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Sad news indeed. Tomas has become three MP drummers in one person and has surely given the band a kick when they needed it after Kenneth left. “The Tower” was a really energetic new start for them.
I can well imagine Tomas’ diverse extracurricular interests were severly cropped by MP commitments and therefore expect there might have been tensions arising. Nevertheless – he’s been the best MP drummer so far.
Probably Bent’s recruiting approach via Trondheim music college has its limitiations – you’ll certainly find the best there, ready to go – but the young guns understandably might want to experiment and to try out different routes and bands.
But who knows? Maybe they return from India with one or two tabla players and record “Escalator No.2”? I’m confident the mothership will go on – just hoping it doesn’t take them too long to turn up south of Oslo again.@supernaut: You’re absolutely right of course; the original line-up has been back together since 2008. In Big Paul’s absence they used everyone’s former favourite freelance session drummer Dave Grohl (he played for free), Geoff Dugmore and Benny Calvert, none of whom were admitted to the band; otherwise, Martin Atkins and Youth’s replacement, Raven, got an equal share.
My point is that, while songwriting should be rewarded, for one or two of the guys in a band to get the lion’s share of the spoils seems unfair to me – especially if they are blocking the creative route of other members (think Lennon and McCartney with Harrison).
I really hope this wasn’t about money, but I suspect it might be a factor, and money goes with creative input. We can only speculate, of course, and I think it’s fair enough if we do.
Always sad seeing a great drummer leave the band, but that’s just the beginning of a new era for Motorpsycho. I’m looking forward to what’s coming and will keep following Jarmyr’s output outside of the band.
Anyway – MP should have enough music on the shelf to deliver another great album in 2023. Haven’t they been recording again this autumn? Anyway, there’s still the material they gave Reine to work with. And hey – I’ll even cherish an acoustic tour with the duo (and possibly Reine) in 2023, if all strings break…
Word is that there is (was) a new album planned for summer ’23 – why should it not, even without Tomas as a drummer. He may still receive his part of the cake (= share of sales) I assume
then…maybe it is time for a real acaustic album… yes.. i know… i bring this up regulary :D but seriously … guys, in matter of trying out different styles and genres, you have been more divers in the ninetees ^^
Maube they should bring a lot of friends to a cabin in the mountain and record a new tussler album. Sugarfoot looks dead at the moment
Apparently a certain Martin Langlie steps in for the India dates. No further Info in whether there are permanent plans.
Oh, some mentioned Mr. Langlie earlier…sorry für the double post! However, now it is confirmed by the band.
Øyvind i busy with his solo work. New album is in the works. Dont think Tusslerne will record again but would be pleasantly happy if it happens…
I’m devastated by the news.
Tomas’ drumming with MP has been so incredible. Like a dream, really. There have been some live peaks over the past years that have rivalled 1993/94 and 1997/98 in terms of intensity and magic. Save for 2020, which along with being a horrible year in general, had the worst setlists since 2001, ALL the other years since 2017 have had concerts that deserve “all-time classic” status. October/November 2017 had a whole host of them, November 2018, May 2019, the Blitz-run in November 2021… And I wouldn’t be surprised if we 20 years from now look back on the 2022 Cosmoctop! Over Europe-tour as their greatest ever in terms of musical elasticity.
Tomas made a dent in the Psychoverse and gave me a new emotional connection to the band. To me, he was the best of all worlds musically. He could play anything and make it sound urgent and vital. Sure, many drummers can “play” the songs, but after nearly 6 years in MP, Tomas had become them. I’m so grateful for everything he contributed, and will treasure the concerts I saw for the rest of my life.
It’s great that Bent and Snah just soldier on without missing a beat (pun intended), but what a loss…
Here’s a long interview with Tomas in adressa from yesterday (Translated)
– I am broke, cheerful and homeless
In his 14 years in Trondheim, Tomas Järmyr has left a strong mark on the city as a musician and received a number of cultural awards. Now the ex-drummer in Motorpsycho stands on bare ground.
Last week it was announced that drummer Tomas Järmyr and Motorpsycho are parting ways after six years.
– Have you registered with Nav?
– No, but I will do that tomorrow.
Tomas Järmyr is not exuberant as he stands in his office at Musikkbyen at Brattøra in Trondheim.
– I am broke, homeless and cheerful, he says, but we can see that the latter is not entirely true.
For 14 years he has lived and left a strong mark on Trondheim’s musical life, in addition to making a name for himself nationally and internationally. For the past six years, he has been a permanent fixture in Motorpsycho, until he and the rest found that it was best to go their separate ways. They broke up.
For some, Swedish Tomas Järmyr is “your favorite drummer’s favorite drummer”. For Järmyr himself, he is a wage earner who has not earned much more than those who can be found at the bottom of the salary statistics, and the consequence he has taken himself is to give up his apartment in Møllenberg.
Kristoffer Loe was decisive
Motor psycho. Yodok. Doff’s Poi. The MaXx. Year break. Sunswitch. Zu. Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Pantha Du Prince and The Bell Laboratory. Vinny Villbass. The list is so long of projects and musician colleagues Järmyr has released with, that he has stopped counting. Järmyr believes everything can be traced back to Yodok, the band project he has with his friend Kristoffer Lo.
– That is what has been most important to me. Much of what I have done would not have happened without Yodok. That’s where I found my center, he says.
It was from there that Järmyr got the idea to take a master’s degree in cymbals and make music with that as a starting point, which in turn led to him becoming a drummer in Zu.
In 2012, Järmyr lived in the occupied “hundrehuset”, i.e. Innherredsveien 100, but was evicted and ran away to Oslo for a few months. In May 2013, he was exhausted and was brought home to Sweden by his mother. He got a call from Martin Langlie, who asked if he could go to Barcelona and play drums with minimal techno producer Pantha Du Prince. Then the trip went to Canada, Mexico and Australia. There he met house producer Vinny Villbass, with whom he is releasing a record this year. Now Martin Langlie is in India as drummer for Motorpsycho. The ring is closed.
– It’s amazing, I think. Norway is a small country, he says, smiling broadly.
– I just wanted to play drums, and I still do, he says.
Applied to Trondheim after hearing Kenneth Kapstad
But what is his impression of Trondheim as a music scene? There is little point in asking about Trøndelag, because according to the Swede, Trøndelag stops at Værnes.– When I went to folk high school at home in Sweden, I was introduced to music that made me go to the ground, and it was Monolitic, the band of Kenneth Kapstad and Stian Westerhus, says Järmyr, who would later succeed Kapstad as Motorpsycho’s drummer.
Then he just got in Shining and The Thing. Jazz and metal. He thought “what on earth are they doing up there?”, and applied to Trondheim and NTNU together with Oscar Grönberg, instead of Stockholm, which was the original plan. Both got in, and Järmyr eventually took a master’s degree in cymbals at the Trondheim Music Conservatory.
– Has it exceeded all expectations?
– I don’t know what I expected. I just wanted to play drums and I still do. I noticed that the genre boundaries were not so hard in Trondheim, that they floated, and that suited me very well.
In addition, Järmyr experienced that Trondheim is so small that the audience has time to run between three concerts in one evening.
– The best thing about Trondheim was Blæst, he says, and reminds us of the concert and nightclub that was on Solsiden. He was there “all the time”.
– The politicians push musicians out of Trondheim
– I understand that other musicians leave here – you have to have a job, after all. And then it is natural to look for bigger cities. Trondheim is primarily a “band city”, with fixed constellations and few individual artists.– Are you familiar with Trondheim?
– I’ve been trying to move from here for ten years, but it doesn’t work. I don’t know whether it is I who am most happy in Trondheim, or whether it is Trondheim who is most happy in me. I have never stayed in one place for so long. But now I don’t know, that is.
Järmyr is also disappointed by the lack of rehearsal space in Trondheim, and mentions Nyhavna, where he rehearses with The Black Moon Circle. Nyhavna has been discussed in several rounds in Adresseavisen over the past year and a half. He fears that the building they practice in will be demolished
– The politicians push musicians out of Trondheim. If we want to see artists grow in Trondheim, they must have good places where the music can be experienced, but above all they must have places where the music can be created and practiced.
And he believes this must happen in a room where no one else sees or hears what is happening.
– You have to make damn music for a while, practice and bang your head against the wall, says Järmyr.
– An honor to play in Motorpsycho
The biggest thing that has happened to him was when he got to join the Italian Zu, which fuses avant garde metal and ambient, and which has “the world’s most brutal bass sound”, according to Järmyr.– I had been a blood fan for ten years, and they have influenced me extremely much.
Suddenly the request came if he wanted to become a drummer, and he was not difficult to ask.
– It was also an honor to play in Motorpsycho. In 2017, when I got to play in both Zu and Motorspycho, I was in heaven, literally, he says.
Because he was hardly at home that year. He was mostly on a plane when he wasn’t playing.
Now he wants to find his comfort zone. It’s about the music, life – and finances. Järmyr has earned less than social welfare recipients for many years; until he joined Motorpsycho he had a taxable income of between 100,000 and 200,000 a year. He points to a Pearl Master Custom three-drum jazz kit standing next to him:
– The mother is struggling to afford the rent.
And, it also costs to turn on percussion, when you constantly break cymbals to pieces at between NOK 4,000 and 8,000.
– It’s expensive, and life becomes cramped.
– Musicians are also working people
He has been in this situation before. But now he’s older, and it’s scary, he thinks. The pandemic also took a toll on what little savings he had.– If I’m going to continue to do what I can, I must be decently paid. We musicians are working people too. The consequence is that I will have to sell my instruments and then I can’t take a job when the call comes, says Järmyr.
In addition, he has wear and tear on his body after many years as a professional musician – he is going to the orthopedist with a work-related wear and tear on his foot this week.
– What am I supposed to contribute, if I don’t even have my body in order, he asks rhetorically and adds that he often works 16 hours a day.
– I love what I do, and I haven’t done anything else since I was two years old.
He adds that it is not just about throwing this profession overboard either.
– We’ll see where I end up. I’m going on tour with Black Moon Circle in Europe from March and after that I don’t know. And it’s absolutely fantastic. In a way, concludes Tomas Järmyr.
—
Here’s the link to the article in norwegian
https://www.adressa.no/kultur/i/O8E1W1/jeg-er-blakk-blid-og-bostedsloes
I read in a friend’s FB post that Tomas will sit in with Black Moon Circle for their European tour in March calling at a handful of dates in Germany and Benelux including Sojo in Leuven. For those of you who want to bid Tomas a farewell…
Edit: Ups, already mentioned above…
The first two BMC shows with Tomas are available on archive.org for anyone interested in checking it out – Higly recomended band.
“Black Moon Circle is dedicated to dark psychedelic space rock, driven by a disposition towards prolo”Here’s the UFFA concert.
“https://archive.org/details/BMC2023-01-27.FLAC”I might also pitch in this minor historic moment from yesterdays Spidergawd concert at Byscenen in Trondheim. Tomas is also drumming for black gothmetal rockers Årabrot who as we speak are touring Norway together with Spidergawd. During the Spidergawd concert the band stepped aside while Tomas popped in for one of his signature drum solos – Which then continued over into the next song together with Kenneth. Truly a magic moment.
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