MS: Hi Charlotte, how are you? Thank you very much for sharing your time with MS! How was your trip to Madrid?
Charlotte: It was very good, it was a kind of bumpy road so we didn´t sleep that much…We arrived this morning and we enjoyed the sun in Madrid. We went to Plaza Mayor and had some paella and the we went to visit Prado Museum and now we are here looking forward to play tonigh!!
MS: How was the concert yerterday in Barcelona?
Charlotte: very good, we did a promo before the concert and the people of Road Runner told us that the audience from Barcelona is kind of easy going and that they may not respond that much but they were totally enthusiastic and I have heard that in Madrid most of the times is even better!
MS: First of all I World like to congratulate you for your new CD “April Rain” We see it more elegant and may by more symphonic than the previous one. We suppose that with this CD the band is totally consolidated as a solid formation and nobody will talk again about the Robert Westerholt brother´s band , doesn´t it?
Charlotte: well at the beginning this was a project with no fix members with a lot of guess musicians and the feeling was very different. After the released of Lucidity the band went on tour and we had a good connection between each other and we start naturally with the composition of the second album all the band together. I think is good that the members are amazing guys and they get the appreciation they deserve for it.
M.S.:We have seen that in this CD there is no female voices colaborations as in the previous one. This time you want to show all the potential of your voice?
Charlotte: Well, in the beginning of the composition of the second album we also thought to have guess musicians but we played a lot with the band and at one point we decided not to have guess musicians because we wanted to be a real band and do it on your own. But at the end we did an exception with Marco, because we really like his voice and it fits so well to our music. We had a lot of famous guesses in the first album and although it is not a good commercial move, but at the end we figure like: fuck that! Well we also had the collaboration of a cello, we didn´t really know her but our producer offer us a professional cello and we thought it was a good idea instead of using a computer programmed cello. Yes, in fact, in the song “on the other side” the Cello is the important part that goes with the voice and although we could have done it with the computer, for an important part like that we preferred a real musician although nobody would have notice the difference.
MS: Do you think that after this tour you could do a tour as the leading band in Spain and over Europe?
Charlotte: Yes, in fact when when we finish the tour with Kamelot we will take a week off and then we will do some gigs and headliners in Germany and France and well, after yesterday show we have been talking that we would like to come to play in Spain as well.
MS: how are you touring with Kamelot being of different record labels? How did the bands meet?
Charlotte: I do now know exactly who proposed it , but well, they have been touring with bands we know and in this business everybody knows eachother. It was a little bit awkward when we saw the possibility of touring with Kamelot as the metal they do is quite different to our music but there are several common elements and we thought we could have the same audience. We have been selling a los of CD´s before and after the show so I think it have been a good movement to join the tour.
MS: Do you think that you could collaborate with Kamelot as they have some song with female voice?
Charlotte: Well, it is something I wouldn´t say no, but at the moment there is nothing planned. It is not one of my aims at the moment, now I am focused in developing my professional career with my band.
MS: In the last years there have pop up hundreds of gothic bands with female voices , Nightwish Within Temptation y After Forever so it is inevitable the comparison with these bands. What would you say that makes Delain different to those bands?
Charlotte: I think there are several things, on one hand it is our way of song writing as we use a pop based structure instead of the classic shymponic structure, we like compact songs with a lot of contrasts and a heavy metal production. In the other hand, we chose not to sing like an opera voice in spite of I like it very much. I had classical training so It wouldn´t have been a problem for me, but after three years of singing classes all the girls in the class sounded practically the same so developing my own voice has been a better choice, the other way would have been more restrictive.
MS: You were playing in the Metal Female Voices Festival a couple of years ago, How was the experience?
Charlotte: We have played there a couple of times, once just at the beginning and another time a couple of years ago. There were a fantastic atmosphere and most of the bands knew each other from other festivals. I like very much to play there, is a very relax festival, not as other ones that everybody is very serious. When we played Leave´s eyes were recording a live DVD with a big production, that put a little bit of preasure because it was a very special night for them.
MS: Did you see any band that surprise you?
Charlotte: Actually there are a lot of bands I didn´t know because I don´t really listen to female metal music, because it feels like work
MS: I do not know how to say it but the CD title and cover is a little bit mystic, what is the meaning? Something related with a meteorological event!!! You brought the rain again to Spain!!
Charlotte: Well, we chose that name for the album mainly because it sounded very well, it is very important for the title of a CD to sound right. Besides, the song “April rain” is like the ambassador of the album and the lyrics are very positive and uplifting.
MS: We have seen that you has participated in the composition of the new album. How do you do the song writing, which musical instruments do you play?
Charlotte: I play a little bit of piano but I only know the basic chord and I cannot really play and sing at the same time. I know the music theory as I played clarinet when I was little, but well playing clarinet and singing at the same time is not physically possible……. To compose the songs I first write the lyrics with the vocal lines and then the rest of the music with Guus Eikens that also collaborate with me in the first record.
MS: What is your musical background? What have you done before being in Delain?
Charlotte: I started to write songs when I was in the high school and played in a Jazz band for a few years but a jazz singer suggested me to take classical singing lessons as I had a soprano voice. Then I took classical lessons for several years, although I told you how I liked them…. But anyway this type of musical training is very good because you learn a lot of breathing and standing techniques etc. so I do not regret I have done that. May be I sing like an Aria once or twice. Then I was introduced in heavy metal music as in my own town there were a lot of metal bands and I started to play in Elysium, a more much more heavier than Delain replaced a singer that had a very very abnormal high vocal lines. I learnt a lot about it and liked it very much to be in a heavy metal band!!!! Later I was offered to collaborate in a project that finally turned into Delain and now I am sitting here talking with you…
MS: What has been your best and worse concert experiences?
Charlotte: The best experience has been probably a special gig we did in our home town like a year ago in which almost all the guess musicians of our first album came to play, we also did an acoustic set, some covers…. It was a very special night with a lot of friends and family. The worse experience was probably the one I fainted on stage, in the first song I could not sing, the second song was even worse then I fainted and the next thing I remember was being in the dressing room!!! But well, after 15 minutes I got better and come back to the stage and finish the gig. I took my shoes off and sang barefooted and everybody was very sympathetic because we were continuing anyway.
MS: Do you have a different approach of the concert if you’re playing as a support band like tonight, or as the leading band. Do you expect the same things?
Charlotte: yes of course, when you are the supporters you have to work harder, as most of the people are not your audience, but it is quite good as many people who might not know you is going to have the opportunity to see you and you can win some new “souls”. Playing headline show and supporters show at this point is now equally important for us, but I like the headline shows!
MS: What are the plans after the tour with Kamelot?
Charlotte: Tomorrow we play in Valencia, then we have a week break and afterwards we start our own tour as headliners
MS: what are you doing besides metal music? Is Delain a full time job?
Charlotte: I study art history, as a part time job
MS: Well, we have no more questions, Would you like to ay something to your spanish audience?Good luck for the rest of the tour and we really hope to see you soon!!
Charlotte: I would like to thank for the support they have been giving so far I hope they like the new album and I hope we can come back very soon
Jacinto Alonso / David Aresté