HEIÐRIK

Melody A.M.

Faroese artist, Heiðrik, released his debut album, An Invisible Gun, back in 2007. This was the year Patrick Wolf released The Magic Position and it’s striking how these two albums share a very similar Folktronic soundscape, which - listening to them with today’s ears - makes them come across as sibling records. Not unlike Patrick Wolf, Heiðrik's artistic talents span across many different genres and mediums.

Musically, he collaborates with a variety of Nordic artists including Helena Brimheim, Sigmund and Leah Kampmann, and his releases straddle folk, jazz, country and electro-pop. Outside of creating music, you’ll find him directing music videos (he’s recently directed Brimheim’s excellent new music video, Literally Everything) and, rather impressively, he also spends his time making fine art.

He’s been nominated for and won quite a lot of awards, including the ‘Best Male Singer' accolade at the Faroese Music Awards in 2017 as well as the 'Best Music Video' award for the single, Monster, in 2018​​.

Sharing his time between the Faroe Islands and Denmark, this past year, Heiðrik released a tribute album to Björk, reinterpreting some of the Icelandic icon’s tracks and giving them a whole new apparel. He has also recently put out an album with Leah Kampmann - together they release music under the name Einangran - and this album, although released in the autumn, makes for a perfect soundtrack to winter hibernation. In addition, as part of his duo with Faroese buddy, Sigmund, which is called Koboykex, Heiðrik has recently released a country-style cover version of Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam.

In our interview, Heiðrik reflects on how he and the Faroe Islands have evolved since 2007 when his debut album came out; he talks about some of his artistic influences and also sheds some light on his ways of working.

Very graciously, Heiðrik has also shared with Melody A.M. an exclusive live version of a beautiful unreleased track called Island Fever, which you can catch during our interview.

Over on the Heiðrik page on the Melody A.M. website there's a Heiðrik playlist with a selection of his best tracks. Head over to www.melodyam.com/heidrik.