![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/teitur-2.jpeg\" "\\"teitur-2\\"")
<\/a>When John Mayer talks about an album like this: “…it may be one of the best albums to come around in the last five years…Music like this is jet fuel on the fire of a broken heart. Even if you think the flame has died, there’s at least one lyric that’ll hit that last hot spot, and then you’ll find yourself as fucked as you were the day you lied and said you never wanted to see her again. Enjoy.” it’s tough not to take notice and do a little research. Meet Teitur\u2014 singer,songwriter, guitarist, producer, composer, and overall evil genius that continues to break and re-break every last piece of my heart.<\/p>\nHailing from the Faroe Islands, Teitur has come a long way since he first opened for John Mayer. His latest record,\u00a0Let the Dog Drive Home,<\/em> is perhaps his most adventurous and charming to date. I had the opportunity to chat with Teitur about recording this latest effort, how he continues to challenge himself as a writer, and just what the heck that awesome monster noise is on his latest track, “Stormy Weather”.<\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> Let\u2019s talk about your latest record, \u201cLet the Dog Drive Home\u2019. I know this album was a little different for you since you recorded it in Copenhagen. How did you decide where to record?<\/em><\/p>\nTL:<\/strong> Well, it was because I realized I\u2019d always been recording outside of home. This was a time in my life when I wanted to travel less and just be at home and feel safer.\u00a0 I could be with friends too. Also, I wanted to make a record where you explore becoming more involved in the environment and everything. A part of the whole album was about that\u2014 about letting go and taking it easy. It just made sense with the kind of record that I wanted to make.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> You also produced the entire record, correct?<\/em><\/p>\nTL:<\/strong> Yeah. I\u2019ve produced a couple of records before; I produced \u201cThe Singer\u201d before that. I also produced a French record for a French artist, and I produced my Faroese record as well. I\u2019ve actually produced a lot of my recent releases; actually, I\u2019ve produced most of them. I\u2019m getting old already!<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> Do you have any formal training in music or arranging?<\/em><\/p>\nTL:<\/strong> I\u2019ve had a little bit of training\u2014 music theory and that kind of thing. I study music still today. But I\u2019ve pretty much self-taught from just being a songwriter.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> I had to ask because your arrangements are sometimes really large-scale string arrangements and things like that. Did you just pick it up as you went along?<\/em><\/p>\nTL:<\/strong> Well, I started when I started making records and tours. I would have arrangements written for me by different arrangers, and I gradually just started writing them myself. You learn a lot from recording sessions. I would tour with string quartets and ensembles, and I would have to teach them how to play the scores. So over time, I just got more and more familiar with working with scores, and then it was just something I became more into when I write. When you write it down in a score, it\u2019s there the next day. You\u2019re taking the process further with your hands. You\u2019re not just sitting there strumming a guitar. It suits me as a songwriter to write in scores. Then comes the natural part of making the arrangement and making sounds. It just opens up the whole palate of making sounds and atmosphere and all of that.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> I\u2019m really glad you just said that, because I\u2019ve been listening to the song, \u201cStormy Weather\u201d, and the arrangement is really cool, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what that sound in the low end is. It that a synth or a vocoder?<\/em><\/p>\nTL:<\/strong> (Laughs) It\u2019s a vocoder. We used a lot of synths. We triggered a lot of different sounds through old synths, choir voices, that kind of thing to make them sound synthetic. And then we used this program called AudioSculpt. It sort of isolates overtones and so on so you can create this really big sound. Basically, you\u2019re making your own synthetic sounds out of analog instruments like clarinets, flutes, things like that.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> That\u2019s really cool. So you\u2019re basically adjusting the frequencies to make it synthetic?<\/em><\/p>\nTL:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> That\u2019s really rad. I was listening to that song, and it was making me insane because I couldn\u2019t recreate the sound on my keyboard or get even close. It\u2019s a neat texture.<\/em><\/p>\nTL:<\/strong> Yeah, it almost sounds like a monster sometimes (laughs)!<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> It totally does. Synths are something that have really started playing a larger role in your recordings lately.<\/em><\/p>\nTL:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s just my interest. It\u2019s very different when you\u2019re 21, and now I\u2019m 35. You kind of figure out what you want to achieve and what you want to do. For me now, I feel like it\u2019s completely necessary to do that in order to know what you want to say and how you want to say it.<\/em><\/p>\nCP:<\/strong> Going along that road, I know you decided to go out on your own and start your own label, Arlo and Betty Records. What precipitated that decision?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/em>