We gave you members/followers of Delain International the chance to send Charlotte some of your questions to be answered! Here is the result.NOTE: Since we sent quite a few questions, Charlotte will answer them in small groups. She'll send few every week and we'll up them up then. If this message is still here that means there are still some to go! Dino from the UK asks:Do you find it difficult to reach those really high notes in the chorus of “Sleepwalker’s Dream’?Well it’s very easy singing them in a studio or at home, but live it has been hard sometimes. Because I’m jumping/headbanging all the times on stage I sometimes get out of breath and then It’s not really the fact that the notes are high that makes them difficult, more the fact that they’re so ffin long. Anyway I found some ways to ‘cheat’ the part in the past by taking a very quick extra breath halfway the part or by singing the lower backing vocal, but fortunately experience and some vocal coaching got me to a place where I don’t have to cheat anymore I'll be seeing you in London on the 21st of March. Do you prefer playing small venues or large venues? I know that for the status of a band it’s very important to play large venues. But actually I like playing small venues better, as long as it’s good/big enough to bring you’re full production that is. Why do I like small venues better? Well, there’s less pressure, you’re closer to the audience and the atmosphere is a lot of times more spontaneous. I have very good memories to a lot of gigs in small venues because unexpected things happened (for example a marriage proposal!) However, I wouldn’t say no to a sold out Heineken Music Hall! (Big venue in Amsterdam)Taliesin from the US asks:You've sung with Marco Hietala...are there any other musicians you'd like to play/record with someday?Well, I must say that my list has become a lot shorter in the last five years because of the awesome guest musicians we’ve had with Delain. Still, there’s quite a list left! I listen to a lot of different music in a lot of different genres and actually there’s not much that I wouldn't like to do! But.. on top of the list: To sing a murder ballad with Nick Cave, or a duet with Thom York would both mean I could die happy.Joey from Ireland asks:When and how did you and your love meet?!We met at a party about seven years ago, but he doesn’t remember that (we still argue about that.. lol) About a year later I heard that he was in a band and they were looking for a singer, so I applied for the job. We spent a lot of time getting together, writing songs and playing the occasional gig. He was the guitar player and we became friends. At one point, the band split up, but my love and I didn’t What inspired “On the Other Side�'On the Other Side’ was written in a period when a lot of heavy stuff was going on. A friend of mine lost his father to an illness, and at the same time my mother was in a very insecure place with her health. I had a lot of respect for the way my friend handled his loss, constantly repeating how proud he was of his father. This was the inspiration to the song. My mother, thank god, fully recovered
Ya viera la foto y no sabía quien era la del medio (no la reconoci, vamos) :016:
Amanda from Singapore asks: Hi ya Charlotte! Hope you and the band are doing fine =D. I know April Rain was released recently in the UK. Any idea when will it be release in Asia? Especially Singapore? Me and some of my friends are dying to get it. We kind of prefer to buy it at a store more than online =) And oh, we are really really hoping that some time in the future you guys would come to Singapore to play a show! It's hard to get symphonic metals bands to come to Singapore. And we are craving for one ^_^. We keep our fingers crossed! =DDear Amanda, so far the only Asian country where April Rain has been released is Japan, and the album is doing pretty well over there! Right now there are no concrete plans for releasing in other Asian territories, but when the album would really boom in Japan, or if there would be a lot of interest otherwise from Singapore for example, I can imagine we would be looking to release there as well. Coming to Singapore for a show would be really awesome. Right now it might seem like a long shot, but stranger things have happened: This summer we’re playing in Mexico, which also has no release whatsoever. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed with you! By the way I agree with you on buying albums in stores instead of online, It’s way more romantic.Holly from the UK asks:If you could design your own ice cream, what flavours would it have in it and what would you call it?It would be white chocolate flavored ice-cream with pieces of white chocolate, hazelnut, almonds and coconut in it. (Now I want it!)It would be called ‘Charlie goes nuts’ If you had to be stuck in an elevator with either Gandhi, Johnny Depp or a random stranger, who would it be and why?I wouldn’t know what to do or say in the presence of either Ghandi or Johnny Depp. I don’t think I’d be worthy of sharing thoughts with such an elevated spirit as Ghandi, and with Johnny I think I’d just be doing things of which I’m not sure that he, or my boyfriend, would appreciate (he’s hott!)… Random stranger it is.Kevin from Singapore asks:Will Delain be considering a tour of Asia?Well as you can read in my answer to Amanda, nothing’s impossible! Actually to be honest, I’d love to tour any country where people appreciate our music. Fact is, we haven’t been around too long yet and that’s why we’ve not done world tours or shows outside the EU yet. We have to keep building and investing to make that possible. I’m not sure if I can give an indication of when exactly an Asian tour would be realistic, but I cán tell you that things are looking bright: we’re crossing the big ocean to Northern and Southern America for the first time this year, and I’m sure that after the release of our third album, more is yet to come!How does it feel to be a rose among the thorns?To be honest, I don’t really feel like that. I might be the only woman in a male-dominated scene, but when I wake up after a bad night of sleep, I can be really thorny as well
En la web oficial de Delain, nos comentaron que este a fines de este año, tendremos un nuevo álbum de la banda!Esperamos con ansias la nueva producción
Miriam from Italy asks:Have you ever thought to use your clarinet on Delain songs?To be honest I haven’t played the clarinet in ages, there has been one part in a demo for April Rain where I thought the clarinet would fit, but I didn’t feel quite the virtuoso to try and do it myself. Actually it wasn’t until my participation with the Christmas Metal Symphony in which I participated last December, that I felt the itch to pick up the clarinet again. I heard the orchestra playing and I just wanted to be a part of that! Cecilia from Paraguay asks:Why did you choose to cover Cordell from The Cranberries? Which by the way is great I’ve always loved the Cranberries and Dolores’ vocal style. It was Ronald who came with the idea of this particular song. We’ve covered multiple songs for multiple occasions and some songs we’ve only played once and never again, but for some reason we really stuck with this song. I think it suites us, we love to play it. To me, singing this song feels like singing one of our own songs, which is good I guess. Kimberley from Holland asks:Hello Charlotte, I was wondering two things and since I could ask you questions, I grab my chance. The song Start Swimming sounds really personal and I was wondering if you could tell me how that song has been written and on what it's based on.I remember Rob wrote the instrumental basis of the song. He sent a recording of his idea and we liked it instantly and started working on it. At that time, we were in quite a hectic and busy place with Delain, and I also had some personal issues to work through. I guess you can hear this in the lyrics. They’re all about being too busy or scared to actually start living.Also I was wondering if you could tell me where you get your corsets from. I'm looking for a new one and I just love your corsets.Thanks! the brand that makes my favorite corsets actually doesn’t exist anymore, so I can only buy their stuff from Marktplaats (Dutch Ebay) It’s a pity that they’re not making new stuff, but it does make it more exclusive
We would like to introduce to you with pride our new fulltime Delain-member, Otto ‘the baron’ Schimmelpenninck van der Oije (Detonation), who will replace Rob on the bass. We are very happy to welcome Otto to the Delain family. Starting from our upcoming UK tour, he will join Delain live on stage. We will update our member profiles soon. Until then, you can get to know Otto by visiting his myspace.We would like to thank Rob for his years of dedication, musical craftmanship and the good times we had throughout the years. Rob’s official last show with delain will be at the Mezz in Breda (08-04-2010), we’ll make this show one hell of a party in his honour!
This saturday we're heading off towards the UK for gigs in London, Nottingham, Glasgow, Dudley and Leeds. We will keep a detailled account about the days over there. So you can also follow our tour trough our website or myspace.The Dutch/Mexican band Stream of Passion will support at Biebob in Belgium Saturday the 27th. Check them out here. We are looking forward to play with them!
Wilma from the Netherlands asks:Who's idea was it to make a cover version of Smalltown Boy? It's a kind of gay anthem, but in your single version a part of the lyrics is missing. I know there will be a re-release of April Rain, and I hope the album version will be a complete version.We’ve been considering a re-release for a while indeed, but in the end we decided to skip it and focus on our third album right away. It leaves us with the luxury problem of some extra material that would feature on the re-release, but we can still use this in the future. I don’t recall who’s idea it was exactly to cover this particular song, I guess it was Sander if I remember correctly (He’s the master of 80’s pop songs So my 2nd question is: will the album version be a (more) complete version, or is it the same as the single version?There’s only one version of the song, so I’m sorry, no complete one. Jessica from Canada asks:Dear Charlotte, I have two questions for you: If you weren't singing in Delain, where do you think you would be at this point in your life? It’s a difficult question, Delain is such a huge aspect of my life that it’s strange to imagine life without it. But I can try! I think if I wasn’t singing in Delain, I would probably be singing in another band, it may not be at the same level, but I think I would be going for music anyway. Maybe I’d finished my study by now and consider babies and a golden retriever…uhm, another band it is If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why?A golden retriever, haha! no seriously, I think either a dog, because their faithful and playful, or a cat, I sometimes get jealous of my own cats, what a life! They eat, play, sleep and get cuddled. A whole life might get boring but I’d love to be a cat for a day.Lazaro from the US asks:What's your favorite Sonata Arctica song? If I remember right, you sang "Last Drop Falls" with them live! You remember right, and I think Last Drop Falls has become my favorite because all of this. Silence is my favorite of their albums, I like most songs on it a lot. Especially End Of This Chapter and The Power Of One, that one’s pretty epic!Since I'm a fairly young musician (16 years old), and compose my own songs by myself, what would you recommend me to do in order to get "known" to the public. I know gigs and performances are important, but what else do I need to do?To be completely honest I wouldn’t know exactly what you’d need to do for that, if there was one key to success we’d all be superstars. One thing I can say from experience is just take every musical opportunity that crosses your path, there’s a lot to learn from different projects/styles and you never know in advance if something might turn out brilliant. I’ve had periods of being in up to 5 bands or projects at the same time, I had an awesome time and learned a lot, sometimes things like this can get the ball rolling too. I wouldn’t have met Martijn if it wasn’t for another project we were both involved with. Also you could try to use social media for your advantage by putting some of your own songs online, it works for some people! (Let me know if you do, I’m curious!) Good luck with everything, I wish you all the best in your musical adventures!
Delain Just did a surprise guest appearance at Kamelot's sold out gig at 013 Tilburg, performed the song Season's End, it was awesome!
