Interview with Heri Joensen, vocalist of Týr

Týr is a viking metal band founded in 1998 by Heri Joensen (vocalist) and Kári Streymoy (drummer), from Tórshavn, Faroe Islands.

Photo of Heri Joensen at the Sala Copernico (Madrid)



-Has any god from the Norse mythology inspired you more than the others?
Heri Joensen: I think the most inspiring are Tyr and Odin. Probably Odin is more inspiring, because there's simply more stories about him.

-What's your favourite story from the Norse mythology?
H. Joensen: The chaining of Fenrir the wolf

-On this subject I would like to ask you something: Despite your band is called Týr, you don't have any song related with this myth, probably the most famous one. Why?
H. Joensen: No, not yet (laughs). Maybe it's becoming

-In the CD called "The Lay of Thrym" you have a song called "Shadow of the Swastika". Can you tell us your opinion about the relationship between this symbol and the paganism?
H. Joensen: Yes, well, the Swastika has been used for thousand of years in Asia and also for at least one thousand years in Europe. And when Hitler did what he did, nobody approached to that, but to call anything that uses runes or all that stuff that the nazis used, call them nazis, without checking if people are really nazi or not. There's some hysteria they're gone into in Germany, some of them, not all, and I wrote the song as a reaction

Heri Joensen with me