[4] He spent his teenage years following the cultural scenes in New York and London, and he took special interest in the emergence of punk subculture.

[5] Active on the Icelandic music scene since the early 1980s, Sjón has collaborated with many of the best-known artists of the era and was featured as guest vocalist on a rare Sugarcubes 12" single "Luftgitar" in 1987 using the name Johnny Triumph; this was accompanied by a music video of Sjón playing air guitar with Björk and Einar Örn Benediktsson.

Sjón would occasionally reprise this role for the final encore of The Sugarcubes concerts, including the band's one-off 2006 reunion show in Reykjavík.

[8] Sjón co-wrote the 2022 film The Northman, a historical epic and revenge thriller based on the legend of the Viking prince Amleth, with director Robert Eggers.

[citation needed] His writing is characterized by surrealist elements, like unexpected transformations, strange events, and a blurring of boundaries between humans and other animals.

[3] His work has received critical acclaim and been praised by other novelists such as Hari Kunzru, David Mitchell, and A.S. Byatt, who said that his writing "changes the whole map of literature inside [her] head.

"[3] Sjón has discussed how, to some extent, his writing is influenced by the nature of Iceland itself as a remote, cold, volcanic island that experiences frequent tectonic activity.

[9] Hanging on the wall inside are the rib and shoulder blade of a large whale that once beached and died a short walk away from the cottage.

"[3] When Sjón was a teenager, he learned that his grandfather had lived in Germany during World War II and worked as a Nazi spy.

That family history has influenced Sjón's writing, including his 2019 novel Red Milk that explores the neo-Nazi radicalization of an Icelandic youth.