On Thursday, I had the honour of interviewing Martijn from Delain, a band who continue to impress and revolutionise the way metal is performed and listened to. We talked about the naming of the band and the most recent record:
- What inspired the name? And what are your influences?
“The name came from a Stephen King book I was reading at the time, ‘Eyes Of The Dragon’, Delain was a kingdom in the book, and I really liked the name. As for influences, I think they’ve remained quite consistent throughout. I’ve liked the same movies, games and music since I was a kid, I can be quite picky when it comes to preferences. But in terms of music I’d say Genesis, The Police, Foreigner, Marillion, Paradise Lost, Dream Theater, Pantera and Nightwish are some of the most prominent influences.”
- How do you approach song writing?
“There are a couple of ways we approach song writing. Charlotte, myself and the unofficial seventh member of the band Gus, are the main songwriters of the band. We write 95% of the material. We build on an idea or concept that we’ve come up with. Or we work from scratch, for example we once rented a house for a week and built up the ideas from there.”
- Could you talk through the process of recording Moonbathers
“With Scandal, the Queen song we covered, I’d first heard that song when I was a kid, and hadn’t heard it for some time, then I heard it again much later, and really liked it, thought it would suit Delain well. So, I got in touch with our manager, who happens to know someone who plays with Brian May, and asked if we could cover the song. He listened to the band and liked what he heard and said yes, which was huge. With the other songs on the record, we wanted to write songs with a pop structure but with a metal bite to them.”
- What plans do you have for the future?
“We’re going to be doing a small tour with Marco from Nightwish next month, as he’s a good friend of the band and he wanted to do something with us. We’re also heading to South America for a few shows and the US next year for a month in April/May, and we will also be recording a new studio album.”