The Moshville Times - Tyr: quick interview

I was supposed to interview Tyr at the recent Classic Grand gig, but I was unable to do so for technical reasons (I think there was an issue which caused soundchecks to run on so there simply wasn’t the time).

However, the lovely Andy from Metal Blade ed my questions on to them via email and I’ve just had them back. Frontman Heri had these things to say…

You most recently signed to Metal Blade with a three-album deal, which will take you to an impressive nine albums overall. Is there any pressure knowing you have that much more original material to create, or do you see it more as an enjoyable challenge?

Personally I don’t feel any pressure, as I’m sure we’ll make our best albums so far on our contract with Metal Blade. It’s just a question of taking the time and arranging the work, and we’re already on top of that.

There’s a huge variety of styles and languages used in your music. A bit of research gave me a list of English, Faroese, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic, Swedish, Irish and Danish! Do you have a gift for languages, or are there many similarities?

We’ve used finnish or irish lyrics, but we’ve used finnish and irish traditional music. As for the other ones we’ve used the languages. There are similarities between the scandinavian languages, but finnish is not one of them. I like languages and we’ve used them and probably will continue to on our future albums.

How easy or difficult is it adapting traditional legends and tales into a metal style?

It’s very easy to work with and the more experienced we get at it the better I think our results are.

You’ve started putting cover songs on the “special editions” of albums, notably two RJ Dio tracks on The Lay of Thrym and Maiden/Pantera numbers on Valkyrja. Who chooses the songs you’ll put on? Is there a lot of discussion or argument? :) Were the Dio ones a deliberate tribute after his death?

Sometime between By The Light Of The Northern Star and The Lay Of Thrym we decided to cover the favourite song of each band member. So that’s four covers, two on the last album and two on this one. “Cemetery Gates” is Terji’s favourite song and “Where Eagles Dare” is Gunnar’s favourite song. We decided to cover Rainbow and Black Sabbath, both Dio songs, before we heard that he had cancer, so it is a coincidence that it coincided with all the tribute versions. Although I am all for giving tribute to Ronnie James Dio, long may his legacy endure.

So, the next two albums within your contract… are they already mapped out? Is there anything you could reveal about them, or is it far too early?

Terji and I had a talk about it a few evenings ago and we decided on the basic concept and to some degree on which songs to put on. We’d rather not reveal anything about the album yet.

Finally, a couple of football questions! I’m based in Glasgow and the Faroe Islands are known for famously drawing 2-2 against Scotland. First – why do the Faroe Islands have two home grounds?

I have no idea, I’m not that much into football. I guess it is to confuse the enemy. The home grounds are not really the same, so I guess it’s to our advantage if we can chose the home ground that the opposing team will be less used to.

[The second part of this question is hopefully coming in a future email, but I won’t hold it against the guys if they don’t have time :) ]