SOURCE – Your new album, Men Guðs hond er sterk comes out in a few days. How are you feeling about it upon the release?
Theodor Kapnas (Guitar) – We are very excited to finally be able to release the album to the world. We are quite proud with how it turned out, I think we achieved what we set out to do with the record, so we’re hoping that people will be able to enjoy it.
SOURCE – Hamferð has released two songs, Ábær and Hvølja, from your upcoming new album. Are they indicative of what fans can look forward to on the entire record?
Theodor Kapnas (Guitar) – I’d say all the songs on the record are all quite different. Ábær is probably more similar to our earlier work than Hvølja, which is quite unique to us. However, we do feel that the songs on the album fit together, so we’re confident that people will enjoy the record if they enjoyed the first two songs. But the rest of the album is not just more of the same, we have put quite some effort into making it a varied effort, hopefully people will appreciate that.
SOURCE – What do you enjoy most about the sextet format for the band? Are there specific advantages or disadvantages that come into play?
Theodor Kapnas (Guitar) – Being a sextet is a key part of Hamferð – we’ve had six musicians in the band ever since I joined in the first year of the band’s existence. Everybody has a role to play, and Hamferð would not be able to have the same sound if we were fewer guys. Having two guitars and a keyboard gives possibilities for some of the big soundscapes which we really like playing around with.
The main disadvantage of being a sextet is logistics – at times it would be much easier to just be a trio. But it doesn’t work with the artistic vision of the band, so there’s no use in thinking too much about that.
SOURCE – You guys sing in Faroese, so I’m not going to ask you to dissect the whole album, but generally speaking, what sorts of things are you singing about on this album?
Theodor Kapnas (Guitar) – The album is based on a historic event – the whaling disaster in Sandvík in 1915. On a winter day in February four boats set out from the small villages of Sandvík and Hvalba to drive a group of whales ashore for food. The weather turned bad, and fourteen young men drowned while their families were watching from the beach. Esmar, our keyboard player, is from the village of Sandvík, so we have been discussing making a record about the event for quite a few years now. After we finished the conceptual trilogy of albums with our last record “Támsins likam” we decided quite quickly that the album should be about “skaðagrindin”. However, the lyrics on the album are not historically accurate – they are about fictionalized events which are inspired by the tragedy.
We have had requests for lyric translations for many years, and for this record we have translated the lyrics to the eight songs. They are available in the booklet/lyric sleeve of the album, and they are also available on our website hamferd.fo . So if people are interested in reading what the lyrics are about they can be found translated at these places.
SOURCE – How did you develop the concept for the Ábær video?
Theodor Kapnas (Guitar) – The concept for the video was created by the director, Gaui H Pic. He took inspiration from what the song and album are about and created the idea for the video. We then worked together with him and the actor/choreographer Búi Rouch to tweak the concept and finish the video. I’m not going to say too much about what it’s about – we like to leave it open to interpretation, since there are many ways to interpret the video.
SOURCE – Several artists have recently been talking about issues with streaming services and losing money, while others have been defending it. What are your thoughts on this evolution of the music industry?
Theodor Kapnas (Guitar) – I think it’s a very complex subject to discuss – you can sit for a whole evening just discussing the pros and cons of Spotify, streaming in general and the effect of the digital age on music. On one hand I am against the Spotify model, since artists have a hard time getting revenue for their creative work and somebody else profits quite handsomely off it – some would call it legalized piracy. On the other hand it has never been easier to release and promote your music than it is right now. Everyone can pretty much record their own music at home with a laptop, so the market is extremely saturated with the sheer quantity of music released every day. There’s a lot of mediocre music being released to the masses, and we live in an age of entitlement, where a lot of people feel that they automatically deserve money, success and recognition if they release an album. However, there is also a lot of amazing music being released every week, you just have to know where to look. Since there is so much stuff being released and so many artists competing for airplay it’s quite natural that it’s harder to create revenue for your music than what it used to be. But on the other hand it’s easier to release music and easier for people to listen to it, which I’d rank as the most important thing as a musician. So there is no simple answer to your question – the world is changing all the time, and we just have to try to keep up with it as best we can.
SOURCE – How do you view the state of the metal scene within Faroe Islands and beyond – are there specific styles that you think are gaining more traction globally, and are there any changes you would like to make for the greater good of everyone involved?
Theodor Kapnas (Guitar) – I don’t follow the global metal scene that closely, so I am not sure that I have a good answer to your question about styles. The metal scene in The Faroe Islands is not as active as it has been, but there is still some good stuff being released. I can recommend Eyðun’s and Esmar’s second band Ótti, which has released one album. Týr and Hamradun are also releasing new records this spring, so there’s maybe a bit of a renaissance going on at the moment…
I do feel that a lot of newer metal is missing the edge and aggression which was often present in the age before digital editing and sample replacement. A lot of stuff released nowadays sounds very similar to each other, since people use the same drum libraries, guitar amp simulators etc. When you edit music to be “perfect” you often lose the intangible feeling which makes the music feel lively and aggressive. I think there are several reasons for this. One reason is that bands don’t play as much together in a rehearsal space as they used to, many metal bands are laptop projects. One other reason is that people have less time and money to create albums, so they try to be as efficient as possible, which means that people edit more and focus less on getting the right performance. Don’t get me wrong, you can make fantastic albums this way. But you can also create sonically presentable albums with no substance, since you just have to follow a few steps to make the music sound decent.
I’m not sure what changes can or should be made, again it’s just a sign of the current times and technologies available for people to be creative. I guess “Men Guðs hond er sterk” is a bit of a statement against this way of making music – we recorded the album live in the studio without a click track to make it sound like a band playing together, not like a laptop production. And I really do feel that it adds something to the music which is missing on so many records today. But we’ve been playing together as a band for 15 years and have access to a proper studio, which are luxuries that many bands don’t have.
SOURCE – Anything else you’d like to mention or promote?
Theodor Kapnas (Guitar) – We are very much looking forward to being able to release “Men Guðs hond er sterk” on March 22, 2024. We hope that our Brazilian fans will enjoy the record, and we hope to be able to visit your beautiful country at some point in the future!
Photo Credit: Gaui H Pic
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