Mind Over Metal Interviews Heri Joensen- 2011

Interview with Heri Joensen of TYR Posted on September 16, 2011 by MetalMattLongo

This is a written, slightly abbreviated phone interview I had with Heri Joensen of Týr on May 15th 2011 to speak about the band and more specifically their upcoming album The Lay of Thrym. He was super polite, intelligent, and interesting to interview, and I feel privileged that I got the opportunity to speak with him.

I’m speaking with Heri from the band Týr, lead guitarist and lead vocalist. How are you?

I’m good, thanks for asking.

So you have a new album coming out… can you tell us anything about it?

Yeah, it’s an album in the same line as the last one. We tried to make music more accessible without becoming too commercialize and without losing our national and music integrity. The lyrical concept of the album is mythological, The Lay of Thrym from Nordic mythology. It’s used to represent a more contemporary issue. What I really wrote about is the popular uprising in North Africa and the Middle East against tyranny and dicatorship, and I felt the myth about Thrym and Thor would represent that well because one is the tyrant and one is the protector of the people. So what really inspired my lyrics for this one was international news from December and onwards.