Funeral Rain Press Corps

First off, thanks for taking the time to answer a few of my questions! It’s always a bit of a rush knowing that someone who makes awesome fucking metal that I love to bang my head to is going to respond to my fair unimaginative questions.

Heri Joensen:  My pleasure :-)

Like too many others, I had no idea what the Faroe Islands were before I listened to TYR. Is that a possible ulterior motive, to help raise awareness to ignorant Americans about your beautiful country?

No. We never set out to be ambassadors for our islands. But we often find that in effect we are, so it’s a side effect really.

Is there a reason as to why there has been a bit of a decline in the folksy influence (at least instrumentally) as of late? I mean, yes it’s still there, but it’s not nearly as immense as it was in previous albums.

We have deliberately steered a bit away from the explicitly folky material, although you may still find it here and there. We think we have something more to offer and we want to disassociate ourselves somewhat with the genres Folk, Pagan and Viking. We think that may do our career some good.

While touring, do you receive warmer receptions in certain countries or do the people everywhere you go already know that you rule?

It happens that we play for a heavy crowd that hasn’t heard of us before, and that doesn’t obviously want to hear us. But that’s mostly when we are supporting bigger bands. I would say it’s much more common that the people who come to our shows already know our music, and are glad to hear the songs live.

Not A Question: “Kiss my Scandinavian ass” is one of the best anythings I’ve heard in a song for a great, long while. So, thank you for that!

I’m glad you like it :-D

Is there a song that you guys play live that never seems to fail at getting the crowd’s blood flowing? Hold The Heathen Hammer High comes to mind…

Yes, that and By The Sword In My Hand and Tróndur í Gøtu are songs that always makes people go apeshit! It’s a pleasure to witness from the stage and that makes playing live worth it in it self.

Call me crazy, but you lot seem like a hard partying bunch. Do you have a wild stories from the road that you can share here with incriminating yourselves in several high courts?

I can only speak for myself here. I’m not the hardest partying guy in metal today, but I do remember once I got pretty drunk and threw up in the sink on the tourbus. The next morning I went jogging and I threw up WHILE jogging, and after that I had to take apart the drain under the sink to clear out the puke remainds that were clogging the drain. Yes, sometimes stuff like that happens :-D Maybe I could add that the other guys aren’t tea-totallers either ;-)

Is there a chance that in the future that TYR will play anything that isn’t related to Norse mythology or The Faroe Islands? Or is TYR concrete in that concept?

That’s easy. We already have songs that are not related to mythology or the Faroes, so that already happened. Songs like Shadow Of The Swastika or Rainbow Warrior from the Eric The Red album.

Obligatory Stupid/Silly/Retarded Question: How often have you heard somebody say “You guys are TYRiffic!” and how tired of it are you?

I’ve heard and read that a few times, yes, but I never tire from hearing it again.

Is there anything you’d like to add for the Funeral Rain audience?