We spoke with rockers Empyre before their headlining set on the Firestarter Stage at Maid Of Stone 2025 to discuss their love for performing live, the band’s future plans, and where the Italian pinched fingers thing fans do at their shows comes from.
So, one thing that I’ve noticed here in the run-up to this interview is that 2025 is a busy year for you guys. Do you ever rest?
Henrik: Yes and no…
Did: I mean, Henrik’s 100%, 100 mph, all the time, Empyre doing stuff, but I like to do a crossword, so I have a break every now and again. But we’re very grateful to be busy. We’ve got two tours coming up towards the latter end of this year, which is great. We’ve also done our first ever headline tour, which was a real success for us, and doing festivals like this – Maid Of Stone – and Chepstow Castle coming up, too. So, the gig side of things, what you see is very busy. But the stuff that goes on behind the scenes: the sordid, the debauchery, the inappropriate, that all happens, too. And that keeps us very busy, too.
Back in February, you did a two-night stint at St. Pancras Church – how was it?
Henrik: It was great. We sold out both nights, which was… I mean, we thought we could probably do one night, but then that sold out within two weeks or less – or something like a week.
Did: I think we sold the first night out six months in advance, which is really, really incredible for a band of our level to have that level of demand. So, then we have to open up for a second night. Yes, it is a beautiful church, really. I mean, we played with regularity at a church in Kettering. We’re not a religious band, although we might do a Christian rock album – who knows? But the buildings are beautiful, the acoustics are flawless, and the atmosphere and the ambience for the audiences – there’s a lot of demand for that. So, we’re quite happy to go and play these historic venues.
Henrik: It works for the acoustic stuff. Particularly with the acoustics and just creating a vibe that it’s like to do it there. We’ve done it so many times in Kettering at St. Andrews, where we recorded our ‘Live & Unplugged’ album. It was just good to do it somewhere else, which we haven’t done for quite some time. So, London’s always a good place to go and do a gig, and it’s just great that we could sell out both of those nights.
How did it come about?
Henrik: Well, we’ve always loved MTV Unplugged. So, we’ve basically done two electric albums, two acoustic albums. And our first ode to MTV Unplugged was ‘The Other Side’, which was our first studio-recorded acoustic album, and then we thought, “Well, we might as well record some of our live acoustic performances”. So, I think we took three recordings of gigs and then compiled them into a best-of-those-gigs. The inspiration was purely because we enjoyed doing the acoustic gigs in Kettering, and then to take it on the road, albeit just down the road to London, to do some rounds.
In terms of your preparation for that kind of show, is it much different from something like this? What did you have to do?
Did: Yeah, the set changes. So, with the acoustic stuff, I have the opportunity to bring the piano out, and that creates a different dynamic. We have to do rehearsals with the rearrangements and, you know, how the tracks are orchestrated. Like, we’ve got the title track of ‘Relentless’ – when we do that in an acoustic way, we do that in an 80s kind of way. Really, really completely different; something like you would hear on Beverly Hills Cop.
Henrik: More of a synth than about the guitars.
Did: So, you have to rehearse these things, and it’s just wonderful for the audience to hear the songs they absolutely love and can’t live without, played differently by the same people.
So, we talked about your different venues that you’ve played at: festivals, churches, and regular venues. Do you have a preference? Or do you just like getting out and playing?
Did: I think you like really big stages, don’t you?
Henrik: Yeah, it’s like playing places like KK’s Steel Mill, which we’re going to play again for NWOCR Live in September. The fact that we can have a 10-metre video wall behind us, and the stage is 10 metre wide. Today’s stage is pretty big on the Firestarter. So, we like to test ourselves on the biggest stages possible, but there’s also something to be said for the smaller gigs because of that intimacy. Like those church gigs that we did, and people are just sitting right in front of us. Basically, there’s something to be said for all different types of gigs.
Did: So, personally, it’s like making love. I’m just happy to be involved! Like, if it’s Empyre playing The Dog & Duck, you know… You know, we’re having a great time and playing, but then equally when we’re playing the Royal Albert Hall – eventually – which we’d aim for, or big festivals like Download, which we’d love to play. I’m just happy to be here and taking part.
Obviously, we’re very pleased that you’re here at Maid Of Stone! So, one of the other things that I was looking up in preparation for today, you gave an interview with Classic Rock a few years ago and detailed that at the end of your show, you quite like to get fans to do the Italian pinched fingers…
Did: You want to know where it comes from?
I would love to know where it comes from!
Did: Well, actually, I was watching it. We love a Premier Inn and I’m a little princess, so I left the pub last night an hour before everyone else. So did he! I went and stuck on the TV and there it was, Inglorious Basterds. So, it comes from that scene in that film, which Henrik came up with, actually – but Brad Pitt (Tarantino did it), but it’s when they’re being kind of interviewed and they don’t speak Italian.
Henrik: The American’s being questioned by Hans Landa; he’s talking to Brad Pitt. They don’t speak Italian, and he’s just asking Brad Pitt, “How do you pronounce your name again?” ‘Gorlomi!” And then one of the guys – he can’t say a word – so he just said something to him in Italian, and all the guy does is he just responds with a pinched finger. But we’ve kind of embraced it. I think it can mean various things in Italian, but we’ve embraced it to mean something good. It’s more like the chef’s kiss, “This is perfection!”. It’s fine to do the rock, you know, the horns. But we thought it’s maybe a little bit cliché when we’re also not as hard a rock as a lot of the bands we play with. So, we thought we’d do something a little bit tongue-in-cheek, and that’s pretty much where it came about. So mostly it just means, “yeah, great”, “awesome”. And it works really well.
So, you mentioned being tongue-in-cheek with it, and does that explain why some of the Empyre shirts that have been around have the “killing the vibe” phrase? Could you explain that a little more?
Henrik: So “killing the vibe” came from when we started out, and we were doing festivals like this, and we were playing with a lot of other bands who were typically a little bit more upbeat than what we do. We’re embracing our melancholy side, bringing our little black rain cloud, as we like to say. We know that we’re not a party band, but we try to lean into that. So, we joke that we’re “killing the vibe”, which only enhances what you get next after us from another band, if they lift the mood up.
Did: Those early festivals, we’d have a half-an-hour set, and when we’d get to the 25-minute mark, Henrik would maybe say “This is our last one! You’ve been great!” and everyone would start booing, and we just loved it. So, walking around here, you see people who are fans of the band, and they boo at you, so it’s kind of like dark humour. We don’t mind, we love people cheering, applauding. We love people booing and we also love people heckling as well, and praising and saying, “You’re amazing, Did, you’re so good looking!” That’s fine, too. That hasn’t happened yet…
So, one of the things that struck me, especially with the answer there, is that it seems you’ve got such a wonderful rapport with your fans because you have embraced that “Give us whatever: praise, ‘criticism’”, etc. But, as the band continues to grow and go from strength to strength, how do you anticipate trying to maintain that?
Henrik: I think it’s going to be interesting. We don’t know how it’s going to evolve or disappear. There’s definitely some contention in terms of some people who find it quite difficult that people are booing us between songs, and we’re encouraging it. As Did said, we don’t care, as long as you’re enjoying yourself and however you want to express that, that’s fine.
Sadly, if that affects someone else detrimentally, well, I could ask what’s the difference between somebody booing or someone clapping? They’ve come to accept a social norm, but…
Did: And it makes really good topical conversation. The first Planet Rock Winter’s End – I thought it was the second one, no, it wasn’t the first one! When we returned to Planet Rock, there was an American guy who was part of the backstage crew, and he was like one of our crew, “Oh my God, why is everyone booing these? These are great, I love these, these are fantastic!” And in the end, he was like, “Ohh, sarcasm!”
So even the Yanks get it. They do get it; they just take a little longer.
Henrik: It’s taken a little while for people to get it. But yeah, how it’s going to progress, how it’s going to evolve, we don’t know. Whether we lean into it more, maybe we do, maybe we don’t. We’ll see how it goes.
So, you released ‘Live & Unplugged’ recently, and you are also working on a follow-up to ‘Relentless’ – can you tell us a little bit about how it’s going, please?
Did: We have debuted four new tracks on the tour – they didn’t go down well, ha-ha! No, they went down really, really well. So, we played a track called ‘Fony’, which is not going to be called that, but nobody’s been able to work out where it comes from, which is brilliant, I love it. Nobody can figure it out!
Henrik: Spelt F O N Y, but it’s not like the word “phoney”. It doesn’t mean fakery.
Did: Nobody’s got it, but it won’t be called that. And then we did a song called “Terrestrial”. Then we did a song called “Nowhere Boy”, which is a tribute to John Lennon – no, it’s not really! But we’re going into the studio soon to record more. So, we’re incredibly active with the next album and putting it together. It’s taken Henrik and me a lot of work. A lot, a lot of work, but I’m really enjoying it and I’m really looking forward to the end result. It is going to be different from ‘Self Aware’ and it’s going to be different from ‘Relentless’, and that’s only a good thing because those are two great albums, so this one must suck!
I’m sure it won’t! But can you detail what has been the inspiration behind some of the new material?
Did: I mentioned ‘Fony’. So, we discussed on stage how Henrik’s kind of written that song around the theme of insomnia and paranoia, so there’s that, and nobody can come up with a title. “Terrestrial”, which we’ve played live, that’s kind of about how humans are forever looking for their place in the universe. We’re always exploring outer space and wondering if there are aliens and all kinds of things like that, but actually, Terra Firma, we’re of this planet, and this is our home. Earth is our home, and it’s kind of like an optimistic look at looking out there, but actually, you know, this is home.
So that’s that thing. And “Baby One More Time” is about…
Henrik: So what else is there? There’s “Nowhere Boy”. “Nowhere Boy” is quite an argumentative song, but it’s more… It’s more about one person critiquing another to say you’re not perceived how you think you’re perceived. And then “Fortitude” is not about, but it’s kind of inspired by one of my friends who’s currently dying of cancer, which isn’t nice.
I’m sorry to hear that.
Henrik: But he’s dealing with it in a… To have, I think, stage four cancer and he’s dealing with it with a huge amount of fortitude. But, actually, the song itself is about the last moments when that fortitude dispels just before you die – it’s another happy Empyre song!
How dark a theme could we possibly bring up? That’s basically it.
Did: We go to the different echelons of the spectrum of human experience and emotion, and also do silly stuff, too.
One of the last questions now, so when can fans expect the new album to be out?
We are saying that you can expect it on or before 31st December 2032. So yeah, it’s on or before.
Excellent, so we’ll look forward to it on or before then! Thank you so much for taking the time today – we really do appreciate it. Last question, is there anything that you’d like to say to the Devolution readers and to your fans?
Did: Well, thanks for engaging in modern rock bands and supporting us, and a lot of us exist outside the mainstream mainly because we’re unattractive, but we’ve definitely got the talent meter up to 100%. As you all know!
Henrik: Come and see us in October on tour with Cats In Space, and in November on tour with The Raven Age and/or the Chepstow Castle in August and NWOCR Live in September.
Did: Bands, we really do all value the support, and sometimes we don’t get the opportunity to talk to you at festivals because we’re like, “Oh, don’t bother me!” No, no! But we don’t get the chance to say “Hi” to friends and fans but just know that we really do value it all, and you engaging, and yourself doing things like this – it all helps, like Tesco.
Henrik: Every little helps.
https://www.facebook.com/EMPYRE
Interview By Lee Carter
Main Photo By Rebecca Bush – https://www.instagram.com/beckybphoto/