Christianna - Elysion
Interview By Ed MaLaren
In ancient times, Greece was a powerful influence in science and math, philosophy and especially the arts. Here in the 21st century, Greece is just as influential. When it comes to female-fronted metal, look no further than Elysion. With their sleek blend of goth metal married with electronic and synthesizer flourishes, Elysion have created a stunning debut in "Silent Scr3am". Femme Metal got a chance to get in-depth with vocalist Christianna about the creation of "Silent Scr3am", her vocal secrets and the importance of the fans.
Elysion’s excellent debut album, "Silent Scr3am", has been out for a few months now. What has the response been so far?
Let me start by thanking you, on behalf of all of us, for taking the time to get interested in Elysion and "Silent Scr3am"! Like you said, the album has been out for a few months now and it's my pleasure to say that we have been receiving overwhelmingly encouraging feedback. We cannot be grateful enough for the warm reception we have had, both in our homeland and abroad. We feel quite strong and inspired and we have the people to thank for that. Hopefully we'll be on the road soon so we will try our best to give something back to everyone who has granted us with his trust.
The album has a strong gothic influence but with a pop sensibility, some really scorching solos and subtle electronic flourishes. Where do you and the band draw your musical influences from?
Well, we are all pretty open-minded about music and I guess this is prominent in "Silent Scr3am", where many varying approaches of atmospheric metal and rock are blended together. Our backrounds as musicians is vary; it’s this combination of different elements that forms our musical identity as a band.Our sources of influence could be anything that sounds good to our ears and is likely to reveal a strongly emotional atmosphere since the album is all based on a very emotional platform. Gothic and electro elements are also present but in general we have never tried to label what we play; we just feel free to express our feelings through melodies without worrying of what the outcome might be. One of our main concerns was to keep things simple, we wanted our music to be clean and straightforward rather than complicated. We wanted to let the beauty of the songs speak for itself.
"Silent Scr3am" is a very solid and mature debut. How were you able to achieve such an established sound on your first album?
Thank you for the observation. :) I think that everything worked to our benefit when it comes to "Silent Scr3am". Luckily,we had plenty of promising material to work with from the very beginning and many interesting songs to choose from. We even had to leave a great deal out of the album but I think we choce wisely. We were also blessed concerning our collaborations for this album. We managed to work with a highly qualified producer, Mark Adrian, who really did an amazing job bringing out the best of us throughout the recordings, both technically and emotionally, and also worked miracles with mixing the album. Then I guess I don’t even need to introduce Ted Jensen who did us the great honor to master "Silent Scr3am". We never dreamt that: the genius who has worked with Iron Maiden, Madonna, Slipknot and so many others would put his talent and knowledge down to making our sound exactly as we wanted it to be. We totally trusted him to come up with a crystal clear and balanced result which focuses on the music rather than any instrument. Listening to the album fully completed for the first time was a thrilling moment – we couldn't have asked for more!
With the mélange of musical styles incorporated into your music, what unique musical ideas were you trying to project with "Silent Scr3am"?
Well, given the fact that boundaries among the different styles of music seem to have collapsed these days, I don't think that the element of surprise exists so much anymore. We have pretty much heard of almost any musical combination – even opposing backgrounds – so unless someone discovers something weirdly original and unheard, I think that the key is to just forget about everything and play what you feel like. Our minds and soul are definitely influenced, even in a subconscious level, by years and years of listening to music so this combined with our inner creativity brought out this outcome. I guess the most unique element about our music is the fact that we do not try too hard, we just let our sound flow and we don't wish to prove anything, we just want to be ourselves.
There are dozens of bands out there vying for the same group of fans. What is it that makes you distinct among other bands of the genre?
It’s true that things are getting very crowded in this industry with competition constantly rising. Standards continue to go up too but I am rather thankful for it because it’s all a constant challenge and an inner stuggle to improve. What seperates a band from the similar bands of the genre is up to the people to discover – not for us to say. It’s rather the unique atmosphere of the band, the way a band manages to communicate its music with every listener individually, it's the magic music can make, not some solid characteristic. It’s either in the air...or it simply isn't.
With the pop undertones in your music, do you see your music breaking out of the standard goth-metal arena and becoming more accessible to fans of other types of music?
This is rather hard to foresee so I will not focus on predicting. I would rather focus on our intention which is to not categorize listeners into markets. We surely enjoy being told that our music is accessible because reaching out to people is what we live for but our wish is to address our music to anyone who might find a reason to relate to us, no matter what his background is. If someone lets us feel welcome to his heart, this is our greatest reward, and the more people we get to reach out to, the more blessed we will feel. We don't believe in recipes, nor did we intentionally make our music sound a certain way so that it would have a more commercial appeal. We just thought that since our music is based on a celebration of the human soul, anyone could find a shade of his color in us. This is what we wish for.
You joined the band just before the recording of "Silent Scr3am". What was it like joining an established band just before their debut album? There must have been some pressure there.
There could have been a lot of pressure, true but gladly the chemistry between me and the rest of the guys worked perfectly. They immediately made me feel so welcome that I never actually felt any sort of anxiety. Perhaps the fact that we had known each other for many years helped. My voice and character as a singer was something they were all familiar with, so everyone knew what to expect and I felt I belonged with them right away. Of course, I felt a strong sense of responsibility to measure up with everyone's trust and perform my very best for the album but I am glad I did not let this influence my enthusiasm for joining Elysion. Enthusiasm was the strongest of the feelings I had at the time so I too wanted to hurry to the studio and start recording.
Was the songwriting process for "Silent Scr3am" completed before you joined the band and went into the studio? If so, were you still able to inject the songs with your own personality?
Well, the songwriting process was almost completed by the time I entered the studio – or at least we thought it was. As days went by I was able to unfold my personal interpretation of the songs and blend my vocal and emotional approach together with the already existing atmosphere which was a very constructive process that also led to the development of new ideas. We were very lucky throughout the entire recording period; we took our time letting any new idea flourish so by the time "Silent Scr3am" was fully ready a lot of things were added, altered and improved.
“Killing My Dreams” and “Never Forever” are among the strongest tracks on "Silent Scr3am" and really allow you to stretch vocally. How did you approach your vocals on this album?
Like you said, "Killing My Dreams" and "Never Forever" are two of the most powerful songs on the album. But listening to all the songs that were to be included in "Silent Scr3am", I sensed a different kind of vocal challenge in each one of them and all the songs were very appealing to me for different reasons. This was because every song strokes a different emotional chord in me; some songs needed a strong and confident approach, some others a more sensitive, soft one. What I did was to let my emotions guide me and suggest to me what the best way to sing a song was. Sometimes we think that the most difficult songs to sing are the ones including the highest notes, which is not accurate. The most challenging thing for me as a singer is to best bring out the atmosphere of the song and address the lyrics to every listener individually, which is what I tried to do in "Silent Scr3am".
Are you a trained vocalist or do you come by it naturally?
I have studied music for quite a few years but haven’t gone through any vocal training, apart from the training I tried to give myself, that is. I have always wanted to be able to sing my soul out, and to do so there are endless different techniques that I have always admired and tried to learn from. This "self-coaching" of mine has been going on for over 15 years now, but I guess I will never stop learning – it’s the nature of music to never be able to say you know it all. Gladly, I still am a very patient and enthusiastic student! I think I have to thank my father for the musical genes. He was an opera singer so even my very first memories as a child were full of notes and melodies – I couldn’t have escaped all this magic. When growing up, all this "female-fronted" atmospheric metal burst out had not yet occurred, which apparently was a good thing because I had to struggle to find my own voice without the temptation of unconsciously copying someone existing. Still, I am very open-minded about music so my influences come from opposing backgrounds. And since I try to listen to as much music as I can, different things sink in constantly and they are blended with my personality as a singer.
What can we expect from the Elysion live performance experience?
For one thing, tons of energy! Performing live is our most favorite thing. The atmosphere shared during a live show is most rewarding to us. Especially for me, it’s the time when I truly say I can communicate with everyone. It’s in everyone's eyes that I see the music turning into magic. What's worth saying is that as a band we cherish all the opportunities we are given to play live and, again, the scene or whether we headline or not or the size of the crowd simply don't matter. What matters is that we are given this great chance, by anyone that has honored us by being there, to live our dream.
What are Elysion’s tour plans for 2010? Any plans to tour internationally or overseas?
This is our number one reason to be excited at the time being! Our European tour is bound to begin sometime later within 2010. Starting from now we have planned to tour as much as we can in our homeland and get to thank everyone for embracing us. We cannot wait to get on the road and visit as many countries as we can! We also got some plans including appearances in some European Festivals during the summer so we hope a full schedule is soon announced! We wish our path leads us to your area the soonest possible, so we will get to make a live date with you all and hopefully make you scream,not silently but really, really loud!
You have your whole life to record your first album and then the real work begins. Have you started thinking about your next album? How do you plan to follow up such a strong debut?
The release of "Silent Scr3am" is yet quite recent, but I couldn't have put it more nicely. Now the real work begins. We believe we have done all we could to present a modern album and make a promising entrance to the scene but all the work is ahead. Fortunately, we are in love with what we do so work to us is more of a blessing rather than a necessity. Although it’s too early to discuss Elysion's second album, we are already working on new compositions and all I can say is that we couldn't be more enthusiastic and inspired! We surely aren't planning on repeating ourselves so we will try to make things even more emotional and powerful, but this is yet to see. Of course, we feel the sense of responsibility rising since we wish to measure up to all the faith any fan of Elysion has in us. But again, we simply plan on letting our spirits free and see where this takes us.
There have been some great metal bands that have come out of the Greece over the years. What’s the scene like right now?
The metal scene in Greece looks like a battlefield, actually! Competition is getting greater and greater and this is a good thing because it’s very beneficial for the Greek scene to see the standards improving. We are always proud to see talented bands hitting the international scene. After Rotting Christ, Septic Flesh and Firewind there now seems to be quite of an activity going on in Greece. As Elysion, we get to perform live a lot and having the privilege to share the stage with many upcoming Greek bands. It’s not an exaggeration to say that each time we are amazed by how professional and powerful new bands have turned out to be so I guess the Greek metal scene will become much more active in the near future. Still, it’s difficult to overcome certain obstacles and stand out but I still am a romantic thinker who believes that, whatever the difficulties, there will always be space for beautiful works and talented people.
Elysion cannot thank you enough for all your kind patience and support – it means a lot to us! We wish that we get to meet you in person one day and get to thank you for your interest in us. All our love and respect!
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