are among the simpler ones on the album in terms of instrumentation but they do a lot of the heavy lifting conceptually and in terms of establishing the mood or “vibe” of the whole thing. I could immediately feel like I was getting a glimpse into a story and it was a story I needed to know from beginning to end. The only way to do that was by writing it myself.
The other thing I’d call out was the moment I wrote a specific part of the lyrics for “A False Embrace”, a line that not only gave the song its name but one that gets referenced several times in other songs:
“A whisper
An uncertain grace
A farewell to the comfort
Of a false embrace”
Can you elaborate on the album’s concept and how it reflects your personal experiences or observations? What themes do you hope listeners will take away from it?
The concept itself is very much rooted in two camps, the personal and the philosophical.
I’ve known a lot of people who have gone down incredibly bad paths in life due to addiction. Some of them have managed to get their lives together, some still might one day and then there are those for whom it’s too late.
At some point, when pondering the thought processes of those who see the way their addiction is hurting not just themselves but those around them, I found myself pondering the philosophical ideas of solipsism and sonder.
For those not “in the know”, solipsism is basically this idea that the only thing you can be certain that’s real is your own consciousness, meaning everyone else could technically just be a figment of your imagination.
Sonder, on the other hand, is the feeling of realising everyone around you, including strangers you pass on the street, have just as deep and rich inner lives and emotional complexity as you do.
Juxtaposing these two and exploring their dichotomy from the perspective of an addict became an incredibly interesting concept to me.
Adding to that the lived experiences of people I’ve known who have gone through things like manic episodes, drug-induced psychosis and more, it felt very cathartic to write these stories in a fictional setting, pulling the classic artist move of self-insertion by making the main character a writer himself.
In terms of what I’d want listeners to take away from it, I’m not going to try and claim this album will fix anything or solve the problems around addiction and mental health crises. But if it resonates with people, giving them the space to feel and process those feelings, then I’ll be extremely proud.
I often find myself struggling to feel “in the moment” and music is what helps me do that; processing some of those difficult emotions in a way that makes sense to me so if I can bring that to others, that would be an amazing achievement.
How do you balance your technical proficiency on various instruments with the need to write music that conveys deep meaning and emotion? Is there a specific approach you take to achieve that balance?
That’s an excellent question and one I’ve pondered a lot, especially retroactively. Looking back, I definitely went through periods of time where I was so hung up on technicality that I was writing parts that were little more than exercises or opportunities to show off.
That being said, I value those a lot because they inspired me not only to practise and get better at my instrument but also to improve my songwriting.
I don’t think I’ll ever truly be a “less is more” musician but the way I try to think about it is always thinking one step up.
What I mean by that is if I’m writing something, whether that’s a riff, drum groove or whatever else, I have to remind myself that the end result isn’t just a sick riff but a great song. Is the part serving the song? If not, it shouldn’t be there.
Similarly, I then think “is the song serving the album?” and I truly believe these sorts of questions at every junction throughout songwriting, production, mixing etc are what makes you a more coherent, consistent artist.
Given the evolution of your music, how do you feel your sound has changed from your previous projects to what we hear in A Dirge for Dregs? What elements remain consistent?
A big thing that’s changed is the fact that Kilpréz is the first time, outside of some acoustic stuff and an early joke project, where I’m on my own. In my first couple bands, I had a songwriting partner and we wrote separate guitar parts for pretty much every part of every song, meaning there was lots of counterpoint and interesting juxtaposition.
My last band before leaving Iceland had a violinist, a pianist, three people doing vocals and then a bassist and drummer, on top of myself on guitar of course. That band was built around the idea of each of those pieces of the puzzle having its own space in the songs and in the mix and I truly think the music I wrote for that group was sort of my songwriting eureka moment where I fully found “my” sound or vibe because even though I had a whole band, I was the only songwriter.
Kilpréz is definitely more abrasive and dissonant on average than any of the previous projects I’ve been in but I’d say that’s almost more of a refocus than a change because those elements were always there, I just put more of a focus on them.
In terms of consistent elements, I’ve always been a fan of musicians who have enough faith in their fans to not be too rigid about what they play or write.
Bands and musicians like Devin Townsend and Ulver are good examples of iconoclasts who do what they want, when they want it and don’t seem to overthink the labelling of the music, splitting it into different side projects in order to not piss off the fans that liked their old stuff.
While I may not be planning for Kilpréz to make a trip hop album, I think that freedom of expression is an integral part of growing as an artist but also a hugely helpful way to figure out what elements really make your music yours.
A really proud moment in the early days of Kilpréz came from showing an ex-band mate of mine a song I was working on and he said “oh I’ve missed those “Jon Thor riffs”, great to hear those again!” or something along those lines.
Even though the song felt different from what I’d done before, it clearly had something that made it feel “like me” to this friend of mine and I think that’s something to aspire to, so even if future releases may take some surprising turns, I believe the litmus test will be “does this feel like Jon Thor?”
What role does production play in your music, and how did your growing knowledge of production influence the sound of this album?
I really struggle with the idea of working with an external producer because as a solo musician, the studio is very much my home ground. While I’d consider getting outside assistance with, for example, mastering in the future, I am very dedicated to the idea of improving my own skills in the remit of production, recording and mixing.
Part of this comes down to my creative process and the recording/mixing process being so intertwined when it comes to Kilpréz.
Patron Saint of Lost Causes was the first release I fully produced from beginning to end and I would definitely do things differently if I were to remake it with what I know now so I guess some of the influence on the new album comes from just knowing more about the process of achieving the sound I want.
For A Dirge For Dregs I had very specific ideas in mind in terms of tones, timbres and vibes and as such, it was a constant learning process to figure out how to achieve what I wanted.
One way the sound of the album was impacted by me working on my production skills was that I started playing around more with electronic elements and synths and I saw myself getting really inspired by that world again, having been a fan of electronic music for as long as I’ve been a fan of heavy music, so being able to marry the two was something I’d wanted to do for a long time.
You mentioned that the album title came with a strong emotional context. Can you share the significance of A Dirge for Dregs and how it relates to the overall narrative of the album?
For those reading whose first language may not be English, there’s a duality to the title. A dirge is a funeral song but dregs can either be the last few drops in a bottle or people viewed as the “lowest” in society.
As someone who’s known a lot of people who have struggled with both addiction and severe mental health issues, many of whom have been repeatedly failed by the systems meant to help them, the title was sort of my way to grieve some of the people we’ve lost but also time lost with people who may yet come back to us.
Despite the funerary reference, the last song actually does end on a somewhat optimistic or hopeful note and this was a fairly conscious decision. Had the album ended one song earlier, it would have ended on a bleak, hopeless note and part of me didn’t want to accept that because in a weird way it felt like accepting hopelessness for those people still struggling.
Looking ahead, you mentioned plans for a follow-up project. Can you give us a glimpse into what we can expect from Kilpréz in the future? Will you continue exploring the themes present in A Dirge for Dregs?
So to spoil it a little bit, I do have an EP in the works that explores the themes from A Dirge For Dregs and includes some material left over from the same sessions but I’ll reveal more about this when we get closer to releasing this.
In terms of future releases apart from that, it’s too early to say exactly what will be next after that EP but I know that the next full length album will be a bit of a departure from A Dirge For Dregs in many ways while still being, without a doubt, a Kilpréz release. It’s largely written already, I’m speaking to some collaborators and have really cool plans for the release both in terms of the music and in terms of the release of it but again, it’s too early to give too much away.
Whether I’ll do some smaller things between that aforementioned EP and this full length I don’t know. I’ve always been fond of the idea of sprinkling some smaller releases in between these vast concept records but at the same time I’m not at all a fan of the culture of releasing standalone singles. I’m very much an album or EP kinda guy.
As someone who has faced the challenges of the music industry, what advice would you give to aspiring musicians navigating their own creative journeys?
My main piece of advice would be to figure out what you want, why you do what you do and what an ideal life looks like for you.
I realised early on that the idea of touring in a van, making next to no money and putting everything on hold for a band was not the life I wanted. No disrespect meant for those who do this, I admire it but it was clear to me from an early age that this was not for me.
I toyed with the idea of going into audio engineering or trying to “make it” as a producer but at the end of the day, I found myself compelled to choose to keep the music as 100% driven by passion and find something else to pay the bills. I’ve got a creative and fulfilling career and have been able to do some amazing things without having to compromise what kind of music I make and that was the right path for me, even though it may mean a longer wait between releases than if I was doing music full time.
I make music because I can’t imagine a life where I don’t but the industry around music isn’t super appealing to me.
If you want to make it in the world of music, whatever “making it” means to you, get to know people who are further along than you but also people around the same level. Networking is crucial and no one succeeds in a vacuum. Being the person people want to work with, want to hang out with and trust will get you much further than just being great at your instrument.
Finally, what can fans look forward to in terms of content and promotions surrounding A Dirge for Dregs? Any upcoming shows, videos, or collaborations you’d like to share?
No upcoming shows but loads of videos, including Q&A videos, some more meme-y videos, playthroughs and more but one of the most exciting is a super fun video I shot with Pete Fraser, sax player and member of the legendary Down I Go, where we talked about all sorts of music related topics while eating increasingly spicy vegan wings which in no way is a rip-off of Hot Ones (wink-wink).
But on that note, if anyone wants to see something specific, just ask and if it’s something doable, I’ll add it to the list! I find this sort of thing fulfilling and fun but I also know the algorithm is hungry for content and making the algorithm happy is apparently an important part of getting your music heard by more people in today’s world!
A Dirge for Dregs is out now; take a listen on Bandcamp. Like Kilpréz on Facebook, and follow on Instagram and YouTube.
