Eluveitie: Metal for all folks
March 27, 2010
Christian "Chrigel" Glanzmann is the mastermind
of Eluveitie, a Swiss eight-piece band leading the new wave
of folk metal. "Folk metal," you say? I know what
you're thinking; Dungeons & Dragons, singing bards, wizards,
forest elves, nymphs and other absurdities that some leather-clad
medieval trio would be singing about at a Renaissance festival.
But Eluveitie is a another story.
Combining their two loves—melodic death metal that
takes it roots from Gothenburg, Sweden, and traditional folk
music using instrumentation and subject matters from their
Celtic heritage—Eluveitie's music is undeniably heavy,
yet epic and memorable.
Now almost a decade into their existence, their 2010
album, Everything Remains (As It Never Was), is the masterpiece
that fans and the metal world have been waiting for. It has
everything; a varied vocal attack by Chrigel with soaring
choruses, backing female vocals, melodic guitar harmonies,
ancient melodies and stories, a variety of instruments and
a heaviness not unlike classic Swedish bands like In Flames
or Dark Tranquillity.
Not long after the March 9, 2010 release of the album,
Glanzmann conducted an in-depth Q&A with Live-Metal.net's
Jeff Maki, who was all but blown away by the new album.
Live-Metal.net: Hello Chrigel, this is Jeff from Live-Metal.net. Congratulations
on an awesome Eluveitie album. Everything Remains (As
It Never Was) is one of the best and most original metal
albums in quite some time. I’ve been playing it nonstop
from the download given to me by Nuclear Blast. But I will
damn sure be buying the album when it’s officially released,
as well!
Now that the ass-kissing is out
of the way, what was the band’s main goal going into
the recording of this album?
Christian "Chrigel" Glanzmann: “Ass-kissing,” he says, hahaha! Thanks, though,
nice to hear you like the album. Ahm ... the main goal? To
be honest, not much else than to create a new album. Well,
when I start writing the music for an Eluveitie album, the
first thing I do is to create the whole concept. I want to
have a picture of the whole thing in my head, before I start
writing the particular songs. So I’m figuring out questions
like, “What feelings and emotions will the album transport
as a whole?” “What will be the main atmosphere
of the album?” “What will it express?” And,
of course, also the question of the lyrical concept. Only
when I have quite a picture of the whole finished thing in
my head, I start writing songs.
So you see, feelings, emotions are quite an important aspect
in the evolution of our music. I guess it’s also due
to the lyrics and the lyrical concept that this album became
one of our harshest and most melancholic releases so far.
I’ve given you my thoughts,
but where do you think the new album ranks among your releases?
I don’t really know. I mean, each of our albums is
quite close to me. They’re all kind of a “part
of me,” and I probably also hear them in a different
way than most other listeners, of course. So it’s hard
to judge. But that’s a normal thing, I guess.
But however, of course we’re really happy with the
album. And for sure you can hear quite some developments in
it. Musically on one hand, for since the release of Slania
we’ve been on tour almost constantly. By playing all
those countless shows, we grew musically, we grew together
as a band and so on. And I think you can hear this on the
new album. And, also, there’s a clear progress regarding
the production of the album. Okay, I must admit, mixing an
Eluveitie album is everything but easy, for there’s
always ridiculously much going on in our songs, with all the
instruments, different vocal lines, choirs ... It’s
always quite hard to get everything transparent, to get every
instrument heard properly and to still provide powerful and
heavy sounds. It’s just something that needs a lot of
experience. And each time you produce an album you have the
chance to make new experiences and to learn. That’s
what we’re trying to do. And each time we record and
produce a new album, we try to put into action what we learned
during the last productions—and to do it better than
last time. That, of course, also affects the decision of where
you’re going to record and to mix/master an album. And
I guess that with Tommy Vetterli (for the engineering and
recording) and Colin Richardson (for the mixing) we’ve
found a fucking dream team!
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I think there was some confusion
with fans surrounding the acoustic folk album, Evocation
I: The Arcane Dominion. Was there ever any question that
Everything Remains would be a full-on return to metal?
Yeah, I noticed that confusion too. But to be honest, we
have no idea where it came from. For we never said that “Evocation
II” will follow right after part I. So – no, it
was never a question if Everything Remains would
be full-on return to metal. That was clear from the very beginning
on. Also, our next album will be a metal album again. As we
did for the first part of our acoustic project, we’ll
take our time (and lots of it) for the second part. When I
wrote the “Evocation” concept (good two years
ago, by the way) it soon was quite clear that this will become
a two-pieced concept release.
I feel that the Gothenburg-metal
influence is prominent on the new album. This sits well with
me as a few of my favorite bands are In Flames, Dark Tranquillity
and others. Do you feel the same, and who, if any of these
bands does Eluveitie draw influence from?
Yes, I heard this quite often, this Gothenburg thing. Well,
I don’t know, really. Sure, the metal aspect in our
music actually is quite “Gothenburg.” But to be
honest, I could not name or think a band we clearly draw influence
from. We kinda brew our own thing. But when I founded Eluveitie
a good eight years ago, it was basically the realization of
a dream I bore in my heart for many years already then: To
combine, to “wed” the two kinds of music, that
I personally loved (and still love) most, which would be modern
melodic death metal (I guess that would be “Gothenburg”)
and traditional Celtic folk music.
In my youth, I enjoyed some melo-death, which mostly came
from Scandinavia, at least back then. You know, stuff like
good ol' At the Gates, Dismember, Entombed, Dark Tranquillity,
Gates of Ishtar ... But goodness, that’s now fuckin'
20 years ago, haha! So I couldn’t think of concrete
influences. But I guess it’s a natural and inevitable
thing that the music you love and listen to (especially in
an important period of your life such as your youth) also
affects and influences the music you write and play yourself.
What other metal bands were your
dominant influence when starting the band?
Well, see above: Actually none. Or all (in the sense of probably
everything I was/I am listening to). But this can be anything.
I’m actually not listening to music too often. But when
I do, I’m quite open-minded regarding styles. During
the last few weeks, I enjoyed The Black Eyed Peas’ The
E.N.D. or also Coldplay’s Viva La Vida the same way
I enjoyed traditional folk music or some pretty undergroundy
black metal, haha.
Do you have any personal connection
to the Swedish metal scene? Bands or friends in the country?
Ahm, no. I mean, we’re friends with many bands, of
course, since we played or toured with them. And also some
Swedish bands, like Manegarm for instance. But there’s
actually no connection in that sense.
How hard is it to work in a band
with so many members? Are you the leader in the studio and
onstage, basically having the other members follow your lead
and vision? Or does everyone have an equal say in the band?
Well, let’s say we’re practicing “democratic
dictatorship,” haha! I mean, basically I have the lead—I
write most of the music, all the lyrics and all the concepts.
But nevertheless, everyone has its say in the band and we’re
working closely together (also in terms of things like arrangements,
etc.). Sometimes I keep the last word, sometimes we find compromises,
sometimes somebody comes up with a new, creative idea which
surprises and convinces everybody. That’s the way we
always worked and it functions well.
How much harder is it to manage
a larger band financially?
Oh, that’s easy to answer! If you’re growing
as a band, all members need to invest more time. You know,
there are more shows, more tours. Some when you will reach
the point, where the band becomes a 150 percent job and you
won’t be able to have a steady (or even part-time) job
besides the band (at the stage when the band is a 100 percent
job, you’ll still be working besides ... and come close
either to a heart-attack or a burn-out). So, from this point
on, all members are depending on the band financially.
And so, here’s the easy answer: When you’re a
three- or four-headed band—lucky you! If you’re
an eight-headed band, you’ll have to divide all your
incomes through eight. And no promoter, nor fan, nor anyone
will pay you more money for a show, for a CD or whatever,
just because you’re eight people, of course.
To cut a long story short: I don’t know if it’s
“hard.” It simply means to abandon high living
standards and luxuries like a car, a large flat, holidays,
TV and stuff like that. If you look at the personal incomes
of each of our band members, you’ll see that we actually
live below the official subsistence minimum, haha! But we
survive and always manage to make ends meat somehow. And we
gladly take that road if we can do what we want to in return
and follow our biggest passion: music! So we feel blessed
for the opportunities we have. And well, we’re still
heavily working to move forward and we’re growing as
a band. So, also, the financial aspect is getting better slowly
and it’s getting to look a bit brighter now, after some
quite tough years. So we’re happy and thankful.
What are some of the running
lyrical themes on the new album?
“Thousandfold”:
Basically, it’s about Orgetorix—a Helvetic chieftain
and freedom fighter during the time of the Gaulish War. Yet
most of what we know about him today, we basically know from
his arch enemy: Julius Caesar. As science knows today, Caesar’s
writings (and most of all his work de Bello Gallico, in which
he also portrayed Orgetorix) are everything than factual and
are rather political propaganda (in his favor) than impartial
historiography.
So in this song we’re heavily questioning the way Caesar’s
“official version” portrays the occurrences and
try to imagine what really could have happened (there are
some historical evidences to give us a clue anyway). The song
is written from Orgetorix’s point of view, in the first
person, addressing Caesar.
“The Essence of Ashes”:
The song deals with the so-called “War of the Bagaudae.”
They were basically Gaulish peasants (from diverse Gaulish
tribes) who suffered of ridiculously heavy taxations and other
political restrictions that were established by Rome, after
Gallia was taken over by the Roman Empire.
“Quoth the Raven,”
or any others you care to go into detail about:
The song is dealing with dying, death and what is beyond—the
way it’s portrayed in Gaulish mythology. Therein the
otherworldy raven plays an important role: He waits for the
deceased, to receive their souls and bring them to the “burrowed
isle,” which represents the otherworld. The song is
written from the raven’s point of view, in the first
person, addressing the listener.
Describe the writing process
for this album. What are the starting points for a song and
how then do all of the many instruments fall into place on
a record?
Well, the first song for this album (actually the title track)
I started writing during an U.S. tour in autumn 2008, but
all the other songs were written in quite a short period of
time— probably between April and July 2009. [Rhythm
guitarist] Ivo [Henzi] participated much more this time—three
songs were written by him. I don’t really have “starting
points” though, and neither kind of a specific “formula”
to write songs. Probably each song develops in a different
way. Okay, mostly there’s kind of a feeling, an emotion,
an atmosphere in the beginning of a song, and then I write
the music to “catch” and express that emotion,
that atmosphere. All the folk instruments actually fall into
place the same way and the same time as the metal instruments
do. It all belongs together to me. Our songs develop quite
naturally and intuitively.
Are you comfortable with the
labels thrown on your band such as “pagan” and
“folk?” Many of these new pagan or Viking metal
bands are portrayed and well-known for their outrageous image
and partying lifestyle. Do you think Eluveitie fits in with
these bands?
To be honest, we really don’t give a shit about how
our music is labeled, haha. I mean, seriously, come on—in
the end it’s all just fuckin' rock ’n’ roll!
Regarding the “outrageous images” and “partying
lifestyles” of some Pagan/Viking bands, we don’t
give a shit neither. We don’t care too much about image,
at least we’re not trying to look like Celts who lived
2,000 years ago. Come on, we’re living today! Why the
hell should I dress up in a costume, just because Celtic culture
is important to me? It’s no fuckin' carnival, haha.
I prefer to life Celtic culture in everyday life, than to
look “Celtic” on stage and promo pictures. If
it comes to the “partying lifestyle,” well, we
drink a lot and sometimes we also like to party hard. But
who doesn’t? But to me “party” is something
you sometimes do and not a lifestyle.
With so many running ancient
melodies and themes in Eluveitie, do you feel you have taken
on the task of keeping your country’s ancestry alive?
Oh, haha! Maybe we do? Well, but I wouldn’t put it
that way. Let me say it the other way around: I believe that
this IS tradition, this IS folk music. Or better said, this
is the soul of folk music and the way it survived all the
centuries, lives on today and still will live on for a long
time! Folk music is something with very strong traditions
on one hand, but still it is totally free on the other hand.
And it lives on with each generation who plays it! It’s
not only bequeathed from generation to generation, it actually
literally lives, transforms and develops with the generation
who plays it. Folk music is free and not rigid, it transforms
and develops over the centuries (the same way as the people
do, who play it), but still it never neglects its roots or
looses its traditions.
So I wouldn’t say that it’s us who “preserve”
our ancestry and our musical traditions. I would say that
it’s the traditions who live on in each generation throughout
the centuries, and we’re just a little part of it.
Just for fun, give me a quick
list of the many instruments used in recording the new record?
Oh damn ... let me think! Besides the usual metal instrumentarium
of drums, bass and two guitars we used: fiddle, hurdy gurdy,
uilleann pipe (Irish kind of bagpipe), gaita (celtiberian
bagpipe), a medieval local bagpipe, highland bagpipe, tin
whistles, low whistles, mandola, acoustic guitar, bodhrán
... ahm, yes, I guess that’s pretty much it. So that
would make 11 instruments besides the usual metal instruments,
if I didn’t forget something. Plus diverse different
vocal lines, choirs, of course.
What are the upcoming touring
plans for Eluveite?
Basically touring. We just came back home from a European
tour last week. In a good week, we’ll head off to America
for a tour (U.S./Canada) with Amon Amarth. After we’ll
be back home from this tour, we’ll play many summer
festivals all over Europe. Well, and after that we’ll
start touring again in autumn (on diverse continents), until
the end of the year. And, of course, we’ll find time
in between to start working on songs for a new album!
Thanks!
I thank you! And thanks to all the readers for their interest
in our band! Cheers and see you on the road!
Related links:
www.eluveitie.ch
www.myspace.com/eluveitie
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