© Claudia Ehrhardt
| இவ Ice Vajal :: Music Land :: Metal World | ||
| Bands :: A-Z / D / Delain / | ||
© Claudia Ehrhardt
Charlotte Wessels - December 2nd 2009 - Dortmund
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Delain started as a project, but became a band. With April Rain they do have their sophomore release out and they are back on the road. Last time I talked to Martijn, but that was even before the album was in stores, so I took the chance to talk to Charlotte Wessels before the show to catch up with latest developments and future plans. Click here to listen! |
© Delain
Martijn Westerhold - February, 12th 2009 (by phone)
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With April Rain the Dutch symphonic rockers of Delain have their second album on the way into the stores. The interviews were already scheduled when the news broke that the release is pushed back as the album is now a priority release by Roadrunner Records which means it will be released world-wide at a time. Former Within Temptation keyboarder Martijn Westerhold called me as scheduled and I first wanted to know how he feels about becoming a priority release... "It was a surprise. Some parts aren't good, but the good thing is that it also gives us time. It feels like a victory to be priority with the second album, but it means I have to plan everything again." Well, there are worth things then re-scheduling everything due to become Roadrunners priority! "We had to cancel some shows due to it, but the people understand - and we will re-schedule them. At the shows we play with Kamelot we will play almost new songs plus 2 Lucidity songs." Martijn told me. The new release date is late March... And the album is called April Rain... "We thought about March rain, but it didn't sound right." Martijn explains - and laughs about this. "April Rain sounds better and the song is a good ambassador for the album. And parts of the lyrics are relating to other songs and it was one of the first song we wrote for the album." When Delain presented their first album it was more a project of Martijn, but now it's a band. "The band is really involved in the making of the album. After the first album we toured, we know each other now better. It's like we get the best of the cake..." In the beginning of Delain, there were many guests who joined them on the album Lucidity... Martijn explains: "It was always my goal to have everybody involved, to give everybody space - but first we needed to become a band." One of the guests was Marco Hietala - and he also added vocals at two songs on April Rain. "We thought, if we take a guest, take another one... But we love his voice and so we asked him again. Marco is one of the few guys who can sing 'girls register'. We recorded the songs first with Charlotte singing it. And wit Marco we didn't need to change anything to make it fit. He spent a couple of hours on it, so it was really simple. I also told him that I'm not sure about having him on the album again, but it worked!" Already a tour is scheduled... "Yes, we will tour with Kamelot in Spain and France. But Germany is our main focus, Germany is very important for us!" But it's not like others aren't important he added. And continued "Germany is a huge country for metal, for our kind of music. It's a good place to play. And it's kinda like the Netherlands, you can play one day in Münster and the next in Cologne. France is different, not so much places to play." And it sounded like Martijn would like to play more shows there... "The album will also be released in Poland and we plan to go there!" here he sounded very enthusiastic. I wanted to know about festivals, if something is on the way... "Yes and no, the release was too late for some festivals, some festivals book bands very early... But there is something on the way! We enjoy playing live and we like to have a wider range of audience, for us it's no problem to play with any band. For example the tour with Subway To Sally was very good for us." I asked Martijn, if he can tell me something about the lyrics - and he was. "The songs are personal stories. This that happened in Charlotte's surroundings. When she started, she was 17 years old, now she is 21 years... She likes to write about experiences and now has more to tell. April Rain is about the ones who don't see the bright side, even if it is there. I asked her, if it's about me, coz I'm realistic... well, perhaps even pessimistic. And she is more optimistic. At the first album the lyrics partly been by Charlotte, but she could find herself in it." In my opinion Charlotte's vocals are the strong point of Delain - and Martijn agreed. "She sings by the book, operatic style. She can sing Schubert! I saw her doing that in a school project. But she's doing it in a modern way. She expresses her feelings and music is about emotions. We don't look at other bands, we do what we want to do. We don't think about the response we might get." Now he gets the first reactions from the media... "We were in our own world, but we had a good feeling about it... Now we get positive feedback and it feels good!" Martijn added. We were running out of time, but I guess it won't be the last time we talk about Delain and music in general.... |
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