Faroese folk artist Eivør on nature, new music and returning to Australia

Experimental folk artist Eivør is set to head down under in 2026, bringing her Australian headline tour to Astor Theatre on Wednesday, March 25, with tickets on sale now. Since releasing her self-titled debut album, Eivør Pálsdóttir, at the age of 16, she has released albums in both Faroese and English and has had her work featured on television and video soundtracks, most notably The Last Kingdom and God of War. JEFF SMITH sat down with Eivør to find out more about the upcoming tour, creating music inspired by the naturescapes of the Faroe Islands and listening to Bulgarian folk music. 

It’s great to have you back for this tour! Having been to Australia before, was there anything that surprised you the first time around?

Oh my goodness. Well, it’s always been a dream of mine to go to Australia, but it’s very far away from where I live. But finally a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to come over with Heilung, and it was such a beautiful experience. I have some friends who have been there, and they’ve told me beautiful things, and I was just completely blown away by everything, you know? The people, the nature, and the vibe of it all. So, I’m very excited to be back.

What was it like touring with Heilung, which has such a large supporting cast and so many members! Was it different from other tours that you’ve done?

Yeah. I mean, Heilung is one of a kind. You don’t find a crazier setup than that. There are so many people on the road together. But it was such a beautiful experience. I toured with them quite a lot for a few years. And they just became really good friends of mine. I felt that our music, although we’re in slightly different genres but yet in the same world, somehow complements each other very well. It was very lovely to tour with them. And this time around I will be back with my own band, and I’m very excited about that.

Yeah, and you’ll be touring with Sylvaine, who I believe is a friend of yours.

Yes! Yes, I’m bringing Sylvaine, who is a wonderful artist from Norway, and we’ve been on a few tours together already in Europe and in America as well. And she agreed to join me on this tour as the opening act. And I just love her, and I love her music, so I’m very pleased that she’s with us.

So your music resonates with people from very different communities, from folk to metal to soundtrack listeners. So, when you look out into a crowd, what surprises you the most about who’s connected with your work?

That’s a good question. That’s something that I always enjoy from the stage point of view: to see all of the diversity of the audience. There are so many different types of people who come to my shows, and I love that. That people can come from such different backgrounds and share a moment of music together with me. I think that’s very nice, very wonderful. And yeah, I don’t think anything would surprise me really. I just want to see all of them: the grandmothers, the metalheads, the goth people, and the children! It’s beautiful to see such a wide mix of people.

All coming together. 

Yeah! It’s wonderful. Makes me so happy to be honest.

And I hear you have a new album on the horizon. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Yes, I’m working on it currently and trying to finish it before I go on this tour. I’ve been working on an album maybe for two years now, maybe a bit more. Ever since I released Enn, my last album, I have already had a few songs that I’ve been like, “Oh my god, these might be on my next album.” So I’ve been working on it, and I think I’m at the end phase now; the frustrating one, the scary one haha! But I’m hoping to release an album later by the end of this year; let’s see how it goes.

When I listen to your music, I feel like it evokes elemental atmospheres and naturescapes and things like that. Is that something that you consciously reach for, or is it something that emerges naturally?

I think it’s definitely something that emerges naturally for me. I think it’s always been such a big part of my inner landscape. To grow up here in the Faroe Islands, surrounded by nature, the ocean and the mountains. It’s a very remote place, so you’re close to nature, and it’s an endless source of inspiration for me. So when I think about songs, and music, and sounds, that’s the vision I have; it’s all there in nature, and then you try to translate it to music, and feelings, and moods. But it’s not something I’m conscious about when I create. I’m not like, “Ooh, I want to make a song that sounds like a mountain”; it’s not like that, but it’s more like just a natural thing that lies within the music, I think.

So the media landscape has changed a lot since you released your first music at sixteen, I believe. Nowadays, do you feel tension between writing cohesive albums and releasing music into a fragmented streaming culture?

Yeah, the times have changed. Is that what you’re saying?

More or less, yeah. 

Yeah, I mean, a lot has changed. I released my first album when I was sixteen, and I have changed, and the times have changed. You know, when you’re an artist, I guess you go on a journey, and you explore, and you find the size of yourself all the time. And the world changes alongside you. So, I mean, yeah, we live in a very different time now, I guess, from when I released my first album.

How does your relationship with a song change from when you first write it to years later on stage?

I think that’s a very interesting one because I think often when you write the songs and when you first release them, you don’t really know them until they get a life of their own. It’s like with children! They have to kind of grow and find their own place in the world, and it’s the same with songs. It’s always interesting to me to come back to some of my older songs because they mean something different to me in different phases of my life. And maybe they also hide some new meanings for me when I hear them years after. So yeah, I’m going to be honest, some songs that I wrote, I hear, and I’m like, “Jesus Christ! Why did I write that song?” But then there are the ones that are still very much a part of my repertoire when I play shows.

Tell us about your creative process and how that translates to the stage.

There are two different things for me to begin a creative process when I write music, because that’s where you’re an introvert. And that’s where you dive within yourself and try to pull out all of your ideas and dreams and create something. It’s a bubble of its own. And live, when I perform live, I’m in a whole different state of mind, and I really enjoy being very open and being sensitive to the energies of the room. And I take it all in. And I use it when I perform.

So it’s like the crowd is a part of the performance?

Yeah, the crowd is always a big part of every performance that I do. And because of them, no show is ever the same because they inspire me to express myself in different ways. So, I always love to see the crowd, and I feel that they’re such a big part of the music and the show and the whole thing.

That’s great. So, outside of music, I hear you’ve been doing some painting as well?

Yes, I do. I wish I had much more time for that, you know. I wish there were more hours in the day. But I love to paint, especially when I’m home in my creative bubble. I enjoy it to kind of switch between writing and painting; it somehow stimulates the other, I think. Just two different ways of expressing yourself. I really enjoy painting, and I often bring my smaller painting kit with me on tour. So, I draw a lot, and I enjoy that.

Do you sort of take inspiration from each of the places that you go to?

Yeah, kind of! I do. And it calms me down also. I like to, maybe on a show day, if I’m backstage with a few hours, bring out my drawing kit and just kind of go into a certain place in my mind, I think.

So what have you been listening to lately? What are your heavy-rotation albums these days?

Oh my goodness. I’m so busy in the studio right now, so my head is so full of my own music. But sometimes it’s good to just listen to something completely different, and lately I’ve listened a lot to an artist called Imogen Heap. I think she’s from the UK, and she writes gorgeous music. And recently she released some very cool, atmospheric, long tracks, ten minutes long, and they’re just so atmospheric. It’s like being in a movie, and I love it. So I listen to that, and then I listen to Bulgarian folk music. I like to listen to Bulgarian choirs. It’s very diverse, what I listen to—everything from ancient folk stuff to very modern electronic stuff. The world is full of good music!

Eivør plays Astor Theatre on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Tickets are on sale now from destroyalllines.com