the translation of an interview with Charlotte Wessels by Joep Dominicus (aka joepiestar) from Metalfans.be. The Dutch band Delain slowly has worked its way to the top of the symphonic metal genre for the last ten years. By touring a lot, both as headliner and as support act, and with consistantly releasing albums of good quality, the band has earned all the credits that it gets nowadays. Due to the release of their fifth album 'Moonbathers' on the 25th of August, I had the chance to do a personal interview with Delain's front woman, Charlotte Wessels. J: Before the release of your last album, Delain has toured a lot as support act for bands like Nightwish and Sabaton. Do you feel that route has been productive for you guys? Charlotte: Yes, I think it has worked out quite good for us. You know, we did do headliners quite a bit in our early career. But then at a certain moment, you noticed that the amount of fans didn't increase at consecutive tours, so it would actually be interesting to tour with another band. With a bigger band, or a band that also draws a different audience, so you might increase the interest for Delain too. Therefore we did a couple of very succesful tours with Nightwish, Sabaton and Within Temptation, both in Europe as in North-America.We now notice at our own concerts, that the visitor numbers have increased and that's not only because we've got a new album coming, but after the concerts, we meet a lot of people who tell us, that they first saw you as a support act and then decided they wanted to see Delain as main act. So, it does make sense to be a support act once in a while. J: This applies probably the same for festivals, where people don't come especially for you, but it's still a good opportunity to acquire new fans? Charlotte: Absolutely! And that's also the difference. It's makes it a lot of fun and also exciting to get the chance to engage a lot of people with your music and possibly make them a fan of Delain. A lot of fans ask me which I do prefer: festivals or clubshows. Well, I told you already why I like festivals, but I like clubshows also a lot, because they're much more intimate. People come especially for you, they know the lyrics and they sing with you. So, both have their own appeal for me. J: Nightwish did ask you guys to come along several times on tour, so I suspect you get along fine? Charlotte: Absolutely! Our first North-American tour together went fantastic that they asked us again. It went a bit out of hand you might say, ha ha ha! J: In the meantime, Merel has become a full member of Delain. Do you like to have another female onboard or don't you really care about that? Charlotte: Personally, it doesn't matter to me. Merel is a very cool chick and the person's character is far more important than the gender. She's just a fantastic addition to the Delain-family. J: Earlier this year, you guys did release the EP 'Lunar Prelude'. Any particular reason for that? Charlotte: Well, the last few years have been very busy, and normally we take a big break to write and compose a new album, but now we simply didn't have the time to do that. We actually looked ahead to our schedule and decided to cut our writing and composing time in several periods. We used our short periods between tours to write and record a few songs and still give them the attention and care they neededConsequently, a few songs were already finished while the rest of the new album still had to be written and produced. On top of that, a lot of fans, and our record company, asked us what we were doing. So, having already a few songs completely done, this EP was convenient in a lot of ways to release. We also found it quite cool to be able to let the fans hear some of the stuff we were busy with. Normally it will take a period of about two years of nothing before a whole new album is released. This way we could give the fans (and probably the record company - hunebedbouwer) some new stuff! J: So, a couple of songs of 'Lunar Prelude' will be on the new album? Charlotte: Yes, that's correct. We really wanted to make a prelude to 'Moonbathers'. We already knew the title of the new release. J: Now about the new album. It is probably the most diverse album you guys made so far. Was that a conscious choice? Charlotte: Well, it's always a bit of a grey area when it comes to: "Was it a conscious choice or was it something spontaneous?". We do however makes some choices beforehand. For example, the choice to make it our heaviest album so far. But that is combined with what you experience at the time there and then, what kind of creativity plays through your mind. You have to allow yourself that, because it has to stay an organic process. Sometimes you are really in the mood to make a very heavy metal track, but at the end the outcome is a much poppier song than you anticipated. We like that and that's also why the album has become so diverse.Another reason why it is so diverse has to do with cutting the whole making process in periods of time as I mentioned before. We wrote our material at different places and times, in different mindsets and moods. Maybe the connections between the songs are a bit difficult to comprehend, but looking back, I see it as quite a logical process. I mean, all the writing has been spread out over two years, so it's not that strange that you get some diverse songs. J: Was this the first time you wrote material between tours? Charlotte: We have always done some writing, but the process of writing and then recording and mixing songs completely was new to us. It always feels very good to have some work done already. Usually we did some writing on Tuesday- and Thursday-mornings, but now it was much more of an intensive job to do the actual recording as well. Working this way, we had to go to several recording studio's in a short period, something we weren't used to. J: About 'Moonbathers', do you have a favorite song yourself? Charlotte: Not yet, really. I think 'The glory and the scum' is quite cool. I like 'The last breath' also, but that's more because we haven't done a ballad for some time, so that was fun to do again. 'Turn the lights out' is another favourite. Time will tell and also will tell which songs do have live potential. J: Do you listen a lot to the album after you've finished it? Charlotte: Not really, Only after quite some time. I'm very happy and satisfied with 'Moonbathers'', but I'm also a ferfectionist. I've never written lyrics, projects or papers and not thought afterwards: "O, I wish I had done it this or that way!". When you've just finished your album, it's all so fresh in your head, theres no objectivity and consequently no real pleasure'to listen to it. It will takes some months to do that and I'm really looking forward to do that with 'Moonbathers'. J: Where did the inspiration for the lyrics come from? Charlotte: From all kind of sources as well. As always, I get inspired by books, films and own experiences etc., but I always make notes not to use specific texts, experiences. For example, if you read a specific line from a book that resonances with you, it often means that it's part of your own experience, so the lyrics always consist out a bit of both. 'The glory and the scum' was inspired a lot by the book 'The better angels of our nature', a book about the history of violence by humans. It may sound very pessimistic, but the message of the book is, that we are living in the most peaceful time in our history (2016 was not included), so in other words, it is more or less a positive book. We all have the potential to do good and evil, 'The glory and the scum', and it's up to us what we will do with that choice. 'Chrysalis', 'The last breath and 'Danse macabre' on the other hand were inspired by the filmscript of a friend of ours who is a screenwriter. It was a whole new experience for us and such fun and daring to do. 'Turn the lights out' is a ode to one of my favourite fantasy writers, Neil Caiman. It's written from the perspective of the character of 'Death', in the form of a young gothic woman from his fantastic cartoon series 'Sandman'. So, you see, our inspiration comes from all over the place. There are a couple of songs which have not a specific source. I've got plenty of scribbles, notes, short poems and lines which I find appealing and most of them appear halfway during the day.These are often the kind of things to which I turn to when I'm in the mood for proper writing. Just to look what may be useful for a complete song. J: Referring to that last line, do you start writing the lyrics for some songs before composing the music? Charlotte: It depends. Both happens. We do write the lyrics with three members of the band: Martijn, our keyboard player, former guitarist Guss Eikens (who doesn't do live gigs anymore, but has been with Delain from the beginning) and I. Sometimes, one of us starts with a little idea. The way I do it most of the time is: singing a melody with lyrics and chords. Two examples of that are 'The hurricane' and 'Danse macabre'. Other times you start with a riff, a beat or a theme. You see that the approach of each song is almost always different from the other. J: There is another collaboration with Alissa White-Gluz. Any particular reason to ask her back? Charlotte: We just think she's awesome and cool, ha ha ha! No, we were just very content with her contribution on 'The tragedy of the commons', our last full album. We've played it live lots of times with her and it's just very nice to play. So, if it was possible, we would really like to do another collaboration with her. 'Hands of gold' was the result and we think that she did a fine job with that song! J: Are there any other singers that you would like to record a song with? Charlotte: Well, ofcourse Marco Hietala has performed on many of our records already. Not on this one, but I think he suits our music very well. I feel, he's become almost a member of the band, so there will always be a place for him. There are so many good singers on this planet I would like to sing with and, being a big fan of Nick Cave, I can only dream yet to sing a duet with him. J: 'Scandal' is a cover of Queen. How did that come about? Charlotte: That was Martijn's idea. He's pretty mad about that song. First, I was a little bit worried about it, because you're going to cover one of the world's greatest bands, so I was a bit nervous about it all. Excited, but nervous. Luckily it's one of the more lesser known songs of Queen AND we had the explicit permission of Brian May to do it! It made the whole process a lot cooler and easier to do something with it! J: I don't think it was such a obvious choice. Lots of metal bands cover songs of other metal bands. That wasn't the case here, but you clearly added your own touch to this song. Charlotte: Absolutely! We have spend a lot of time and effort to make this song our own and to leave the song recognizable at the same time. It's a super cool song in itself, so we didn't want to change that. We've made the song our own by using our own sound. We didn't change the songs, just filled all the parts with our own sounds. That meant that the song became a bit higher soundwise, and a bit faster.My voice is very different to Freddie's, so that was one of the obvious differences. You often see bands totally changing covers, but that often doesn't work out the right way in my opinion. Sometimes it does, but in our case we wanted to treat the original with the respect it deserves. J: Soon Delain will be touring in Europe with Evergrey and Kobra And The Lotus. What can the fans expect? Charlotte: Ofcourse the focus will be on the songs from Moonbathers, but we like to play a mix of songs that we like to play ourselves. For our older fans it will be good to hear some new material and for our new fans we still play some songs that they were hoping and expecting to hear. J: Is there a chance you might play songs that you've never played before live, or songs that you haven't played for a long time? Charlotte: We do try to put some surprises in our setlist, but if I told you it would not be a surprise anymore, would it? (hihihi - hunebedbouwer). J: You guys have a big anniversary concert comin up in december at Paradiso (Amsterdam - fantastic venue, go if you can - hunebedbouwer), which will be released as a DVD. Something unique, I suppose? Charlotte: Yes, it will be a massive production with lots of guest singers and a kind of birthday party atmosphere. The central theme will be one of the nostalgic kind, because we want to look back to what've done and achieved since we've started. J: Any reason why you chose Paradiso? Charlotte: Well, because Paradiso is a legendary venue in the Netherlands and we've never played there as a headliner, so this isTHE opportunity to do so. Apart from that, if you do record the concert for a DVD, you want to have a special location, something that gives that recording a special feel. J: Delain makes a kind of symphonic metal. If someone would ask you what typifies symphonic metal, which 3 albums would you recommend him/her? Charlotte: Good question. Let me think. I think there has to be one of Within Temptation's earlier records. Nightwish as well, but that's because Martijn is a big fan of them. Also a band like Kamelot, because not all symphonic metal is sung by female singers. The art of being part of a genre is, to create your own special and recognizable place within that genre and I think that Delain is hard on it's way to just do that!
In my opinion, Delain will one day be as big as Nightwish or Within Temptation. They have the talent, backing, and growing fan base to increase their presence and reach the arena level. They are about to release their latest album Moonbathers which will no doubt be another great album in their career. I had the pleasure of speaking to Martijn Westerholt, the keyboard mastermind behind Delain to talk about Bloodstock and Download, their new album, covering Queen, the 10th anniversary of Delain, and what 2017 holds for the band.Jack: Hi, thanks for taking the time to speak to me. How are you doing?Martijn Westerholt (Keyboards): Really good, we’re not bored! [Laughs] Actually right now we’re entering a holiday period but it has been very busy and hectic so far which is a good thing.Jack: Last year you played Bloodstock Festival. How did you find playing the fest?Martijn: It’s a very cosy but not small festival so it was fantastic. I remember we headlined the tent there and the vibe was just magical, there was good weather as well so we were really happy. Thinking back it was a good one.Jack: You asked the organisers to move to the Sophie Lancaster stage to play tribute to Sophie Lancaster. How did you discover the charity?Martijn: Well actually Charlotte (Wessels, Vocals) did, she wrote the lyrics when she was inspired by them. She contacted them and found out some workers there were huge Delain fans actually and that’s how that relationship started.Jack: We Are the Others was written about Sophie Lancaster. Have you met her family at all?Martijn: Yes actually her mother, best friend, and family [were] there. It was really special and you could really feel the tension in the tent and it was like a magical moment. For us it was a complete circle so that was perfect and very special.Jack: This year you’ve been playing some festival dates. How has the new material been going down?Martijn: Yeah really good. Of course people don’t know all the stuff yet but people are watching and checking out, with some recognising it watching it from YouTube already. In general it has been great, I think it’s been the best festival season for up to date. We’re really happy. I remember Graspop for example, which is a big festival in Belgium, we played the main stage pretty early on Sunday and I was pretty worried. If I was those people I’d stay in bed and sleep my hangover away if you know what I mean. But people told me they’ve never seen that many people in front of the main stage on Sunday that early, and from people have been going to the festival for ten years. Also at Download as well, the weather was terrible but there was still a full field of people. So far we’re really happy.Jack: Download Festival was really muddy this year, so much that it was all over the news. Did the mud cause any problems for you?Martijn: No but I do remember after the show that I was going back to the hotel and Timo (Somers) our guitar player and Bas, a crew member of ours checked out Gojira… I think it was Gojira. But there was so much mud it was almost up to their knees and they could feel a current in it, which was ridiculous. It was too bad as I’ve heard the festival has had wonderful weather most of the time and this was an exceptional situation. I’m really happy though the festival went on anyway and as I said the crowd was good. We’ve got good memories about it.Jack: I was watching Sky Arts and ‘We Are the Others’ was shown on the Sky Arts Highlight Reel.Martijn: Yeah that was a surprise to me actually and I’m really happy they did that of course.Jack: Did you ever imagine when you started off that your songs would be broadcast on TV at all?Martijn: No you don’t really think about that. You think about… every song you make you think “okay this is going to be the best song I’ve ever made,†with every single song you want that. You know how a song turns out in the end of course and you never think “okay this song is going to make me famous†or “this song is going to be on TV.†No you just want to write a cool song and that’s it.Jack: I must say Happy Birthday as Delain are ten years old. How does it feel to have ten years of Delain?Martijn: It went by so fast and I never ever thought I would be in this situation with Delain after ten years and here we are. This is a surprise, this was not the big plan or anything and things just develop like this.Jack: Did you ever feel you would last ten years?Martijn: I actually didn’t really think Delain would last and I wasn’t busy with that. But right now I want to do this until I retire because I love my job; this is my full-time job and I love to do it. As long as we can make people happy, what better job can you have? I would never think [the band] would have lasted that long.Jack: Your new album Moonbathers is out in August. When coming to fan and critical reaction do you get curious or nervous?Martijn: Curious, you know there will be people who love it and there will be people who will hate it. I’d rather have it like that than people who would just not care. I don’t get nervous that fast, or before an important show as it doesn’t help.Jack: What is behind the title Moonbathers?Martijn: Charlotte always writes, she gets a lot of inspiration when she is sad or if something [is] bugging her. It may come across that she’s a person who is very depressed a lot, but that is not the case. There are times where she feels very good and goes outside running or “jump on my bike and do something,†and when Charlotte feels sad she starts writing lyrics and I think that makes her happy. But she is also a very positive person and there’s always a light at the end if there is a dark song; and of course what better symbol than a moon being the light in the dark. I think the vibe in the album is really dark, but there’s hope there too and Moonbathers is very prudent for it.Jack: What was the recording process like?Martijn: I want to learn every album production. Even if I don’t want to learn you will learn something every album production, that is one of the things I love so much about making an album. I’m also very open to trying new things and for this album we chopped the whole process up in pieces. We didn’t record in one go and didn’t write in one go and everything was in pieces. The advantage of that is you’re really flexible. When you listen to dance music it’s even more extreme, people write the song, record the song and then release it and that’s it and then they do the next song, then you have a collection and that’s the album. But we didn’t do it that extreme, we chopped the process up into three or four pieces, so recording the guitars, then recording the drums and that made the album very flexible. Next time we’d like to it like this again but perhaps a bit more extreme as you can go back to something which you already recorded and go “this works really well†or “this didn’t work at all.†So you can improve it, change it or increase it. There were elements that were very much the same, we worked with the same guys mastering it because we loved the production very much last time and we thought those were keepers. It was very inspiring. Jack: You cover Queen’s ‘Scandal’ on the album. Why this song?Martijn: Well, you know, I always think covering a Queen song is like committing suicide, it’s very dangerous. I always loved this song since from when I was a kid, I forgot about it and when I heard it again and I thought “this is very compatible with Delain with the vibe and feel.†I thought I would love to see this in a Delain form and so we contacted the management of Queen and asked if we could get permission to cover the song. Normally they say “can we listen the results first,†they put a lot of effort into and they say “nah we don’t really like it goodbye.†But in this case we got a personal email from Brian May and he gave us permission up front. He checked out the band and he liked it that much and he said “I don’t even listen to the results, you have my permission†and he wrote the song. That was a big honour of course and that’s how it came to be.Jack: Is ‘Scandal’ your favourite Queen song?Martijn: ‘Scandal’ is one of my favourite songs, ‘Innuendo’ I love but I think it’s in my top three songs. I chose this song as it’s not a very well-known song, I would never cover ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ or ‘We are the Champions’ or whatever, but this is not a very well-known song so I thought I would try it with this song.Jack: You’re touring the UK with Evergrey and Kobra and the Lotus. Will the set for this tour be new material or a mixture?Martijn: It will be a mixture because I always believed in a very good flow for a setlist, the flow has to be balanced. But because we have a lot of new songs you can make this flow better and better which is what we’re going to do. When people go to a Delain concert I want it to be a very intense experience and therefore we want to make the production and the flow or the set very intense. That’s what we want to achieve and I hope we success in that.Jack: What do you like about the support?Martijn: I listened to Evergrey a lot when I was younger, I like this band very much and it’s a huge honour and pleasure to take them on tour. Kobra and the Lotus is a very fresh, new artist to me. I know Kobra has sang for Kamelot and they are from the other side of the pond, the combination of these bands is the old and the new and we’re very much looking forward to having them with us.Jack: You have toured the UK a lot in your career. What keeps bringing you back?Martijn: The people, I love the UK. I love the mockery and how [the UK] make jokes about [themselves]. I like the vibe of the UK and somehow we work really well in the UK and I don’t know why it just works like that. It’s a pleasure to tour there and the people tend to like us too which is a perfect marriage. I think the most dates on this tour headline tour will be here and Ireland and that’s for a reason.Jack: Finally, what are your plans for 2017?Martijn: We’re working on it right now, we’re working on playing Central and South America and our first headline tour in the states and Canada. We’re working on festival season for next year, so there’s a lot of stuff coming up. We’re releasing a DVD which is part of our 10th anniversary, we will be recording at a special anniversary show in Amsterdam. There is a lot coming up, we’re far from bored. [Laughs]Jack: Thank you so much for your time and I hope the upcoming tours go well.Martijn: Thank you so much, it was my pleasure. Goodbye.
Dear Delainers -As you know, 2016 marks a decade of Delain and we are spending the whole year celebrating. So far, we have released our EP Lunar Prelude, toured all over North America and Europe, played some of the biggest festivals in the world, and will release our fifth album, Moonbathers, later this month. We are closing out our anniversary year with our most ambitious show ever on December 10 at Paradiso, a proper birthday party that we will film for an upcoming live DVD and Blu-Ray. With the new songs, new tours, and new faces in the crowd, we are going to allow ourselves a bit of nostalgia and look back just once.On October 21, we will release a 10th Anniversary Edition of our debut album, Lucidity - the one that started it all. All songs have been re-mastered, and we are including some previously unreleased live tracks and Martijn has made you all a new medley of Lucidity songs as a closing track. You can see the full tracklist below, along with pre-order links.But that's not all! This is the first time that Lucidity will be available on vinyl, encased in beautiful new gatefold packaging. All formats include a download card for the album instrumentals, so make sure to send us links to your YouTube karaoke videos Finally, we have a gift for some of our first fans: a special gold vinyl pressing, available only in the Benelux countries. Five of the download codes in the gold vinyl will trigger another prize for you: an invitation to the VIP birthday party just before we take the stage at Paradiso on December 10. Goodie bags, party games, birthday cake, acoustic songs...we're pulling out all of the stops to celebrate with a few of you. These VIP packages sold out almost immediately, so this is your only way in if you don't already have a ticket.Thank you all for accompanying us on this ten year journey. We couldn't have made it this far without you.Here's to our next decade. We hope you'll stick with us.Love,Charlotte, Martijn, Otto, Timo, Ruben, and MerelTracklist:1. Sever (2016 remaster)2. Frozen (2016 remaster)3. Silhouette of a Dancer (2016 remaster)4. No Compliance (2016 remaster)5. See Me In Shadow (2016 remaster)6. Shattered (2016 remaster)7. The Gathering (2016 remaster)8. Daylight Lucidity (2016 remaster)9. Sleepwalkers Dream (2016 remaster)10. A Day For Ghosts (2016 remaster)11. Pristine (2016 remaster)12. (Deep) Frozen13. Silhouette of a Dancer (Live Version)14. Shattered (Live Version)15. Pristine (Live Version)16. MedleyBenelux pre-order (exclusive gold vinyl and CD):CD: https://www.bol.com/nl/p/lucidity/9200000063785565/LP: https://www.bol.com/nl/p/lucidity/9200000063787626/Pre-order for everywhere else (black vinyl and CD): http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/delain10thanniversary
We didn't want to let the milestone of our decade in music go by without a proper celebration,†says Delain’s Charlotte Wessels. It’s been a busy year for the Dutch symphonic rockers; first came their EP, Lunar Prelude, in February, and their fifth studio album Moonbathers will follow on August 26. As well as nine new songs and a Queen cover, it’ll feature a bonus CD of live tracks, and their anniversary concert in Amsterdam in December will be filmed for a live DVD.“We’ve always got our eyes focused on the future – planning tours and music, so we thought our 10-year anniversary was a nice opportunity to step back,†says Charlotte. “We thought it’s the perfect occasion to make the live DVD fans have been asking for for ages. We’re inviting a lot of guests [to the anniversary show] and we’re making a documentary as well which we’re filming now.â€Charlotte admits it’s a ‘costly’ project, so the band set up a PledgeMusic campaign to enable it to happen. “We reached our 100% goal in no time,†she says. “Anything that comes in over the goal will go to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, which we’ve supported for a very long time.â€In the run-up to the release Moonbathers, we asked Charlotte to give us a track-by-track guide.Hands Of Gold“We’ve been playing with a lot of upbeat orchestral riffs and Hands of Gold came out of that. It’s a collage of all the books and movies I’ve been watching and reading lately. When I wrote Alyssa [White-Gluz]'s part I was actually reading an old poem by Oscar Wilde, and it fits so perfectly within the lyrics that I adapted it to the song's phrasing. So the part that Alyssa is singing is part of an Oscar Wilde poem, and I really like the way she interpreted it.â€The Glory and the Scum“This is the only song [on the new album] that we’ve already performed live. A lot of people get confused because when we played it live, it was written as Claw Finger on the set list. So to those people confused that Claw Finger is not on the album, it is! The lyrics are inspired by a book called The Better Angels of Our Nature by Stephen Pinker, which is a history of violence in humankind. I know that might not sound very uplifting but the general conclusion of the book is that we live in one of the most peaceful times ever. I got that book from a friend when I was feeling really down because of all the violence in the world, and he said it would make me feel better. It actually did. The lyrics are inspired by that, and the title is from a quote from a 17th-century philosopher.â€Sucker Punch“This is a more upbeat track about fighting your own demons. It's in the shape of a love song or breakup song, but that’s a metaphor – it’s about taking on your own demons as well, whether that’s a toxic relationship with someone outside of you or whether it is a challenge within yourself. We used it as our first song live now and it's a really cool set opener.â€The Hurricane“This really wrote itself. I had the lyrics and the melody and [keys player] Martijn Westerholt was experimenting with some crazy beats. I could take what I was writing and put it on there and it was such a perfect match. We took it from there, and I think Martijn worked on the middle part and made some really nice orchestral parts. It came together really easily. It was a very nice and smooth writing process for that track.â€Chrysalis – The Last Breath“Formally this was just called The Last Breath. It’s based on a film script. We met a movie director in LA; he had a film script and he was a Delain fan and asked if we could write a song about the protagonist's struggles. I could kind of relate to it, and it was a hard song to write because it's kind of depressing. I was going into a lot of stuff emotionally that I didn't feel like going into. I did break my one songwriting rule and that is, as a lyricist, no matter how dark a song starts, there should be a light at the end of the tunnel because I don't want to glorify feeling miserable. I just couldn't find the light with this song. I can’t say too much about the film it was for, but it was about a teenage girl dealing with certain emotional stress that I could relate to.â€Fire With Fire“This one has a real rock vibe, and I’m looking forward to doing it live. It’s a party track with quite positive lyrics, about not having people walk over you or steal your fire. So it’s a bit of a lighter note after Chrysalis, and I think it will definitely be a live favourite.â€Pendulum“This is quite a heavy track. On both Pendulum and The Glory and the Scum, I do grunts for the first time – just on the backing vocals, but for me it's a first to do that on a record. Pendulum is also one of the earlier tracks that we feel set the tone for the album, like the heaviness of the riffs. Thematically, I'm someone who doesn’t care about growing old. I can't wait to be old and wise and grey and I'm not as obsessed with being young or looking back as women are told to be by commercials. But Pendulum is one track about wanting to slow down time every now and then. I wrote the lyrics right after the passing of my grandmother which happened a few days before we had to go on tour. It was a very sad and stressful time because I felt I couldn't be part of that process of saying goodbye.â€Danse Macabre“This one is also based on the film script. It’s basically a teen horror, so some of the stuff is totally out there. The protagonist flirts with death but decides to stick around. The gist of this song is her looking death straight in the eyes and saying, ‘one day, but not today’. It comes from a completely different angle to The Last Breath.â€Scandal"Our Queen cover! I must be honest, it wasn’t my idea to cover this one. Martijn suggested we do it – he’s very fond of the track. My first response was, ‘Oh my God, you cannot burn your fingers on a Queen track!’ But I listened to this song and thought, it’s not one of their most well-known tracks so perhaps we should give it a shot. And it was so much fun. We got the explicit permission of Brian May to cover the track which was a big honour. We really tried to have the right balance of making the song our own, and we did so by making it a lot faster and higher, but we didn’t change the original track too much because it's a great song.â€Turn the Lights Out“This one was already on the EP. It's inspired by Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics and specifically by the character of Death, which is, in his comics, contrary to most western personifications of death which are very scary and Grim Reaper-y. She's a young goth woman who does her job with love and empathy and I always found her one of the most fascinating and compelling characters in the series. She translated to lyrics so well. I think it’s really cool to have my fandom for Neil Gaiman translated in one of the songs.â€The Monarch“This song is the resolution to Chrysalis – The Last Breath. We were at the end of the album process and all songs were nearly done, and I was settling for the fact that The Last Breath had no resolution to it. Then we came up with a humming melody that we liked so much we thought we could make it a bonus track. After writing The Last Breath, I found myself writing poems with some kind of resolution, and I put one of those poems to the music. It worked so well that in the mixing process they put my a cappella vocals of the poem to the track. [It became] the last track on the album, The Monarch. That’s why I gave The Last Breath the subtitle Chrysalis, because it’s all about transformation. The Monarch is the final shape.â€
