When TÝR announced that they would play some concerts together with the Faroese Symphonic Orchestra, I knew there was only one thing to do: Travel to the Faroe Islands to experience this. And of course that was a good opportunity to have a chat with Heri Joensen, head of the band, about the past and future of the TÝR. I also had the opportunity to talk with the conductor and the CEO of the orchestra and you will find these interviews soon here as well. Pretty typical for the Faroe Islands everything was still a bit chaos, everybody was in a hurry and so we didn’t have that much time for the interview and rather sprinted through it and I also had to skip some of the questions. Also we saved us from any greetings, knowing also we would have time for that later after the shows and so we managed to do the interview and Heri only being 15 minutes too late to his meeting with the conductor. Unfortunately things changed a lot since we did this interview. Corona, or rather Covid-19, has shaken the musical world and some things we are talking about, especially the tours, have changed. Unfortunately TÝR had to postpone their North American and the Australian tour and we can only hope that things will be back to normal in a few weeks or months. But here we go:
Anne: So let’s start without instructions or anything: Can this show be considered as TÝRs birthday show?
Heri: I’m afraid not. We wanted to make a birthday show for the 10th, 15th, 20th… [laughs]. It’s all gone now. This is really a project of the leader of the Symphony Orchestra. It was his idea. It is his last project. There is a new little taking over for him now and it’s a good timing and it is purely his making and all his idea. It’s a nice timing for us also as it’s around 20 years ago since we started. A bit more actually. And a bit less than 20 years ago since we released the first album, so it’s around there, but it’s not really the meaning of this.
Anne: When you resume the last 20 years, would you change anything looking back or would you say you have made some bad decisions?
Heri [laughs]: I would listen to my friends’ advice and not become a musician and do something that can pay the bills actually. I don’t know. I should have started earlier. I was 27 when I started and I should have skipped everything from 17 to 27 and start with music immediately. So maybe I would now be where I will be in 10 years.
Anne: And has coming from the Faroes been a pro or a con for the band in retrospective?
Heri: I think a pro. Just because of the folk music and people are very curious about the Faroes when they hear about it. And I talked to some people who worked in advertising for record labels and they told me it’s very important where a band comes from. Thomas Caser from Napalm Records once told me that if he had precisely the same band playing exactly the same music as we did but came from Italy he probably couldn’t sell it. So I take his word for it, it’s been a pro.
Anne: Those were the fastest selling concerts that ever took place here. What are your thoughts about that?
Heri: The Symphony Orchestra must be very good [laughs]. I never really heard them.
Anne: And people where asking for yet another additional concert. Why didn’t this happen?
Heri: Because it’s very expensive to keep the symphonic orchestra. I think there are 80 people. And they all have to be paid, they all have to be fed and housed and slaughtered and refrigerated [laughs]. No, fed and housed and even though they sell out it’s more expense than income.
Anne: Have there been any considerations to do this concert somewhere else in central Europe where more fans of your band could attend?
Heri: Yes, the CEO of the Symphonic Orchestra, Poul Jákub Thomsen is his name, he has a plan to take this project to Denmark and Iceland if he can. If we do this somewhere else in the future, probably not very soon. It is extremely difficult to find the money for this, I understand. Fortunately that’s not my job. But yes, we will take this to Europe and to Iceland and wherever we can. I told them I’m not going to say no. Whatever we can do I’m in, immediately. So let’s see what they come up with. I hope it happens.
Anne: And do you know how many fans travelled from abroad to the concert?
Heri: Two! [laughs]:
Anne: No, that’s not true.
Heri: No. Catharina is coming today, so three at least. Probably more. But only my friends because you could only buy tickets if I sent you the link and told you were to go and the second when to buy it. I guess you were in a good time to buy the tickets, it was very difficult to get them. Even people who knew how to buy were too late. So I think not many foreigners are coming, only those who knew exactly how to buy it. That’s my guess.
Anne: I know of three others, without Cat. I didn’t know she comes.
Heri: Good, so that was six.
Anne: This is a question you have already partly answered: When did you have the idea for this concert?
Heri: It was Poul Jákup Thomsens idea. It must be three years ago since he contacted me for the first time. We had a few meetings, five meetings maybe, starting already years ago. Just talking about if we were interested, what we would need - which is a very small part of everything, it’s much more about what the symphony orchestra needs. It’s really his project, honestly. I have very little to do with this. Other than I made the music.
Anne: And when did you start to really make concrete plans?
Heri: The date, for example, we put that down more than a year ago. And that is as far as our planning goes. The rest is all up to Thomsen.
Anne: How long took the preparation of the concert, what was needed, how much did you practice?
Heri: We’re playing one song that we never played before. And we practice since Monday in a rehearsal room in Tórshavn. And I prepared better than I usually do before concerts for this because it’s gonna be recorded on TV and hopefully released in some form. So it’s not terribly much preparation we just have to memorize everything properly and practice well.
Anne: And what other preparations had to be done before you even started to practice? Things like getting the notes for the orchestra?
Heri: Oh, yes, of course. I have everything in notes already. I write all the music in notes, even before we record it, so I just sent it to the guy in Iceland who does the orchestration [Haraldur V. Sveinbjörnson] so that wasn’t very much work.
Anne: For you.
Heri: For me, at least. A lot of work for him.
Anne: And how often do you get to practice together with the orchestra?
Heri: Twice. Today and tomorrow. But they practiced. The choir is practicing on their own. The orchestra is spread, I think strings practicing somewhere, brass practicing somewhere. And all together. So it’s not like they’re playing everything for the first time now.
Anne: And the guy who arranged the songs for orchestra, Haraldur V. Sveinbjörnson, do you know how much time he needed to do this?
Heri: I think he spent half a year or a bit more maybe, doing this. It’s his fulltime job. Arranging for orchestra.
Anne: Did working with the orchestra give you a new perspective on your own songs?
Heri: No, I haven’t heard it yet. The orchestrations. So I will hear them today for the first time.
Anne: Are you curious?
Heri: Yes. Yes, I am. I’m very curious. But I’m almost certain I’m gonna like it. The same guy did SKÁLMÖLDs orchestrations and I thought it was very, very good.
Anne: How did you select the songs for the show?
Heri: We thought we have to play some popular songs, like “Ormurin Langi”, in the Faroes, at least. And then we also thought that it should be symphonic songs. That’s why we play “Álvur Kongur” for example, it’s the last song of the new album. And the rest are songs we played before. And we also thought if we have to play too many new songs, it will be hard to rehearse for it and playing songs for the first time is risky. Because it’s never 100%. So we have one new song and the rest popular songs and orchestra friendly songs - in my opinion at least.
Anne: Will it have any affects on the show that Attila [Vörös] left the band? And do you already have a replacement?
Heri: Attila played a Hungarian folk solo at the shows we played recently and was supposed to do that here, too. So we had to cancel that. Because Terji is playing instead. So the show is going to be as good as it would have been anyway because we have Terji. The only thing is that we skipped some of Attilas solo parts.
Anne: Will the concert be released on CD or DVD?
Heri: I don’t know yet. In the contract we have the right to do with it as we like so we have made no plans but I guess it would be nice to make a DVD. Or at least videos for YouTube. We haven’t decided yet.
Anne: And if Gunnar would also leave, as the last remaining original member, would you go on with TÝR?
Heri: Yes. I’m afraid. I’d try to stop but I’m afraid I will do this until I die.
Anne: Do you have any future plans now for TÝR?
Heri: Just tours. Or well, actually, we wanted to plan the next album while we have everybody here, the booker and the manager, but immediate plans are tours, North America, Australia and stuff.
Anne: And where do you see yourself and TÝR in 10 years?
Heri [laughs]: Making more money. I don’t know. It is hard to say. We’re just doing more of the same, trying to do it better and better.
Anne: Years ago you told me you’re not a big fan of the non-clean singing style. But now you started growling yourself. What changed your mind?
Heri: Jari Mäenpää and Johan Hegg. WINTERSUN and AMON AMARTH. I listened to them very, very, very much and of course Terji made the song “Gates Of Hel” and I thought it was kind of a growling song so I just tried it.
Anne: When will the new HELJAREYGA album be released?
Heri: Motherfucker… I was just convinced to postpone it until after the next TÝR album. I really had the plan that after the SURMA album which I just finished a couple of days ago I would make the new HELJAREYGA album but I talked to the manager and the booker and we had an actual meeting about what to do next and they convinced me to postpone that crap. Cause you’re never going to make money from that. And I did. So my plan now is next TÝR album and then the next HELJAREYGA album. Hopefully. I have all the music. If I had my computer I could show you.
Anne: You just have to record it.
Heri: You should follow me around for a day and see how much time I have for crap like that [laughs].
Anne: I would just poke you. Do it! Do it! Do it! Then you will get a lot of stuff done.
Heri: Oh yes. Why didn’t I think of that?
Anne: How many countries were you able to visit thanks to the band?
Heri: Oh, many. Very many. I didn’t count. 20, 30, at least.
Anne: Are there any countries you really want to visit? Where you want to play?
Heri: Yes. Yes, there are. We’re going to go to Australia and New Zealand. And China. I always wanted to go to New Zealand. It’ll be usual. We fly in, hotel, venue, bar, hotel, fly out again, so no time to see anything unfortunately. But it will be nice to go there at least. We were in Japan recently, that was wonderful. And we’re gonna go back in May. Going to China, if they will let anyone in. Or out. When that day comes. There are many. I would like to go everywhere. Everywhere.
Anne: And a few months ago your facebook page has been hacked and all the content was deleted…
Heri: It wasn’t hacked. Someone hijacked it from us.
Anne: …yes, and everything was deleted, all the old content. How did you experience that and what effort was necessary to get it back?
Heri: I tried everything with Facebook. It is extremely difficult to complain to them about anything and reaching a person is difficult. And when I finally used the function that someone had stolen my creative content – I think you can call a Facebook page your creative content because it’s your brand name and everything then someone reacted immediately because they can be sued I guess, if they let that go on. Someone can sue them when they allow that someone steals from you and I guess someone just took a look at it and saw it happen and just put it back in charge. Without anything. It’s just difficult to reach the right person. To reach a person at all at facebook. But the older stuff is gone, not coming back. I think there is someone in Vietnam who developed the method to hijack pages and then sells them to people who sell stuff. It’s like you can buy a page that already has a million likes. And it was my mistake. There was a scam. And I experienced something similar before and it was not a scam. We had a cooperation with a company that paid us some money to help them with advertisement. But this time it was actually scam and as soon as they got the access, they kicked everyone off. It looked the same, but it wasn’t.
Anne: So do you have any tips for other bands so they don’t have to experience the same?
Heri: Yes. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. One in a hundred it isn’t, but 99 out of hundred it is too good to be true.
Anne: And would you like to thank the Sea Shepherds for all the free advertisement?
Heri [laughs]. Yes. Thank you Mr. Watson for the incredible advertisement. I couldn’t have come up with it myself!
Anne: Thank you for taking the time and doing the interview!
Heri: Thank you!
Live pictures: Anne, picture of Heri and me: Andrea H.
