Every now and then, you come across an artist you can’t quite explain, one whose music is both exciting iand intriguing in equal measure. For those of us at Call Upon The Author, Teitur Lassen is just such an artist. This young man from the Faroe Islands has the outsiders viewpoint of his Scandinavian contemporaries, but also exhibits an otherworldliness that makes his music quite unique and truly beautiful. So, lets go catch up with him…
For those readers who haven’t yet come across your music, how would you describe your songs and your approach to writing them?
I have written hundreds of songs since I was very young and it comes very naturally to me, so basically, I write all the time and take great pleasure in it. I have been touring for the last seven years around the world and this has also influenced my writing. I can write on the tour-bus, while there is a lot of commotion around me, while I have conversations or even while I am cooking or watching TV. I doesn’t really matter. Also, I started out as a songwriter before I put out records. I worked for a publisher in Los Angeles and spent a lot of time co-writing with other songwriters. I still enjoy doing this and I also write for other artists. This year I have been writing a lot for a french female singer.
You grew up in the Faroe Islands, does your childhood have an influence on your music?
Yes. I think it does for everybody. No bands ever visited the Faroes, so I didn’t get to hear much live music or go to any shows. Most of the music you’d hear was in people’s living-rooms, at parties and social events. There is a strong storytelling and song tradition here. I think that it still is a driving force in my music. That the songs could be played anywhere, regardless of what instruments there are or who sings them. Songs travel in a weird way and people sing them whenever it is necessary. There are a lot of choirs here and there is a lot of quietness and drama in nature. People are very intimate and involved in each other’s life. That’s very much how I still approach music. That you can talk directly to someone.
Which artists influenced you to start writing your own music?
Leonard Cohen was a big influence on me early on. Other than that I don’t find music more inspiring than other things. Music just makes me feel good. But so do friends, life and conversation. I seldom hear something and think – I want to make something just like that. I guess when I was a teenager, it was different. Then I learned how to play Beatles songs on the guitar and learned guitar-riffs through rock music.
For your first album you worked with Rupert Hine, how was it to work with him and did he have an effect on the way you approach your music?
Absolutely. I consider him to be my mentor, as it were. He was the first person I met who I felt could communicate with me about my music and he gave me confidence to record music. He let me make a platform to start from and insisted on being called the director instead of producer. He was all about finding what was special and unique and he spent a lot of time with me to help me understand the process of making records. He had been making records since 1969 and was also and artist and songwriter himself. We are still best friends and I talk to him all the time.
In 2006 you left Universal to start your own label, it was a bold decision. What made you feel you should go it alone?
I was in the classic “album number two” situation and it became obvious that it would take very long to come to an agreement with my A/R with what to do next. She didn’t like my songs and suggested me to sing covers of songs I didn’t like. I knew what I wanted to do and I felt that it was better to move and and continue to release music as opposed to spending three years in oblivion trying out random things with random people to later release them without it maybe being what we all wanted it to be anyway. I had a fan base and I had the songs. It was time to move on. I have never regretted the decision, although I sometimes wish that we could have just moved on, because it took a lot of energy and finance to start all over again after having set it all up once already. Suddenly all the people that I had worked with at the label and gotten to know were gone and no longer available.
You also cropped up on some movie soundtracks that year, do you feel that was something that helped give you broader exposure to the public?
I guess so. Although a song in a film is quite an quick fix. It doesn’t necessarily give you die hard fans. Playing live and performing in front of people does. It helps on the publishing front.
Your most recent album, The Singer, seems to be getting rave reviews pretty much everywhere, it must be a good feeling to have such a positive critical responce? Tell us a little bit about the album and your approach to writing it.
A major factor was that we recorded it in an empty summer hotel from the 1860′ies on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. We turned it into a studio and used a local brass band a choir etc. The musicians and my friends came to stay there and cook food with us. It is right by the water surrounded by trees. There was a large villa and a concert hall where we recorded. I worked closely with my friend, Tróndur Bogason on the arrangements. We met over a long period of time in Copenhagen before the recordings to prepare what we wanted to record. We made some firm decisions about what sort of instrumentation we wanted to use and how we wanted it to sound. Some of the songs were old songs, some new. I wrote “The Singer” title song on Gotland the year before the recordings and it set the tone for the rest of the album. I spent a lot of time on Gotland in that time and that’s why we ddecided to go there. Then we shaped the songs into what became “The Singer” record.
Lastly, you’re about to embark on a UK tour, what can we expect from a Teitur live show?
I don’t know. It’s up to you really. We just like to play music. I am going to have a four piece band. I am very exited to be playing in England. I lived in London for six years, but I haven’t really played there that much.
