Stina August, also known as Stina Agustsdottir, was born and raised in Iceland, but has lived in Iceland, Denmark, England and now resides in the city of Montreal, Canada.
From singing in choirs and lending her singing voice to an Icelandic cartoon on national TV, Stina moved on to study at the Singing Academy of Reykjavik before taking singing lessons at Vocaltech in London, introducing her to the pop music experience. After moving to Montreal, Stina enrolled in the music program at Concordia University where she studied jazz for three years under the guidance of teachers like Madeleine Theriault, Jeri Brown, Dave Turner, Sheila Jordan and many more. In 2007 Stina released her first solo album, a collection of jazz standards and songs recorded with some of the best jazz players in Canada. She then moved on to become lead singer of pop/rock band Nista and electronica duo AXXE (Mile-End Records, Rural Route Records), still keeping her jazz roots fresh with regular gigs and recordings. Amongst Stina's achievements in her career she received an award at a Vocal Summit hosted by Jeri Brown and for the past two years has been voted as one of the top ten local jazz acts in Montreal. In August 2010 she performed at the Reykjavík Jazz Festival with some of Iceland's favorite jazz musicians.
While being almost too busy with music, Stina is now expecting her first child with guitarist/software engineer husband, Tommi Gunnarsson.
Concrete World
Stina's second solo album, Concrete World, is a collection of songs written by Icelandic singer-songwriter Johann G Johannsson. The songs on the album were chosen by Stina out of Johann's vast catalog of originals and all the arrangements and many of the lyrics were created by Stina and producer Maury LaFoy (Kat Goldman, Jann Arden, k-os). In the creative process when preparing for the tracking of the album, Stina stripped the songs down to their core and let the melody and chord progressions decide where to go with the arrangements and blending styles from all over the musical universe, resulting in the eclectic sound of the album. She recruited A-list players in the Toronto area and recorded the whole album in legendary Canterbury Music studios with producer Maury LaFoy. Connecting the sound of her current home with the home she grew up in, Iceland, Stina decided to have the album mixed and mastered at Greenhouse studios in Iceland with Mio Thorisson and Valgeir Sigurdsson (Björk, Kate Nash, Ben Frost).
