1. Greetings to Hamferð! You are quite a new musical formation, and even though I do not like these introducing questions, I would like to ask you for a few facts from the history of the band... Where did the initial idea of starting the band come from, who was the "headstone", what was the intention with the band etc.?

Greetings to you as well! The founder of the band was John Egholm (guitar). He had been in a melodic metal band from The Faroes called Synarchy, and he got fed up with trying to play 1000 notes per second. So one day towards the end of 2008 he got the idea to start a doom metal band which was basically the opposite of that, and it all evolved from there. He called Remi Johannesen(drums) and they started jamming. A few months (weeks?) later Hamferð played their first show with current bassist Tinna Tótudóttir, current vocalist Jón Hansen and John's ex-girlfriend on violin, believe it or not. The first show was in a band competition called GBOB(Global Battle Of The Bands), and and Hamferð actually reached the national final of the competition. After that show everything went into a bit of a hiatus and John's ex left the band. I(Theodor Kapnas, guitar) was studying audio engineering in Sweden, and I'd been talking with John about the project for some time, so I joined and most of the writing happened online. Me and John got together during the summer of 2009 and started recording riffs onto my laptop, with programmed drums and bass, and everything started moving on from there. At that time we were also joined by our current keyboard member Esmar Joensen to complete the current lineup.

During fall of 2009 Jón and John came to visit me in Sweden, where we recorded our first demo, containing the tracks Opið Hav and Ódn. We started practicing properly with the band around Christmas of 2009, and in January 2010 we joined another band competition in The Faroe Islands called Sement. I, Tinna and Jón were all abroad, so John handled the vocals, and we had great help from stand-in members Harald í Kálvalíð (guitar) and Jenus í Trøðini (bass, Incurse, www.myspace.com/incurse - check them out!). Hamferð actually managed to win Sement, and the rest is history. We got gigs at the big festivals on The Faroe Islands, we got great exposure, and I'd like to think that it was at the right point of our career. One of the tracks of our 2009 demo, Opið Hav, was actually number one on the national radio's hitlist.

During the summer of 2010 we played a few bigger gigs at G! Festival and Summarfestivalurin, where we got mentioned in amongst others Kerrang! and local media, gaining very good reviews in the process.

When we won Sement, we won a week's studio time, which we used to record drums for our EP, Vilst er síðsta fet. Since I'm studying audio engineering and love recording music we could do everything ourselves, with me handling the engineering duties. The drums were recorded in Studio Oyravox in Nólsoy, the other instruments were recorded in various bedrooms with my laptop, and the vocals were recorded in the studio of my school in Sweden, where I also mixed the album. We released the album in December 2010 to very good reviews, and have since then played several shows. We're going abroad for the first time this summer, so things are moving in the right way.

2. If you would not mind, I also would like to ask about the meaning of your band name and about how it is to be read as I guess I could be mentioning it quite often in the future, so I just want to make sure I will not mutilate it that much... :)

Hamferð is pronounced pretty much as if you would say "hum fare" in English. To be "in hamferð" is a physical state. There are many old stories about people seeing their loved ones as apparitions before those same loved ones died. An example would be a woman seeing her husband as a ghost the night before he drowned at sea. When you see a ghost like this, the ghost is said to be a person "in hamferð".

3. Before we start talking about your debut album, please, tell me - is it difficult to break through when one is hailing from a small country like Faroe Islands? Or is such "exotic" country an advantage as the band is more interesting and attractive than if it was for example from the US? What experiences have you had so far? And how is the cooperation with your label, the Tutl Records?

It has it's advantages and disadvantages. We've had loads of luck breaking through in The Faroe Islands, where we have almost exclusively got awesome reviews and we've been given lots of great opportunities. The fact that we are from The Faroe Islands is part of our identity, and we'd like to think that it gives us something unique when we write our music. The music is strongly influenced by our surroundings here. It has given us some attention abroad too, seeing as there is a niche market for bands that sing in Faroese. Týr have built themselves a huge fanbase abroad where a great part of their fanbase is fascinated by the Faroese language and heritage, so this obviously makes people look us up who otherwise wouldn't really care about a doom metal six-piece from the middle of nowhere. It's so easy to look around for bands on the internet nowadays, it's just up to us to make the music that we love and do it good enough to get people to notice us.

There is one big disadvantage with being from The Faroe Islands, it's very expensive for us if we want to tour abroad. There's only one airline that flies to The Faroe Islands, and a return ticket is 4-500 euros. Multiply that by 6(that's without sound tech) and it's already more expensive than most tours are in total. I think that can make it quite difficult for us to get a booking deal, but we've just got to keep working on that. The Faroe Islands is a small place, especially for a doom band, so we've got to figure something out so that we can share our sadness with the rest of the world as well.

4. Now to your debut. Musically, I would say that you took the best from the doom metal legends, mixed it with your own ideas into it and the final result sounds far from being a copy, which is very positive. I also really like the clean vocals, they give the album a lot of the melodramatic feel. What was your goal when composing and how did the songs evolve during the days/weeks/months?

Thanks a lot for the kind words! Some of the songs are newer than the other songs on the album, Vráin for instance is much older than the other three, so the composition of the tracks has changed a bit. It's usually me or John that comes up with riffs for a song, we then rehearse it together and record a demo of it. After that we jam it with the entire band and usually add a few details and spice it up a bit, mostly the drums. After that Jón writes his lyrics and vocal lines. Most tracks change a bit after time, and some of the tracks were very new when we recorded the album, so there's probably a thing or two that would have been different if we chose to record those tracks today instead of last summer. Vráin is a great example of that, we have several versions of the songs which have evolved with time such as rhythmics, melody lines, vocals etc. It's probably the song that I'm personally proudest of, and the one that we've worked most on as a band.


5. When looking up the booklet of "Vilst er Sidsta Fet" for the first time, it was clear that the intention for it was to be not that much about fun and happiness. I am sure this corresponds with the lyrical side of the album, which I unfortunately do not understand. Could you please describe it a bit to me and the readers? Your pictures seem like there might actually be a kind of a concept that the band follows...?

Jón would be the best person to comment on the lyrical side, seeing as he writes all our lyrics. The first track on the EP is actually an old Norwegian psalm which we made into a doom metal track, because it's a very, very gloomy psalm. The other three tracks fit into our lyrical concept, which is open for interpretation. Once upon a time we discussed making a concept album with a storyline, but since then Jón has expanded that storyline, and his lyrics are based on parts of the concept that he has developed. Nobody knows all the details except Jón himself, and I think that it adds to the mystic aspect of the band. Hamferð is definitely a concept band, our stage performance, appearance, lyrics and music all work together to form the concept which is Hamferð.

6. From my point of view, such emotionally based music which tends to be full of sorrow can not be created "just for fun". There must be something deeply personal behind it, be it full devotion to this kind of music and its magic or a need to somehow filtrate all the struggles or something. How would you define yourself in this? What is the greatest inspiration to you when creating the music?

We're all very different people in the band, and we all draw from pretty different influences. I can only speak for myself on this one, but I've never believed that you have to be in the state of mind that you write about. I'm a metalhead, I listen to lots of brutal death metal, but it doesn't make me want to kill people, and wanting to kill people isn't necessary for me to be able to write death metal, if you know what I mean. The music that we write is obviously personal, and we give our all into the music. But I don't find that I have to be sad to write the music, even if the music portrays sadness. Our music is obviously serious, but inspiration hits at the strangest times, and you have to make use of it while it's there.

7. I would like to stay a bit longer by your influences and inspirations. Who would you cite as your influences that maybe the readers would not expect? I mean your influences on the side of visual art, literature, philosophy, non-doom metal musical artists etc.?

Most of the guys in the band are real movie geeks, haha. We're very influenced by the Faroese nature, history and mentality, which is probably the greatest influence to our music. We're all very different people, and we have differing influences. It's great to have influences, but it's also important that you don't get too caught up in them and write stuff that is influenced by ourselves, and not by all sorts of other artists. It's not always easy though, and it's something that comes with experience.

8. How is it with Hamferð and live performances? Do you enjoy them or do you see them just a necessary evil to get your band a bit more into the spotlight? Any special memories that you would like to share?

Hamferð is first and foremost a live band. We love playing live, and it's live where you get to experience what Hamferð is all about. We know each other so well by now that we can really interact with each other when we play live, and the entire concept of our live shows make it probably my favourite thing in the world. The band's "favourite show" to date is probably at G! Festival 2010. We were supposed to play a 5 o'clock in the afternoon, but there was a storm which almost blew both stages away, which postponed the entire festival for a few hours. The main stage actually closed down, and only four bands played that first night. We ended up playing in darkness at 2 AM in front of lots of people who had been waiting for music during the violent storm that entire day. It was my first show with the band, and it was Jón's first show with the band since the first two GBOB shows, so it was pretty special. I doubt that we'll ever get a better setting for performing our music than the atmosphere of that night. We even got mentioned in Kerrang! after that show, we got four K's. My personal favourite show is probably the Vilst er síðsta fet release show which we played in Sjónleikarhúsið in Tórshavn in January. It's my favourite venue in the world, and we've never played as well and sounded as good as at that show.

9. What about the Faroese metal scene, how does it look like and what reactions have you been getting from it? Are there any strong bounds between the bands or is the scene more in the chit-chatty way? And how is metal approached in general in your country? As I know that in Nordic countries it tends to be huge...

The Faroese metal scene has grown rapidly the last few years. There are several high quality bands from here that are just dying to get abroad. Týr(http://www.myspace.com/tyr1) are obviously the biggest name from here, and they have established themselves as a huge global band. Sic(www.myspace.com/sic) is another band which has been abroad and released two albums. Their new one, Fighters They Bleed, is awesome. Then we have our good friends Synarchy(www.myspace.com/synarchy), who are going to record a new album this summer, which I'm really looking forward to. Then of course there's my favourite Faroese band, The Apocryphal Order(http://www.myspace.com/theapocryphalorder). We share our rehearsal space with them, they're releasing their debut EP in a few weeks, where I actually recorded the vocals. All other recordings were done professionally in Germany, so the production is top notch, and the tunes are fantastic, go and check them out! There are our great friends Incurse(www.myspace.com/incurse), which play amazing old school thrash metal that has to be experienced live! The first time I heard them was when they opened for us at a show in January, and they blew me away! I also recorded their demo. The last band I'd like to mention is Heljareyga(http://www.myspace.com/heljareyga), which is Heri Joensen's(Týr) side project with members from Synarchy and The Apocryphal Order. They're touring Europe in April, go check them out and have a few beers with them if you have the chance, you won't regret it! They're passing through Prague on the 20th of April, so you don't have any excuse to not go. :)

As you can see we have a great number of great metal bands in this country, especially considering that the population is only around 50.000. Metal isn't as big in the mainstream media as in Sweden or Finland, but the scene is really strong. Hamferð has actually received lots of attention from mainstream media, we even won "New Band Of The Year 2010" at an event called Planet Awards, which are the only Faroese music awards.

Seeing as it's such a small place, everybody knows everybody. Pretty much all of the members in all of the bands know each other in some way, most of the guys have played together in some way, and we usually party together. It's a really tight community! We were discussing having a show/party with all our old side projects from when we were 16 years old, and after listing 10 bands we realized that there were only like 20 different musicians in those 10 bands combined.

A few years ago The Faroe Islands was a wasteland when it comes to metal, we've really built up a strong and diverse scene now, and the next step is to take it outside our own country, which Hamferð can hopefully help with.


10. As I mentioned your country, do you all come from the Faroe Islands or has any of you moved abroad? What could you say about your country as the photos that I found on the internet show that is just beautiful...Do you feel any kind of bond to your country, its heritage, folklore etc or are you indifferent? What would you name as the most important positives and negatives of Faroe Islands?

We're all from The Faroe Islands. I've got parents from abroad, but I've been living in The Faroe Islands for so long that I consider myself Faroese. Jón, our vocalist, has moved to Denmark to study biology, and I've been living in Sweden studying audio engineering. I'm back in The Faroe Islands now though, finishing up my final thesis. During the last two years Tinna, our bassplayer, has also been abroad for a period of time.

As I've already mentioned, our country's heritage is a great influence to our music, and I think it gives us something special. It really is beautiful here when the weather is good, and I challenge you to find a country that's better at partying than The Faroe Islands. But, as with all small places, there are disadvantages too. The Faroe Islands can get pretty isolated since it's pretty expensive to get out of the country, and the country has a history with radical Christianity. None of the band members is religious, and we don't have a common standpoint on religion, but some of the stuff that has been going on in the media and government here has been pretty disgusting. The greatest positives are probably that the people here are awesome, it's beautiful, and you can't beat the party of a Faroese summer. But it does get isolated and it's a difficult place to live if you're an ambitious artist. As a place to visit I very strongly recommend coming here though, it's a special experience. I don't want to spend the second half of July anywhere else in the world.

11. As we shamefully do not know much about your country, I would like to ask - what do you know about ours, the Czech Republic? :) We ask this question quite often as the answers tend to be really interesting sometimes... Have you ever been here? What comes to your mind when hearing the name?

I myself am a bit of a sports geek, the others in the band aren't. I know loads of football and ice hockey players from the Czech Republic, and The Faroe Islands have been in the same qualifying group as The Czech Republic in football a few times. I know that back in the days of the Soviet Union The Czech Republic and Slovakia were together as Czechoslovakia. But yeah, most of my associations are Pavel Nedved, Jaromir Jagr and stuff like that. :) I'm half Greek, so I'll never forget the semi final of Euro 2004 between Greece and the Czech Republic.

12. Well, that is it from me. If you would like to add something, do it now. :) Thank you very much for the interview, I hope that it is not the last time we meet and I wish you all the best in your future creations. Good luck, godspeed and doom on.

Thanks a lot, it's been a pleasure! Go and check out the other Faroese bands that I mentioned, I'm sure that you'll find something that you will enjoy! Hopefully we'll be lucky enough to be able to pass through the Czech Republic sooner or later!