Hodor speaks! Dance music loosens Game of Thrones star’s tongue on Rave of Thrones DJ tour
GAME of Thrones meets dance music in Rave of Thrones with Hodor actor Kristian Nairn as your DJ for the night. Here he reveals exactly what you can expect.
Music Tours
Don't miss out on the headlines from Music Tours. Followed categories will be added to My News.
HE’S a gentle giant who can only say his own name as Hodor on Game of Thrones, but there’s more to Kristian Nairn than meets the eye.
The 38-year-old Northern Irishman has made a name for himself carrying Bran Stark across the mythical world of Westeros, but for years he’s been carrying audiences as a renowned house DJ in Europe.
Now he’s coming to Australia in September for Rave Of Thrones — themed nights that encourage fans to dress up as their favourite character from the show and dance the night away to Nairn’s progressive mixes.
Just don’t ask for any Game of Thrones remixes — he’s tried it and admits it’s just not his thing.
“Oh my God — I get a few requests,” he laughs.
“I’ve tried to do a bootleg and it sounds all right — I don’t feel comfortable crossing the two over. I think the theme is good — I don’t think I could improve it. But I’ve heard a dub-step version of it and it’s terrible.”
On second thoughts, don’t make any requests to Nairn.
“It’s the one time people get a bad impression of me,” he says.
“It’s a death stare. The only time I don’t is when you have the rare moment when someone requests something I’m going to play anyway.”
Nairn has had the chance to play to thousands of fans over the years thanks to his residency at the Kremlin, one of Belfast’s hottest gay bars.
Nairn himself is gay, something he hasn’t tried to hide, despite much chatter on GOT fan pages about him coming out recently in an interview.
“I know right — it’s a non issue for me,” he says.
“I’m very grateful for that because not everyone has the luxury of calling it a non issue. I grew up with a very open mother and a great group of friends.
“I didn’t even know what being gay was until I was about 14 — because it just felt natural to me. It was the way things were.
“It was strange because I’ve never really been in the closet my entire life and suddenly it seemed like I was at 38 years old,” he says of the interview.
“I did this 17 years ago guys — do I have to do this again?”
So back to DJing.
Nairn’s mixes are nostalgic in their lean towards piano-based deep house, and he says the set he’ll be bringing to Australia will be “a cross between two mixes (available on his Soundcloud site) — Summer Nights One and Summer Nights Two”.
“It starts of with some nice vocal-based deep house and progresses up over the set. I’ll probably mix in some EDM for a lack of a better term into some progressive house,” he says.
“I started DJing in the 90s so I’m very influenced by that — there’s a lot of piano stuff coming back around now which I really like.”
As for the rise of EDM, Nairn isn’t convinced. He, like many dance purists, believes the music belongs in the club scene.
“It’s great to see EDM become so big, but I think dance music is better in clubs,” he says.
“Dance music is an underground thing. I think house music in the early 2000s ate itself.
“Shapeshifters had a song called Lola’s Theme and it kind of really accelerated house music into the charts over here and started a lot of clones.
“It kind of damaged music and I’m not blaming Shapeshifters for that by the way — they’re great — but it was just a public trend.”
Nairn isn’t the only GOT cast member with a backstory and hidden talents.
There’s Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), brother of Lily, and of course Sibel Kekilli (prostitute Shae), who prior to GOT was a German adult film star.
“We all have our pasts,” laughs Nairn.
But what about the rumours many more adult film stars have appeared in the series due to the nudity?
Nairn is aware of one incident: “I think it was in the Craster’s Keep scenes in season four.
“The only reason why they want to use someone (like that) is because they’re more comfortable in their own skin. They don’t really have to act because they’re accustomed to being in the nude.
“That’s the only one I know of. I mean I know of Sibel’s past and also Esme Bianco (who played prostitute Ros in Winterfell) — she wasn’t a porn star but she did perform burlesque.
“There’s definitely a lot of interest in past careers.”
Nairn is no stranger to nudity himself. He was famously required to get his kit off in season one and wear a prosthetic penis.
“Oh that was bloody awful,” he laughs.
“It was one of those things. It was just before I stepped into the role and the writers told me ‘we’ve got one other thing to tell you’.
“I was like ‘what, really?’. But in the end it became important to me to do that scene. There’s a lot of shapes and sizes in Game of Thrones — more in fact (than) on any TV show that’s ever been. I thought to myself — it’s important to represent real life people.”
With his Rave of Thrones show encouraging fans to dress up, will he be doing so too?
“I don’t think I need to — I’m f---ing Hodor after all,” he laughs
“I’m not wearing a f---ing sack.”
■ Tickets for Rave of Thrones, featuring Kristian Nairn aka Hodor, are on sale now:
August 29, The Hi Fi, Sydney, www.thehifi.com.au; August 29, Secret Warehouse, Brisbane, www.moshtix.com.au; August 30, Villa, Perth, www.villanightclub.com.au; September 4, Prince Bandroom, Melbourne, www.princebandroom.com.au; September 5, Discover, Darwin, www.discoverydarwin.com.au; September 7, Zhivago, Adelaide, www.zhivago.com.au
Originally published as Hodor speaks! Dance music loosens Game of Thrones star’s tongue on Rave of Thrones DJ tour
Tina Arena berates fans for using toilets
Australian pop star Tina Arena left concertgoers stunned when she called out fans who tried to use the toilet mid-show.
Why 12,000 girls wore same thing last night
There is one obvious sign that this American star is in Australia — all her fans are wearing the same thing.