2005 Interview with Heri Joensen about the Origin of Týr

Here’s the story: Kari Streymoy and me formed the band in January 1998 in Copenhagen, Denmark. We had played together before in the Faeroes. Kari had moved to Denmark some time before, and I had just arrived. We met at a party, and the first thing I said to him was, Lets make a band. That very moment was the forming of the band. Then we contacted Gunnar H. Thomsen, a bassist that we had both been playing together with in the Faeroes, who had also moved to Denmark. We lacked only a singer. That was taken care of when Pol Arni Holm moved to Denmark (A lot of Faeroese move to Denmark for education). We asked him to join the band and he agreed. In December 2001 I called Terji, an amazing guitar virtuoso, only 18 years old at the time that I had met at the Prix Foroyar music competition in the Faroes in April 01. He participated in the competition with another band. We had talked about our musical influences and interests and found we had much in common. He left his band a few months after that, and I thought we better get him before someone else did. So it came to be that the four of us ended up together.

What caused your original singer to leave, is he still in the music industry?

The Christmas of 2002 Pol Arni moved back to the Faeroes. This became more and more of a problem, and when he started his education as a carpenter, which he gave top priority; it became even more apparent that he was not able to combine this with a career in a serious band. He had been talking about leaving the band several times before that so it was no shock. He has sung in a local entertainment cover Rock band, but quit last summer. I don’t think he’s involved in music at the moment.