Faroese music artists of various kinds are also ready to take on the
international scene, but what would help them make the leap? Is the support from
their own people, public authorities, organisations and media enough? And is the
international music industry ready to discover and appreciate the Faroese sound?
These are very interesting questions.
There has been a change in recent years in the perception of music from an
investment perspective, although one could say that few companies put big money
into music in order to get a “return” in the traditional financial way. Rather,
they see it as a way of “nurturing” the wishes and needs of their younger target
audiences, and in return they hope to gain the trust of these groups and
establish their companies’ brands in the minds of these audiences.
The fact that Faroese acts get more international exposure is a sign to
everybody that the Faroe Islands may benefit from music as much as from any
other “products”. The trust in our own abilities to
initiate, organise and manage music has grown as a result of festivals such as
the G! festival, the AME festival (Atlantic Music Event) and the Summarfestival
in Klaksvík. Once Faroese companies and investors are presented with ambitious
and talented organizers, along with a great and thriving local music scene, they
are of course more willing to put their money into it. This is what we have been
witnessing in recent years.
The development on the music scene is a combination of several things
that have happened over the past 20-30 years or longer.
The publisher Tutl was established in 1977 as a direct consequence of the
activities in Havnar Jazzfelag – the local jazz club which was very active at
the time – also initiated by Kristian Blak, the director of Tutl. Tutl has
played a major role in documenting Faroese music and giving the musicians a
chance to record and publish their music – thus making it accessible to a larger
Faroese audience. This has later been expanded to include an international
audience through for example their online outlet. But Tutl also acts as a
promoter of records and live acts, and has been successful in building networks
abroad.
The Faroese Music School under the Ministry of Culture and the local Councils
was established in the mid-1980s and has played a major role in the training and
education of musicians while providing a vibrant and creative environment for
young musicians.
The Nordic House started its activities in 1983 and has been important to the
Faroese music scene in terms of benchmarking – by this I mean that it brought in
Nordic, European and International acts and made the world “bigger”. This
provided a different perspective to the Faroese musicians – along with the
influence from television, not least MTV.
The Nordic House hosted the Jazz, Folk and Blues Festival for many years and has
organised and hosted Prix Føroyar, which was a contest between bands or acts
with original material, and the Atlantic Music Event, which promotes Faroese and
Nordic acts to industry people abroad.
The Faroese Entertainment Music Association (FUT). FUT has been involved with
several local music events, including Prix Føroyar and AME. FUT has undergone
some changes recently and is now being relaunched or rebranded as FUTT.
And then the festivals: Summartónar (with classical/contemporary/crossover
music), the G! Festival and the Summarfestival in Klaksvík have also been very
important in developing and supporting the Faroese music scene.
In the years 2006-2009 the organisation SamVit - the Faroese Tourism and
Trade Council - focused on
music and creative industries in general and became a key player in
promoting Faroese music abroad by coordinating and promoting events,
participating at trade exhibitions etc. – in some cases in cooperation with the Faroese
Representations abroad – such as the one in Brussels, in Copenhagen, in London
and in Reykjavík.
In these years there was a strong sense of working together, more than ever before. So together
with the other parties, SamVit worked on a long-term strategy for
export of Faroese Music. There was active work towards that - until SamVit
allegedly was merged with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - but in reality
ceased to exist.
One of the results of this work was a survey that was made to gather
information and experiences from important people in the Faroese music scene –
especially in regard to music export - such as music managers and other people
working directly with Faroese music export. The result of the survey formed the
basis in a proposal which was handed to the Minister of Trade and Industry,
Bjørt Samuelsen, in the summer 2008.
The main point in the proposal was the importance of establishing a Music Export
Office, probably combined with a Music Information Centre, here in the Faroe
Islands as soon as possible, because, as it is, nobody solves or takes on many
of the important, even crucial, responsibilities and assignments which would be
an obvious part of the work of such a Music Export Office – just as in similar
offices in most other countries. A Music Export Office would have more means and
can make a much greater impact when promoting Faroese music abroad than Faroese
musicians can by themselves one by one.
If we want to benefit from Faroese Music
as a product and make a solid business out of it, it requires a joint concerted
effort. A Music Export Office would be the obvious place for everybody
interested in Music Export to link together and network, and the office would
also play a very important role as the presenter of Faroese Music as a whole to
the rest of the world. But of course, the establishment of such an office
requires political will to finance the project.
There’s no doubt that in small communities like the Faroese community the feeling of
“if they can – we can” maybe is much stronger than in other, larger
communities. There is a strong feeling that local acts are just as good as
the ones people listen to abroad.
What is lacking in furthering the music scene even more is the infrastructure or
rather the lack of one. There is a need for managers, promoters and publishers
etc. – all these individuals and small companies or establishments who take the
music further and promote it towards “the rest of the world”.
This is also changing: we see young people travelling abroad to study management
and promotion etc. Confidence in the acts is definitely growing. There is a
market for all kinds of music, it’s just a matter of finding your audience out
there, and in this respect MySpace has been very important to Faroese musicians
to promote themselves toward their particular target or core audiences. Every
single Faroese band or act has its MySpace page and uses it a lot. On the
internet everybody is equal and that certainly is an advantage for a small
country like ours.
Iceland has been a role model when it comes to the production of
progressive music, perhaps not so much when it comes to business models. As far
as we know they do not have strong public support for music, maybe even less
than here in the Faroe Islands. But Iceland has, by the way, been an important
second market to Faroese music not least after Eivør broke there along with
Denmark. So it is almost like an extended home market.
Iceland Airwaves and a support scheme for touring, called Loftbrú (travel
bridge), have been an inspiration. We are working on establishing that on the
Faroe Islands as well so that our musicians can travel abroad back and forth
less costly.
Sweden has also been seen as a good role model for the more mainstream
pop music, but then again, they do not support music publicly (pop, rock etc.)
as much as for instance Denmark or Norway, but on the other hand Sweden has
well-established education and training for musicians.
And both Sweden and Iceland have fantastic international acts that have led the
way for many others. In terms of good “business” models (as a public effort)
maybe Denmark is a good role model. Finnish music industry is probably as good –
if not better than the Danish and Norwegian. Public and national authorities
there are focusing a lot on music – especially in supporting bands touring - and
a lot of their bands have broken through in recent years.
The results are quite evident: ten years ago one could point out one
international Danish band, Aqua, but then nothing happened for many years. Now
there are tons of Danish bands out there. Publicly they have established many
different support schemes; to live venues (and the support goes also to paying
the musicians), to marketing, to tours, to rehearsal rooms, to CD/audio
production etc.
The driving force on the music scene are of course the musicians
themselves though…. The fact that Teitur, Clickhaze, Eivør and Týr quit their
day jobs and went for a music career without a safety net (that is getting an
education first or having a civil career at the same time) – just throwing
themselves into the mercy of life as aspiring professional artists – has maybe
been one of the most significant developments in the Faroese scene. This acted
as role model for other artists as well and changed the way the whole conception
of being a musical artist in the Faroes.
Before, bands used to be cool if they were good at playing cover songs. The G!
festival and the association behind called Grót and the artists connected to
that environment, together with Prix Føroyar and TUTL changed that and made the
concept of "being who you are" and creating and playing your own material the
only measurement for success.
By leaving out the cover bands and putting the new and original bands on the
programme, as well as taking part in public debates about these things, they
played a major role in this change of values.
But we still do have a lot to achieve. We still have a public television which
does not broadcast Faroese music – or Faroese music videos. The public radio
station has no stated goals of supporting new talent etc.... There are so many
things to do; the battle has just begun really.
Up until now the strategic focus has been to create events that have the
possibility to attract the attention of the media and music business abroad –
such as Atlantic Soundscapes in Brussels. You could say that this was an attempt to
create success stories to build the further development of the music scene on.
The goal is to get more and more people involved in playing, training, educating,
promoting Faroese music and get companies to invest in the music business – and
slowly build up a more lucrative music industry in the Faroe Islands.
