Interview by Si Smith

 After the symphonic bombast of "Kingdom of Utopia", Infinity Overture return with another album of epic proportions. Making no secret of the classical and romantic nature of their work, Infinity Overture have continued to develop despite changing most of their line-up since their first offering. How easy was it to start afresh and create something equally impressive if not more so? I spoke to singer Kimmie and guitarist/growler and overall compositional genius Niels to find out. 

First of all thanks so much guys for this interview and a big congratulations from all at Femme Metal on the new album. 

Niels: Thank a million and also for the great review of the new album.

The first observation is that there have been many line-up changes since the last album, including the addition of Kimmie on vocals. What was the reasoning behind these quite drastic developments? 

Niels: The first album was very much a project with mostly guest musicians, since I started Infinity Overture in 2005 the longest lasting member is Jakob Vand who was ably to carry out the visions I have had with the songs. I have also had some people who fortunately only was with us when we played live and not on the albums, but who was not able to function in the band for different reasons.

Session members were used on the first album for bass and drums. Has the addition of Bernardo and Jakob on bass and drums affected the dynamic of the band at all? What is it like when you all get together to rehearse?!

Niels : I have only extremely positive things to say about Jakob and Bernardo, in my experience and opinion they are the best musicians you can come across in Denmark. I am also very fortunate that the chemistry in the band is fantastic when we get together, I love the guys in the band - they Rock ! 

Kimmie : I can only agree with what Niels says. We don’t see each other that much, and because of that the positive energy is so important, when we finally do meet up.

"Kingdom of Utopia" was a highly concept-based album. How important is concept to "The Infinite Overture Part 1" ? Can you reveal to us a little about your understanding of it, for those who may not have heard the album yet?

Niels : Well there's not much concept over the new album, the lyrics are more personal, so no warriors and dragons this time ha ha, even though I love Fantasy. The next album will be more concept based.

At first glance the tracks on "The Infinite Overture part 1" appear far less simple power metal tracks, and offer more progressive experimentation than before. Since you handle much of the composition, Niels, does this represent a new development on your part, or have you always seen yourself heading this way? Are you inspired by any particular other composers as you develop your sound?

Niels : Well I wrote all the songs on this album as I did on the debut (except from the lyrics on the debut) and my vision was to venture into much more Progressive waters and I knew I was taking some big chances when I embraced a more experimental approach to the songs since its quite a big step away from the debut album, as I develop as a musician then so does my compositions, so I guess that no two albums I do will ever be the same, maybe in style, but I feel an obligation as a musician that I must keep improving my compositional skills and playing skills in order to make interesting music, and the best way to do this is to get inspired from a lot of different music. The inspirations are something like Opeth, Dream Theater, Meshuggah, Death, Neal Morse, Planet x and Symphony x and a lot more.

Niels, you have never hidden your fascination with the guitar and playing it well (you have even produced instructional DVDs!) - was it your aim to make this a more guitar driven album than before? Did you have any other aspirations and visions for this album before coming to the actual recording? 

Niels : Yes, I knew from the beginning of the new sessions that I wanted to put emphasis on the guitar since this is my instrument, and I can express myself quite well on it with no boundaries. I also wanted to try out new chord progressions and other moods than I did before.

For me, many of the lyrics seem more personal on this CD than on "Kingdom..". Has your approach to the songwriting changed? Is there a limit to how personal the lyric-writing can get, before it becomes uncomfortable for you as a writer?

Niels : Well I have nothing to hide and I regret nothing, so for me it is a great way to express myself through words in music, and for this album there was not much fantasy involved, well a little on "The Hunger" and "Smoke and Mirrors", not to say that I will not use fantasy lyrics again. But for now it feels like a natural improvement to write personal stuff.

Kimmie, you have had to get used to sharing vocals with some different voices on this CD. What was it like working with all these different vocalists? In what ways did you bring your own experience and background as a singer to this album?

Kimmie : Unfortunately I never worked together with the other vocalists, although I’m sure that I would have learned a great deal from them. I am very impressed by their voices and their vocal expressions and I feel really fortunate and humbled to see my name combined with theirs. In what way did I bring my own background and experience? That is a tricky one. Well it became clear to me that I wasn’t able to sing all the songs, because of the high notes. I am an alto, and I have vocal limits that I respect. Earlier in my life I lost my voice, caused by the fact that I didn’t listen to my body. So listening to my body, my voice and respecting my limits has become one of my keystones.I would like to think that I have given the songs a touch of my life experiences. For an example, when I sing "Angels" I picture my angel, a very dear person to me, that I lost all too soon. I visualize scenes  from my life, which I connect with the feeling I got the first time I read the lyrics to myself. My visualization contains feelings like anger, rage, happiness, sorrow, love, hate, frustration and so on.