Talking with . . . Thyrfing
Interviewed 2/24/2006 by Brett VanPut
Thyrfing remind me of Primordial and Falkenbach, these are bands which combine heavy metal, black metal, and folk music for a unique sound and all three bands are heavily acclaimed despite a lack of commercial success. The band released four albums on Hammerheart Records before signing a new deal with Regain Records for the release of Farsotstider. Previous to Farsotstider, 2002's Vansinnesvisor was considered to be Thyrfing's breakthrough, as they wrote music which was more accessible but kept the key elements of their early records. Here are some questions we asked Thyrfing to ponder as Farsotstider hits the stores.
Vansinnesvisor received a great response and was a landmark in Thyrfing's career, how does Farsotstider compare?
It seems that the press, the listeners and ourselves agree that Farsotstider measures up well. Your latest work is always the one you feel most for at the moment, but Vansinnesvisor is also a strong album, and I feel there is a certain connection between these two, both when it comes to song writing, production and the general atmosphere. In retrospective I think that Farsotstider is slightly more melodic and transparent, while Vansinnesvisor is heavier and rougher.
I see you used two different studios and spent more time on the production of the new album, explain what you did differently this time around.
There were several reasons, but mainly geographical facts and that we wanted to be a bigger part of the production ourselves this time. Daniel Bergstrand is a great producer and did a great job on Vansinnesvisor, but it’s pretty much his ideas or nothing, and we felt that we were ready taking a bigger responsibility ourselves on this album.
Do you feel more secure now on Regain Records as compared to Hammerheart and the problems they faced?
I wouldn’t say there is such a big difference for us in practice. We always had good budgets and promotional support from Hammerheart, but as the situation is today, Karmageddon Media (ex-Hammerheart) couldn’t provide that support anymore, and overall Regain feels like a much better label with a bright future.
It's been a couple of years between albums; did you need a break to recharge and be more creative or were there other factors?
Yeah, I guess that was the main reason, even though there are always several factors. We usually say it was a creative break, and also we decided not to put any pressure on the productivity. After all, this is not what we do for our living, so then it should be something that feels inspiring and that we enjoy doing. So, obviously we needed three years this time, but I hope that people feel it’s worth it.
How did your U.S. show with Moonsorrow and Primordial go last month? What was your impression of the time you spent in America?
This festival was a great experience, and the reactions from people were extremely positive. All the best to Kris and John for putting it together. We really enjoyed ourselves on and off-stage and it seems like all the people, who’d been travelling all from Mexico and Canada had a good time. Three great main acts, and three great shows as I see it.
Your lyrics deal with conflicts and situations of the past, but in today's world there are major conflicts and problems; do you feel your lyrics can have relevance for today's society as well?
Yes, even though we don’t have a specific message, some of the lyrics have a subtle meaning and reflects personal things and comments more relevant topics of today’s life. They are not written in a way to complain, moralize or anything like that, but still there are sometimes more than just fantasy and tales behind them.
Why do you prefer not to tour? Do you have too many commitments (i.e. family, work) to be able to spend weeks or months on the road?
We have done some touring, but not much and in our current situation, there’s just no way we could make it happen. As I said before, the band is not what pay our rents and put food on our table, so we have to squeeze the band activities in between our other commitments in life. However, we enjoy playing live, so we will most likely show up every now and then at festivals and other occasional happenings.
The new album is now your fifth, did you ever think you would have lasted this long and be this successful?
Not when we started out, but over the years we’ve obviously realized that we are a band with good song writing skills as so many people seems to appreciate it, and that both record labels and other people think it’s worth putting time and money into Thyrfing.
What plans do you have the rest of this year?
We’ll do some festival gigs in the summer, and hopefully start getting new songs together for a sixth Thyrfing album.
Final comments?
A big cheers to all people in the U.S. (and elsewhere) who buys and listens to our stuff. Keep your bookmarks at www.thyrfing.com for official news and updates.
Discography:
2005... Farsotstider (Regain)
2002... Vansinnesvisor (Hammerheart)
2000... Urkraft (Hammerheart)
1999... Valdr Galga (Hammerheart)
1998... Thyrfing (Hammerheart)
Current line-up:
Thomas Vaananen... vocals
Henrik Svegsjo... guitars
Patrik Lindgren... guitars
Kimmy Sjolund... bass
Joakim Kristensson... drums
Peter Lof... keyboards
Thyrfing
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