Even to the biggest John Mayer fan that showed up early for his arena tour last fall, it was obvious that opening act, Teitur, was a pleasant surprise. Holding the colossal stage alone, opening for pop rock’s biggest star was a quantum leap for this 26 year-old singer-songwriter who grew up in Denmark’s Faroe Islands – a small, remote spot between Scotland and Iceland with a population of only 45,000.
“That was really weird, I had never done big gigs like that,” he recalls. “I thought it would be really difficult, but I was actually surprised how easy it was. Everything was there and worked very well and sounded great on stage, even with 15,000 people there.”
Born Teitur Lassen, he has chosen to go by just Teitur, in hopes he’ll eventually transform his unusual first name into a well-known band name, like Interpol or Blur. “I did think it was cooler with one sound or name” he confesses. “There are so many singer-songwriters that are bands or the other way around, bands that are really one guy.” Or perhaps it was a tactful idea to separate his name from the pack of other mellow folk male singer-songwriters like Howie Day, Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, and Mayer – although he works hard not to dwell much into those comparisons. When asked about his name falling in line with such acts, he’s quick to change the subject, as if approached about dirt dwelling gossip.
In addition to the name game, an even more pleasant surprise is his Universal Records debut, Poetry & Aeroplanes, an eleven-song collection of delicate tunes that reveal the inner troubadour in all of us. Songs about traveling, waiting, postcards, and telephone conversations, dwell up feelings of longing, regret and adventure. With its lush instrumentation and warm organic sound, Poetry & Aeroplanes made many critics’ top ten list for album of the year in 2003, but Teitur sheepishly admits, “It’s got a bit of a secrecy about it, which I enjoy. I really want my music to gel with the people first.”
Realizing all the horrible sign-and-screw stories with major labels and eager, young musicians, Teitur is elated where he stands now, bordering stardom, without the celebrity baggage that typically comes with the territory. By avoiding the sugaring up of his songs, he’s earned respected singer-songwriter status rather than the much-dreaded pop star mold, even garnering an invite to play at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, an experience he simply described as “excellent.”
Childhood influences of lyrically inspired singer-songwriters James Taylor, Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, and Randy Newman push Teitur to craft songs with heartfelt honesty. Acoustic numbers like “I was Just Thinking,” “Josephine” and “One and Only” off Poetry and Aeroplanes quiver with a revealing vulnerability, as he admits in one of his tunes, “I’m alright I’m just a little rough around the edges of my life.” While upbeat numbers “You’re The Ocean” and “Sleeping With the Lights On,” demonstrate that simple, polished orchestrations fall into proportion with the reflective lyrics, forming a sort of “air” around the song. Produced by Rupert Hine, known for his work with Duncan Sheik (Barely Breathing), the two are accompanied by six other musicians who successfully assemble a release that gratifies Teitur’s musical vision and exposed lyrics.
Teitur offers no clear explanation for his lovelorn words, aside from, “It just seems like the natural thing to talk about, it wasn’t a subject I chose. I just wrote hundreds and hundreds of songs and the ones that really stood out were those songs. I guess I was seducing my girlfriend,” he adds. However, he conveys a more open-ended element he describes as, “ the subconscious writing where I’m just writing something and I don’t really know what it is. I really like to make a strong composition and then it’s the composition that sparks the performance, not the other way around. That way you’re performing something and making it into a song.”
Upon leaving the Faroe Islands at 17, Teitur found his voice by travelling, specicifally visting New York or London every month to write with other people. Due to some good luck from a wealthy shipping broker who offered to pay for his plane tickets after listening to Teitur’s radio show in the Faroes, he became a self-taught troubadour. But with close to 300 songs altogether, it’s the eleven songs on Poetry and Aeroplanes that Teitur is most proud of, which is why he dedicated such consummate time into the album. “I didn’t want to put anything out that I’d be embarrassed of and look back in thirty years and hate it.”
In the end, Teitur hopes for people that catch his live performances to come out of it just feeling different, but with a lasting effect. As for all the young girls at the Mayer shows watching him play, Teitur candidly admits, “Yeah, there were a lot of girls, which I find funny and humorous as there is nothing Beatlesque about Teitur.”
