TÝR

At the Ragnarök festival OhLi and me took our chance to ask for a Týr interview. We expected another interview with bored band members and the usual "Let's get through it asap"- behaviour, but to our surprise Týr were one of the nicest bands we ever interviewed, taking all this very seriously, although they knew we're just a small online magazine. Therefore, THANKS to the band (also for all the drinks, CDs etc.).

((Comments in double brackets are additional explanations of Twilightheart)) 

Twilightheart > At your gig today I noticed that it was exactly the same gig/setlist like at the tour with Amon Amarth. Is it possible?

Týr > Oh yes, pretty much. When we do a headliner show, we play 90 minutes. But here we played only 30 minutes. So we wanted to play the songs that we know that people react to.

Twilightheart > How are the people in your country behaving at concerts? 

Týr > They can go pretty wild. But they are not so used to concerts. But still they can go wild. There’s not such a big Metal market as in Germany. Here to a Metal gig all kinds of people come. Some come in Heavy Metal clothes, but most come in very ordinary clothes, because there’s not a Heavy Metal community as such. 

Twilightheart > How many people come to your gigs in your country?

Týr > It depends. At the summer festivals there are probably around 1.000 to 1.200 people. We don’t have many single gigs in our home. Maybe 100 or 400 people come. It depends on the place. 

Twilightheart > Do they see you as a Metal band in your country? ‘Cause for us here it’s more folk. 

Týr > They call us a “balanced Metal band”. I don’t think they see us as you do in Germany. 

OhLi > The resonance to your new album was very positive. Were you surprised?

Týr (Heri) > No, not this time. We were surprised by the first one which was positive, and we were surprised about the second which was extremely positive. But now we are used to it, maybe. 

Twilightheart > The new CD is a bit less folk than the previous ones. Do you want to develop into that direction? 

Týr > I think that will probably be our most progressive album for a long time. We will probably take a step back and stick more onto the folk melody parts and the simple song structures. 

Twilightheart > How is it in your home island? Are you the only so-called “extreme” band? 

Týr (Heri) > As a matter of fact there is 1 band that is a bit more extreme than we are. But no, there are not many bands.

Twilightheart > Which is the other band?

Týr (Heri) > „SIC“. I’m distributing them. Here’s their CD for you. Maybe you can give them a review.

Twilightheart > Oh yeah, I will. Have you ever toured with SIC or anything?

Týr (Heri) > I don’t think they have ever made a tour. 

 Týr (Kári) > But we have played on a festival with them.

OhLi > Which band would you like to play with and why?

Týr (Kári) > Metallica! And why? Because they have a lot of people with them.

Týr (Heri) > Of course I’d like to play with Iron Maiden or Metallica because they have a lot of fans. But maybe it’s more realistic to play with Moonsorrow or Ensiferum or somebody more in our style. Lumsk from Norway maybe.

Twilightheart > Wouldn’t it be a bit boring to tour with so many folk bands only? Maybe some variety (a Black Metal band or so) would be good?

Týr (Heri) > I’m not into Black Metal myself. But I would of course tour with a big Black Metal band if I got the chance.

Twilightheart > Are you concentrating on Germany at the moment, or does Napalm Records want to make you known all over the world already now?

Týr > They pretty much concentrate on all the Heavy Metal community there is in the world. We played most in Germany, but we also played a lot in Poland. We went pretty far from Hungary to England and France… everywhere. I think, Napalm is using Europe as a platform for the higher stages.

Twilightheart > Do you know any sales numbers of the new album?

Týr (Heri) > I know some sales numbers. Not sure if my Napalm guy would be glad if I told you. But they are positive. We have sold over their expectations. And everybody is very happy with the sales numbers.

Twilightheart > How did the people in Scandinavia react to your music?

Týr > Quite good, I think one of the best gigs we played was in Denmark, our release party.

OhLi > What are you doing besides playing in Týr? Are you working or studying or something?

Týr (Heri) > I was actually fired when we started going on tour. I was teaching guitar at a school in the Faroes and then I told my boss that I had to do this tour and showed him the dates. So I lost my job. So… for now my job is touring. 

Twilightheart > But maybe that will pay out one day. Because people now start paying attention to you here in Germany. 

Heri > I’m so glad that you say that.

Týr (someone trying to speak German) > Gunnar ist ein Wasserkasten-Schweißer.

Týr (Gunnar) > So I take care of people’s shit. 

Týr (Kári) > I work at a fish factory. And I have started a café in a park in my town, along with some other guys. So we’re trying to make that work. So I’ve got a lot of work.

Týr > And Terji, our other guitar player, operates his fathers heavy machinery.

Twilightheart > Do you think more of you will have to quit their jobs because of touring in the future?

Týr > Yeah, maybe. Gunnar has been fired lots of times from his jobs because of touring. 

Twilightheart > I heared you already excist a bit longer and you are the only band from the Faroes that had a chance to get a record deal with any label. Why do you think do the other bands have no chance?

Týr > They don’t try hard enough. And I also think there are no bands that sound like us and that use the traditional Faroer-music. And nobody wants a band from the Faroes that sounds exactly like a band from England. And that’s what many of them do, so that’s not interesting. If you come from somewhere special, people want it to sound special. And we have a style that’s not completely normal in Metal, you know. 

Twilightheart > Is it possible that there is only 1 label excisting on your island anyway?

Týr > I think there are three. But only one is really big. And they release really crappy pop music.

OhLi > What were the first Metal bands you listened to when you were younger? 

Týr > Mötley Crew, Iron Maiden, Dio.

OhLi > How would you describe your music to an extraterrestrial?

Týr > This is the best music in the whole wide world. 

Twilightheart > Of course. Every band would answer like this. ;-)

Týr > OK, I would say: it’s music that comes from the vibration that is transferred by induction magnets into electric signals into my amplifyer … something like this? ;-)

Twilightheart > Is there anything special about your band that’s typical for you on stage? 

Týr > No, except that we would like to use our backdrop, but most stages are not big enough for it. But… we have a special thing for backstage. And that is: absolutely no smoking! But it’s almost impossible to get. 

Twilightheart > Are you health freaks?

Týr > No, we are not. We just don’t smoke.

Twilightheart (to Kári) > May I ask you what the rune tattoo on your arm means?

Kári > It means "Streymoy" and is my surname. It’s one of the islands in the Faroes and also my father’s surname.

Twilightheart > I really like it, it looks nice. In Germany unfortunately the use of some runes is forbidden by law.

Kári > These are Faroeish runes. What runes are forbidden in Germany? 

((Twilightheart explains the details…))

Kári > This is really stupid. What happens if you have it anyway?

OhLi > You get arrested.

Twilightheart > You have to pay money first or you get a warning.

Kári > But the vikings used it and they were there before…

OhLi + Twi > We know this! 

((An enthusiastic discussion developes and goes on for quite a while, but I’ll spare you the details.))

Twilightheart > Is there a conflict in your country between Christians and Pagans?

Týr > No, you can’t say that. Some people are extreme Christians, but not many. Maybe 80 % are modern Christians, they have not shown any negative attitude towards us, not at all. Although we are not Christians. We are Pagans. We all are tolerant towards each other. But there are some extremists groups, they can be very annoying, but they are not really a threat. We are interested in history, combined with what’s happening today. And also there’s a lot of Pagan law preserved inside Christianity. Everything didn’t just disappear when they introduced Christianity. Many things were incorporated into Christianity. I think even in Germany today you can find some things that people think of very Christian that originally have been Pagan. 

Twilightheart > How do you enjoy Germany, now that you’ve been around here a lot? What do you think of the country?

Týr > It’s a very nice country, especially the Bavarian site. You see the hills, there are many lakes and the German people are very nice.

Twilightheart > You just say so, because we are German. ;-)

Týr > No, really. Everything works in Germany. If you go to Poland, I like the Polish very much you know, but they have bad equipment, they have bad roads etc. And if you come to Germany everything’s fine… the logistics, everything works, everything is on time. It’s professional.

Twilightheart > At some parts 3 or 4 of you sing simultaneously on stage. Do you practise this in lessons or so?

Týr > No, we discovered actually, if 3 or 4 people sing at the same time, it’s anyway not important how your voice is. For a lead singer it’s very important to have a powerful and very special voice. For the backing vocals it sounds good anyway, even if you have no beautiful voice. 

Twilightheart > Haha, we should make this the headline for this interview: “You don’t need to have a beautiful voice…” ;-)

Oh well, we skipped the plan to make this the headline. :-) Thanks to Týr for their time and the fun! Twi. 

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