Heri Joensen (Týr)
August 2008
Coming from such a little country, was it hard to establish in the international metal scene?
Before we got signed to Napalm Records it was very hard and seemed impossible but as soon as Napalm took over the distribution and the publishing things started to go really fast and it's really easy for us ever since. It's going good.
How did you hook up with them?
They heard about us from some Danish booking agency that we were in contact with and they approached us with an offer. Also at the same time we were contacted by two other label but we chose Napalm as they seemed to be the best for the band. And we are quite satisfied with how things are going with them. We can't see how they could do a better job for us. They have a really good distribution and they put us on tour constantly so we cannot complain. They even reissued our second album and they are planning to do the same thing with our debut.
You suffered quite a few member changes since the beginning...
Yeah, we changed the line-up quite so many times. I know bands that change more but still it's quite a lot. Right now we're only two original members in the band. Kári the drummer is unable to play because of a back injury. We had five ex-members in this band.
The music of your debut album was quite different from what you are playing now. How did you evolve in this direction?
Our music has become faster and it sounds better. I mean the first album doesn't sound as good as the second or third. The first album was extremely heavy, very slow and dark and that was not the real meaning of it. When I wrote the music and put the songs together I had a different idea in my head than what came out on the album.
How Far To Asgaard was a doomy album like Black Sabbath goes to the Faroese.
(Laughs) Yeah, something like that. Then again, Black Sabbath is a big inspiration for us. That album became very doomy, dark and heavy.
What bands are influencing your writing these days?
I'm listening to a lot of the music that we were put in the same category with, like bands from the Scandinavian Viking and pagan metal scene. I didn't even know about these bands before we started but I know more about it now and I listen to a lot of those bands and of course that influences me a little bit more than the other influences we had when we started. When we started the band our influences were Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Dream Theater, Rainbow and Ronnie James Dio and nowadays, I'm not sure how much I'm influenced by it, but now I listen to bands like Wintersun, Amon Amarth, Ensiferum, Moonsorrow and all the stuff that I came to know by touring.
You've started out more or less as a Viking metal band and now you are also considered as part of the pagan metal movement. Is that fine with you?
Yes, definitely. Even though I didn't know these people when we started but the ideas we have about the music when we talk to members of these bands are similar. We have the same opinion about all these things and I think it's strange that such a movement can begin in different places completely independently. There must be a reason for this. There must be a reaction from the public against something and of course I think it's Christianity.
Did you intend to change anything musically when you started writing the songs for your new album Land?
Yes, I wanted to make it simpler than Ragnarok was, more straightforward, more heavy and more Faroese. We put more Faroese lyrics on it than on the previous albums. It's maybe a little more heavier and faster. Most reviewers said that it's even more complicated than Ragnarok was so maybe I have done something wrong. (Laughs)
Did you use the native language in the songs that you based on Faroese traditional songs?
Yeah, almost all the Faroese songs have traditional lyrics. One of the songs we sung in Norwegian and since it's a traditional Norwegian song it would have been strange to do in another language. When it's not a traditional song and I write the lyrics myself I almost always write in English. I've only written 2-3 lyrics in Faroese and on this album there's one of them and it's Valkyrjan.
Ah, that's a cool song with that Edvard Grieg motif. How did you ended up with that?
Thanks, that's one of my favourite songs on the record. I've heard this melody sometime in late 2006 by a Norwegian band. Of course I knew it before from Edvard Grieg but I haven't thought about using it until I've heard this Norwegian folk band doing it although they did it in a completely different way from how we do. I think it works quite well with the song.
Grieg had so many other great melodies that you can use on your future albums...
Yeah, he had. He also based his music on Norwegian traditional melodies and put those in classical context like we do with heavy metal and Faroese melodies. It's almost like the way I do. I'm not saying I'm Grieg or Bach or anything but it's a very familiar way for me to work.
You have re-recorded Hail To The Hammer from the debut album. Was it on fans' demand or the band's idea?
We were thinking about it for some time because it's such a popular song and the only recordings we have is with the old singer and without Terji on guitar. I don't remember whose idea was actually to record it for this album but when I mentioned it to the label they definitely liked it.
What song off the album is the closest to you?
That would be the title track Land because of all the traditional melodies that I've used and the text and the subject of the lyrics. It's about the Viking expansion to begin with and then in parallel the Faroese independent movement of course, which I support. That's what I kept in mind when I wrote this song. So there are two angles in it.
Did you record the album in the Faroese or in Denmark?
We recorded in Denmark with Jacob Hansen again. It's very easy to work with him. He knows us well by now. He's very fast, he's very professional. We're very satisfied with the result of the album.
Speaking of the two countries. I know that you lived in Denmark for a while. Are you back in the Faroese now?
Yeah, I'm back in the Faroese. Gunnar still lives in Copenhagen, he's done that all along. Kári moved back to the Faroese as well and Terji has been living in the Faroese all the time.
You've been doing quite so many festivals and tours over the years. What were the highlights for you?
The Pagan Fest in the US and especially the last part of it was a very good time. I would say that was the best so far as far as touring. We had so much fun and great response from the audience.
And what was the best place to play at?
That would be Canada. There were two shows at the start of the Pagan Fest and those shows were absolutely fantastic. We had a very good replacement drummer, an American guy from Atlanta. Also the Metalmania Festival in the Czech Republic last summer was great. There were a lot of people and it was a really good concert. Wacken was also great last summer. We had an amazing audience there. By the way, that's on the DVD for the digipak version of the new album.
You've also been to Hungary a few times. How do you like here?
It's very good. People are extremely kind and we'll definitely be back to Hungary on the upcoming tour in October.
Yeah and you're gonna be playing on a boat.
Really? I didn't know that. But it should be okay because we're from the Faroese so we won't get seasick. (Laughs)
It's quite an achievement to be such a newcomer band and already do headlining tours. How do you feel about that?
I like it a lot. It's gonna be our second headlining tour and we are really looking forward to it because we have the chance to play a long set. The worst thing about being a warm-up band is that you get play so short and people are disappointed that you don't play a real set.