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Kristian Nairn

Kristian Nairn44 posts

Kristian Nairn is a DJ and actor born in 1975 in Lisburn, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. He is best known for his role of Hodor on the HBO series Game Of Thrones. He headlines the Rave of Thrones dance music events with tour dates in Australia and the U.S., and has been a longtime resident DJ at Belfast gay club Kremlin, as well as DJing at many other events including supporting Mylo, Scissor Sisters and Calvin Harris. He is a dedicated World of Warcraft player and has appeared in the Channel 4 show The Salon and the BBC series Ripper Street.

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6 Jul, 2015

Up (club mix)

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Nairn releases a piano house track with former X Factor contestant Robinson on vocals. Nairn:

it’s a really good reflection of how I feel about house music

12 Sep, 2014

U.S. tour dates

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Nairn confirms that Rave of Thrones is coming to the U.S. The tour kicks off Oct. 11 at BB King’s in New York before taking in Danbury, Boston, Halifax, L.A., San Francisco, Anchorage, Seattle, San Diego, Bloomington, St. Louis, Cleveland, Nashville and Orlando.

3 Sep, 2014

Absent for season five

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Nairn confirms that his character, Hodor, will be absent for the fifth season of Game of Thrones. He says the character of Bran Stark, played by Isaac Hempstead-Wright, a son of the high-born Stark family who is crippled and is carried by Hodor, will also be absent:

We’re not actually in Season Five, by the way. We have a season off. We have a year’s hiatus … Solely because, I imagine, our storyline is up to the end of the books. … So I get a year off now to do Rave of Thrones and gallivant all over the world.

The absence is not confirmed with Hempstead-Wright.

‘Seven-foot man who dresses as a woman’

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Nairn says his drag act helped him withstand public attention after media misreported that he had come out during a fansite interview when in fact he had been openly gay since his teens:

It was interesting to me that the world seemed to care after that. I’ve never given a damn. A seven-foot man who dresses as a woman as a job is not interested in what other people think.

It helped him develop confidence and led to his DJing career and later acting roles:

I actually started off – believe it or not – doing drag, I travelled the world because I was a completely off the wall drag artist. It wasn’t feminine, it was just Marilyn Manson meets Divine meets some sort of monster from out of space, that sort of thing. And it was really popular, actually. It went down really well. Really it was a mask for me to perform behind, because I wasn’t very confident at the time.

Aug 2014

‘Where You Are’

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Nairn releases the single Where You Are by Kash Simic & Kristian Nairn featuring Amanda Wilson via his Soundcloud page. The track features uplifting trance-style vocals by Wilson over a deep-house bassline, rising synths and ‘EDM’-style high hat.

Beachball bootleg remix

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Nairn releases a bootleg version of the 1997 single Beachball by Nalin & Kane featuring Candi Staton on vocals via his Soundcloud page. The rework of the house classic features a deep-house style high hat, finger-clicking breakdowns and trance-influenced synth melody.

19 Aug, 2014

‘Hardest role in the show’

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Nairn says playing a character with only one line – ‘Hodor’ – is a challenge in acting terms:

I did ask myself, ‘How am I’m going to do this?’ I knew it was going to be challenging. People’s concept of it is either that it’s the easiest role because of the lines, or if they know anything about acting they think it’s the hardest role for the same reason. I do sometimes really have to snap myself back into reality after filming. I really do love Hodor, he’s a lot of fun to play.

Carrying Hempstead-Wright, who plays the paraplegic character Bran Stark, is also becoming physically challenging as the child actor, who was 11 when the series started, develops:

I had a little trouble this season. I wouldn’t say Isaac’s heavy, but you can’t just shrug it off now. He could have sat in my arms all day in season one, but now we have to set up the shots differently. It’s a pain in the back, really.

Releases mixes

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Nairn releases two mixes on Soundcloud which he says will resemble the tracklist for his Australia and U.S. Rave of Thrones tours:

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. 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.

Summer Night Mix 1 is closer to his DJing roots in piano-driven and deep house:

More uptempo mix of house music, and generally stuff I love.


Summer Night Mix 2:

EDM/ Electro focussed… A little tougher than Mix 1

https://soundcloud.com/kristiannairn/summer-night-mix-2

23 Jul, 2014

Nairn: ‘EDM damaged music’

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Nairn says the rise of ‘EDM’ has taken dance music away from its underground club and rave roots:

It’s great to see EDM become so big, but I think dance music is better in clubs. Dance music is an underground thing. I think house music in the early 2000s ate itself.

Mainstreaming dance music hasn’t helped the genre develop:

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.

Won’t wear costume

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Nairn says that while Rave of Thrones features props based on the TV show and the crowd is encouraged to come to the gigs dressed in costumes, he won’t be wearing one:

I don’t think I need to — I’m f—ing Hodor after all. I’m not wearing a f—ing sack.

Australian tour dates

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kristian-nairn-RoT-australiaRave of Thrones Australian tour dates are announced. The themed DJ tour featuring Nairn as headliner kicks off at Hi Fi in Sydney on Aug. 28 then heads to the Secret Warehouse, Brisbane on Aug. 29, Villa, Perth on Aug. 30, Prince Bandroom, Melbourne on Sept. 4, Discovery, Darwin, Sept. 5, and finishes up at Zhivago in Adelaide on Sept. 7.

15 Jun, 2014

The Children

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Nairn appears as Hodor in The Children, the tenth episode of season four, with Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark, and Thomas Sangster and Ellie Kendrick as Jojen and Meera Reed. The group are continuing their journey north of the Wall of Westeros, and as they reach the point of exhaustion Bran realises that they have found their destination, the heart tree that he has seen in his dreams. They are suddenly attacked by undead creatures that rise out of the snow, but a mysterious child comes to their rescue. The group is forced to abandon one of their members, but the rest find safety in a cave with the unknown girl and other children. An old man reveals to Bran that he is the three-eyed raven who has brought him visions in his dreams.

6 May, 2014

The Old Gods and the New

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Nairn’s character Hodor appears in The Old Gods and the New, episode six of season two. He carries Bran Stark, played by Isaac Hempstead-Wright, to safety along with his younger brother Rickon Stark, after they are freed from captivity by Osha, played by Natalia Tena.

4 May, 2014

First of His Name

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Nairn appears as Hodor in season four, episode five, First of His Name. His character is imprisoned by mutineers from the Night’s Watch along with the characters of Bran Stark, played by Isaac Hempstead-Wright and Thomas Sangster and Ellie Kendrick as Jojen and Meera Reed. Meera is threatened by mutineer Karl, played by Burn Gorman, but the mutineers come under attack from Night’s Watchmen who have come north to disrupt their rebellion. The Night’s Watchman Locke, played by Noah Taylor, who is secretly a double agent for a former Stark ally turned traitor, attempts to kidnap Bran for his master. Bran uses his psychic powers to enter Hodor’s mind and use his body to kill Locke.

27 Apr, 2014

Oathkeeper

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Nairn appears as Hodor in season four, episode four, Oathkeeper, with Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark, Thomas Sangster and Ellie Kendrick as Jojen and Meera Reed. North of the Wall of Westeros, Bran uses his psychic powers to enter the mind of his direwolf, Summer, to investigate the sounds of a child crying nearby. Summer is trapped by mutineers from the Night’s Watch who have taken over a keep north of the Wall. The rest of the party is then also captured. Bran is forced to reveal his identity as a Stark. The mutineers torment Hodor as he is chained to a wall.

13 Apr, 2014

The Lion and the Rose

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Nairn appears as Hodor in season four, episode two, The Lion and the Rose, with Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark, Thomas Sangster and Ellie Kendrick as Jojen and Meera Reed, and Natalia Tena as Osha the wildling. North of the Wall of Westeros, Bran uses his newfound psychic powers to enter the mind of his direwolf, Summer. As the group travels, and Hodor carries Bran to a weirwood tree they find during their journey, where Bran sees visions of his family and events occurring in a future Westeros. After the vision, Bran decides that the group must continue to head north.

9 Apr, 2014

#TakeTheThrone: Hodor

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Nairn stakes Hodor’s claim to rule Westeros for HBO’s #TakeTheThrone interactive fan challenge:

He’s the only nice guy in the entirety of Westeros, he’s trustworthy, he’s kind to children … he’s hardworking, he’s just a solid, nice guy, he totally deserves it.

Game of Thrones Season 4: Kristian Nairn on Why Hodor Should #TakeTheThrone (HBO)

25 Mar, 2014

‘Second coming-out’

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Nairn says that he was surprised when media picked up his interview with the WinterIsComing.net fansite as confirmation that he is ‘coming out,’ as his gay identity has been public since he was 16 and he told his mother when he was 12:

I couldn’t believe the nuclear mushroom. It’s always been the way. It’s not as if I suddenly went, ‘Hi guys’ and put a boa on.

While he intentionally mentioned it in the interview, he assumed people already knew:

I kind of had been waiting for it to come up in an interview question. But I sort of thought that people knew, because all you had to do—I started out doing a drag queen [act]. I DJ at a gay bar. Learn to Google, people. That’s all it is.

Still, he says he doesn’t want to diminish the positive reaction he received:

I don’t want to make light of it either because people have been in touch with me and they’ve been really…nice about it, and I’m really grateful. And also people said it inspired them. Because even within the gay community, there’s a stereotype even when you’re a gay person. You have to look a certain way. You have to be thin. You have to be tanned. You have to have small eyebrows. You have to look pretty. And that’s never been me. I just think it’s important to show the world that we are varied people, as everybody else. You don’t have to be any way. I think that’s really important, and people said that to me.

On the unexpected popularity of his Game of Thrones character:

[Showrunners] Dave [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] told me before the show. They’re like, “Your character’s not one of the main characters, but it’s probably one of the most popular—if not the most popular. Everyone’s going to say ‘Hodor.’” I was like, “Really? I don’t think so.” My mom’s a huge “Game of Thrones” fan. She was like, “I love Hodor. I think there’s more to him and something’s going to come out eventually along the line.” She was right. They were right. I was wrong.

17 Mar, 2014

Discusses Hodor audition

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Nairn discusses auditioning for the role of Hodor on Game of Thrones at Comic Con:

I auditioned for a movie called Hot Fuzz, which I’m sure you all know, and Rory (McCann) got the part, anyway about four years later the casting director Nina Gold called me back and said ‘try out for this part on Game of Thrones‘. So I got 15 minutes notice … I was in a restaurant having my lunch and then my agent – ‘agent’ – called me and said ‘we need to find a child … for you to carry, and I had to go to this 40th birthday party where there was a child and there was this ring of 40-year-old people around me and I was carrying this child, who I didn’t know, and they were all calling me in different directions and I had to demonstrate different emotions, and then I had to lift a table above my head to prove I was strong enough for the job. So it was truly random, but it got me the part.

GAME OF THRONES Kristian Nairn's HODOR AUDITION

11 Mar, 2014

WinterIsComing interview

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Nairn says in an interview with WinterIsComing.net that his first musical passion was glam and thrash metal such as Poison, Sepultura, Obituary, The Cult and Danzig. He modeled his guitar playing skills after Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and others, and says that his DJing influences are ‘anything that creates an emotional reaction’:

At a gig recently in Pensacola Florida, as I was standing looking over the crowd, it dawned on me that it feels like I’m shooting emotional laser beams out into the crowd. When they respond, it’s the most amazing feeling, and conversely, when a crowd doesn’t get it, it can be like “WHY DONT YOU GET WHAT I’M GETTING?!” We all have gigs like that though, but thankfully more of the former.

His World of Warcraft character is a ‘green goblin hunter with a spectral pet called Jupiter or Hannibal’:

I’m currently on Thrall U.S. [WoW server], on the Horde side!

However the comment that generates the most interest is when he appears to come out about his gay identity. Asked if he is aware of his following in the gay ‘bear’ community:

Well, in all honesty, when you talk about “the gay community,” you are talking about MY community, haha. I AM aware of it yeah, and I think it’s really lovely. There’s not a day that I don’t get a few messages, but 99% or more are super sweet and nothing smutty at all! Again, it’s a privilege, and I really mean that. I’ve never hidden my sexuality from anyone, my whole life in fact, and I’ve been waiting for someone to ask about it in an interview, cos it’s not something you just blurt out. I’ve tried to lead the questions a few times, to no avail!