Thyrfing Interview

Thyrfing

Once upon a time it was easy to be a metal head. All you had to keep track of was that your were listening to heavy metal while everybody else was listening to Top 40 noise. Then it all got out of hand to where it is today where nobody seem to have any idea which bands play what. So instead of just one simple genre we now have a multitude of sub genres. Asked to define Swedish Thyrfing they’d end up under the viking metal tag. So defined because their lyrics are about the old ways of the Nordic Vikings. Musically some of these bands have strong ties with black metal but in the case of Thyrfing more and more good old heavy metal have snuck into their sound. With such a good album as “Urkraft” I saw no reason why not to hear what Patrick Lindgren (guitars) had to say. The rest of Thyrfing are T Väänänen (Vocals), H Svegsjö (guitars), J Kristensson (Drums), K Sjölund (Bass) and P Löf (Keyboards)
-Anders Ekdahl

Where to begin if not to ask Patrick how he feels that the new album “Urkraft” differs from the previous one “Valdr Galga”.
- You could say it’s a natural continuation. I feel that the production has been improved a bit this time but other than that it’s basically the same as the previous one. The songs are better, of course, but that’s what you’re supposed to say, isn’t it? I still feel that we have the same sound.

Do you notice that the audience is growing in the same rate as the band?
- That could be. The audience often grows more tolerant to outside influences when the band accepts outside influences. So all we can hope for is that the audience mature with us.

That’s a risk you take, because you often hear about bands that loose their audience as they grow.
- It could be that some people get tired of the band and therefor loose interest. Just because you like AC/DC’s first records does not mean that you’ll buy their new one. Some complain that bands change but that’s life.

This might be a tough one to answer but do you feel that Thyrfing’s growth curve lives up to the expectations you had on the band when you started it?
- Definitely more than we had expected. The curve might have panned out a bit now. It took us something like 3 years from we started to we recorded our first album. At that time the curve pointed upwards. Even if the curve have panned out a bit right now I’ve always felt that we’ve had one that have constantly pointed upwards. In the beginning maybe we evolved in a different tempo compared to now.

Have Thyrfing reached its peak or do you feel that there are more ways to take the sound in?
- You always have to set your ambitions high otherwise it would feel rather pointless doing this, at least for me. If I felt that we made a record that was worse than the previous one there would be no reason to waste energy on doing it. You always struggle to outdo what you’ve already done. Had it been different there had been no reason to put so much time into something like this.

I think it was the latest Aerosmith single I heard on the radio the other day, and that made me think that it must be hard to come up with new songs when you’ve done it for so long as they have.
- Some bands have been at it for more than 20 years. It’s hard thinking of being in that position. I have a hard time believing we will sound like we do know in 20 years time. We are aware of the fact that at some point the fun will end. I guess we will do this until we hit the brick wall. There are not many that finish while they’re ahead.

Something that I’ve been meaning to ask is about your lyrics. You write them about the old Vikings. What is it that’s so fascinating about these people?
- That’s a good question. It’s an interest we all have in the band. When we started we did it with this concept and we’ve continued to do so. All our lyrics are maybe not historically correct but it’s on this concept that we base it all. Nowadays it feels as if it’s a part of the music and if we were to loose it, it would feel wrong.

You mentioned that the lyrics might not be too historical correct. Have you had anybody come up and say that this and this are wrong?
- No, actually not. We have had these thoughts that somebody might read the lyrics and comment on but that hasn’t happened yet. Those who are really well versed in Norse Mythology don’t mind if you add your own bits’n’pieces. I guess it’s become less serious. In the beginning it might have been dead serious and it should be so correct but now we have more of a rock’n’roll attitude to it and people maybe don’t mind too much anymore. We have been asked questions about the lyrics.

Is it possible to make it historically correct and still write interesting lyrics and not just state fact upon fact in an ever so tedious line?
- That’s a question of balance. You have to have some artistic freedom when you write your lyrics. We are no historians. We are entertainers. There’s got to be a touch of heroism in the lyrics. It’s no fun writing about who they harvested the latest crop. As a foundation there’s got to be some historical authenticity.

With lyrics about the old Norse mythology have you ever had trouble with these dickheads that mix nazism and Norse mythology making claims?
- No, it’s more the other way round. We’ve found out that there are people like that who listens to Thyrfing but there’s nothing we can do about that. We as a band have nothing to do with that kind of ideology. The only thing that’s disturbing is that there’s pressure on us when we use the old Norse symbols because they’ve come to be connected with the nazis movement and that we might get in trouble further on for using them.

That is so whacked the way the Nazis have stolen our cultural heritage, a heritage that has nothing to do with their ideology. It has gone so far that it’s even shameful to put up a Swedish flag. It’s like with the Eagle emblem. As soon as you see one of those you automatically think of the Nazis.
- It started under the latter part of the Second World War when they started to use Nordic Runes. It’s a damn shame that the Nordic Runes get connected with Nazism. We’ve been doing this for a while now and we’ve had to accept that it’s like this. It’s sad that it is this way.

It must be tough having to defend you, like you’re doing now, every time you do an interview.
- Most interviews touch on it, not that they assume we are using the symbols for that purpose.

When you write your songs is there an already thought out plan as to how they should be or are they more spur of the moments kind of things?
- That differ. Sometime it can be really thought out. Sometime we write the music for the lyrics. Sometime it’s very spontaneous in a traditional jam sort of way. It’s not like we sit and compose, writing notes and stuff. At times you might have an idea you work from but must of the time it’s mostly spontaneous.

On this latest album there’s an almost 50/50 division between lyrics in Swedish and English. Is there a master plan behind which songs get lyrics in Swedish and which ones get them in English?
- That’s totally spontaneous. This time it ended up 50/50. We don’t want to limit ourselves so if I feel like writing in Swedish I should be able to do so. On the one before this new one we had more in Swedish but on the first I think it was almost 50/50 too. There’s no thought behind it. It’s a damn fine line to walk because you want the new one to do better commercially than the previous one did and you want to have the audience understand the lyrics, otherwise it’s just Sweden and Norway that get them. But you get a different feel when you use Swedish lyrics. It’s out mother tongue.

What I feel is that it can be hard writing lyrics in Swedish because you have to have sentences that ends up too long for a song just to be able to tell what it is your saying.
- Exactly, but that’s the challenge of writing lyrics in Swedish. When we started we did it all in Swedish. We’ll have to see what the future holds but right now it feels like we’ll continue doing it the way we do now.

When you signed to Hammerheart they were just beginning. Have you noticed that the band and the label have grown up together?
- Absolutely. When our first album was released I think it was catalogue number 16. I think they had mostly released demos prior to that. At that time I think it was only Aeternus and us that sold decent. They have since then grown and now it feels like we are among the highest priority. Now they have signed bands like Dismember, Macabre and some other.
- There’s been no reason for us so far to go looking elsewhere. The album was released in August 00 and that was when they did most of the promotion and it wasn’t until after that they started to sign new bands. We’ll have to wait ands see what comes out of it. If they continue the way they’ve done so far there’ll be no problems.

Something that I’ve been thinking of is that the American bands are more willing to go out in a half decent van and drive across the country just to get out and play.
- I think it has to do with the possibilities of playing live in USA and Canada. When we toured Europe with Nile and Cryptopsy they were overwhelmed by the high standard of living on the road and the food. I felt a little bit spoiled of our conditions.

I guess if you come from Canada it must be like paradise because there it’s like you either play the East Coast or you play the West Coast. In between there’s not many places to play.
- From what I’ve understood it’s pretty bad for a touring band in North America so they’ll do anything to play Europe.

What kind of reactions do you get from the audiences when you travel the roads of Europe?
- That’s different from place to place. The bigger tours we’ve been on the main acts have been more extreme death metal and on these tours we worried about how we’d do but I think the reactions been better than we’d expected them to be. It’s like being from two different worlds musically. People could like Thyrfing and Six Feet Under. On the other hand it also depends on the place you play, what size it is. Sometime you could play for almost empty houses. Last year toured as main band and then we noticed the difference. Most people come for the main acts.

You’ve done the old Gary Moore hit “Over The Hills And Far Away”. What was the idea behind that?
- There wasn’t much thought behind that one. We were told to do a bonus track and we thought of doing a cover. It’s a favourite for some of us and we’d never ever heard of anybody else doing it so we thought it would be a fun thing to do. We called in some friends who did background vocals and guitar solos. It’s not that serious. It was not meant to get as much attention as it has. I think it happens because it’s such an unusual choice for a cover.


	..........

		Thyrfing Once upon a time it was easy to be a metal head. All you had to keep track of was that your were listening to heavy metal while everybody else was listening to Top 40 noise. Then it all got out of hand to where it is today where nobody seem to have any idea which bands play what. So instead of just one simple genre we now have a multitude of sub genres. Asked to define Swedish Thyrfing they’d end up under the viking metal tag. So defined because their lyrics are about the old ways of the Nordic Vikings. Musically some of these bands have strong ties with black metal but in the case of Thyrfing more and more good old heavy metal have snuck into their sound. With such a good album as “Urkraft” I saw no reason why not to hear what Patrick Lindgren (guitars) had to say. The rest of Thyrfing are T Väänänen (Vocals), H Svegsjö (guitars), J Kristensson (Drums), K Sjölund (Bass) and P Löf (Keyboards) -Anders Ekdahl Where to begin if not to ask Patrick how he feels that the new album “Urkraft” differs from the previous one “Valdr Galga”. - You could say it’s a natural continuation. I feel that the production has been improved a bit this time but other than that it’s basically the same as the previous one. The songs are better, of course, but that’s what you’re supposed to say, isn’t it? I still feel that we have the same sound. Do you notice that the audience is growing in the same rate as the band? - That could be. The audience often grows more tolerant to outside influences when the band accepts outside influences. So all we can hope for is that the audience mature with us. That’s a risk you take, because you often hear about bands that loose their audience as they grow. - It could be that some people get tired of the band and therefor loose interest. Just because you like AC/DC’s first records does not mean that you’ll buy their new one. Some complain that bands change but that’s life. This might be a tough one to answer but do you feel that Thyrfing’s growth curve lives up to the expectations you had on the band when you started it? - Definitely more than we had expected. The curve might have panned out a bit now. It took us something like 3 years from we started to we recorded our first album. At that time the curve pointed upwards. Even if the curve have panned out a bit right now I’ve always felt that we’ve had one that have constantly pointed upwards. In the beginning maybe we evolved in a different tempo compared to now. Have Thyrfing reached its peak or do you feel that there are more ways to take the sound in? - You always have to set your ambitions high otherwise it would feel rather pointless doing this, at least for me. If I felt that we made a record that was worse than the previous one there would be no reason to waste energy on doing it. You always struggle to outdo what you’ve already done. Had it been different there had been no reason to put so much time into something like this. I think it was the latest Aerosmith single I heard on the radio the other day, and that made me think that it must be hard to come up with new songs when you’ve done it for so long as they have. - Some bands have been at it for more than 20 years. It’s hard thinking of being in that position. I have a hard time believing we will sound like we do know in 20 years time. We are aware of the fact that at some point the fun will end. I guess we will do this until we hit the brick wall. There are not many that finish while they’re ahead. Something that I’ve been meaning to ask is about your lyrics. You write them about the old Vikings. What is it that’s so fascinating about these people? - That’s a good question. It’s an interest we all have in the band. When we started we did it with this concept and we’ve continued to do so. All our lyrics are maybe not historically correct but it’s on this concept that we base it all. Nowadays it feels as if it’s a part of the music and if we were to loose it, it would feel wrong. You mentioned that the lyrics might not be too historical correct. Have you had anybody come up and say that this and this are wrong? - No, actually not. We have had these thoughts that somebody might read the lyrics and comment on but that hasn’t happened yet. Those who are really well versed in Norse Mythology don’t mind if you add your own bits’n’pieces. I guess it’s become less serious. In the beginning it might have been dead serious and it should be so correct but now we have more of a rock’n’roll attitude to it and people maybe don’t mind too much anymore. We have been asked questions about the lyrics. Is it possible to make it historically correct and still write interesting lyrics and not just state fact upon fact in an ever so tedious line? - That’s a question of balance. You have to have some artistic freedom when you write your lyrics. We are no historians. We are entertainers. There’s got to be a touch of heroism in the lyrics. It’s no fun writing about who they harvested the latest crop. As a foundation there’s got to be some historical authenticity. With lyrics about the old Norse mythology have you ever had trouble with these dickheads that mix nazism and Norse mythology making claims? - No, it’s more the other way round. We’ve found out that there are people like that who listens to Thyrfing but there’s nothing we can do about that. We as a band have nothing to do with that kind of ideology. The only thing that’s disturbing is that there’s pressure on us when we use the old Norse symbols because they’ve come to be connected with the nazis movement and that we might get in trouble further on for using them. That is so whacked the way the Nazis have stolen our cultural heritage, a heritage that has nothing to do with their ideology. It has gone so far that it’s even shameful to put up a Swedish flag. It’s like with the Eagle emblem. As soon as you see one of those you automatically think of the Nazis. - It started under the latter part of the Second World War when they started to use Nordic Runes. It’s a damn shame that the Nordic Runes get connected with Nazism. We’ve been doing this for a while now and we’ve had to accept that it’s like this. It’s sad that it is this way. It must be tough having to defend you, like you’re doing now, every time you do an interview. - Most interviews touch on it, not that they assume we are using the symbols for that purpose. When you write your songs is there an already thought out plan as to how they should be or are they more spur of the moments kind of things? - That differ. Sometime it can be really thought out. Sometime we write the music for the lyrics. Sometime it’s very spontaneous in a traditional jam sort of way. It’s not like we sit and compose, writing notes and stuff. At times you might have an idea you work from but must of the time it’s mostly spontaneous. On this latest album there’s an almost 50/50 division between lyrics in Swedish and English. Is there a master plan behind which songs get lyrics in Swedish and which ones get them in English? - That’s totally spontaneous. This time it ended up 50/50. We don’t want to limit ourselves so if I feel like writing in Swedish I should be able to do so. On the one before this new one we had more in Swedish but on the first I think it was almost 50/50 too. There’s no thought behind it. It’s a damn fine line to walk because you want the new one to do better commercially than the previous one did and you want to have the audience understand the lyrics, otherwise it’s just Sweden and Norway that get them. But you get a different feel when you use Swedish lyrics. It’s out mother tongue. What I feel is that it can be hard writing lyrics in Swedish because you have to have sentences that ends up too long for a song just to be able to tell what it is your saying. - Exactly, but that’s the challenge of writing lyrics in Swedish. When we started we did it all in Swedish. We’ll have to see what the future holds but right now it feels like we’ll continue doing it the way we do now. When you signed to Hammerheart they were just beginning. Have you noticed that the band and the label have grown up together? - Absolutely. When our first album was released I think it was catalogue number 16. I think they had mostly released demos prior to that. At that time I think it was only Aeternus and us that sold decent. They have since then grown and now it feels like we are among the highest priority. Now they have signed bands like Dismember, Macabre and some other. - There’s been no reason for us so far to go looking elsewhere. The album was released in August 00 and that was when they did most of the promotion and it wasn’t until after that they started to sign new bands. We’ll have to wait ands see what comes out of it. If they continue the way they’ve done so far there’ll be no problems. Something that I’ve been thinking of is that the American bands are more willing to go out in a half decent van and drive across the country just to get out and play. - I think it has to do with the possibilities of playing live in USA and Canada. When we toured Europe with Nile and Cryptopsy they were overwhelmed by the high standard of living on the road and the food. I felt a little bit spoiled of our conditions. I guess if you come from Canada it must be like paradise because there it’s like you either play the East Coast or you play the West Coast. In between there’s not many places to play. - From what I’ve understood it’s pretty bad for a touring band in North America so they’ll do anything to play Europe. What kind of reactions do you get from the audiences when you travel the roads of Europe? - That’s different from place to place. The bigger tours we’ve been on the main acts have been more extreme death metal and on these tours we worried about how we’d do but I think the reactions been better than we’d expected them to be. It’s like being from two different worlds musically. People could like Thyrfing and Six Feet Under. On the other hand it also depends on the place you play, what size it is. Sometime you could play for almost empty houses. Last year toured as main band and then we noticed the difference. Most people come for the main acts. You’ve done the old Gary Moore hit “Over The Hills And Far Away”. What was the idea behind that? - There wasn’t much thought behind that one. We were told to do a bonus track and we thought of doing a cover. It’s a favourite for some of us and we’d never ever heard of anybody else doing it so we thought it would be a fun thing to do. We called in some friends who did background vocals and guitar solos. It’s not that serious. It was not meant to get as much attention as it has. I think it happens because it’s such an unusual choice for a cover.